How did the Habsburgs get their fortune? When and where? Who was behind the growth of the wealth of increasingly powerful European dynasties? What happened to the wealth of the branched Habsburg family after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and what were its fates after 1918 to the present day?
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Based on extensive research, Katrin Unterreinerová gives documented answers to these and many other questions for the first time, shows the financing system of members of the Habsburg family and deals with the various legends associated with some of its personalities and their relationship to money and property. It sets the record straight about conjectures about the supposedly disappeared treasures and traces the history and often sad fate of the Austrian crown jewels.