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HRH Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg,
Archduchess of Austria+Hungary - 50th birthday -
Princess Marie-Astrid will be celebrating her 50th birthday in Geneva
on February 17 with husband, Christian (Archduke of Austria) who she
married on February 6, 1982 and their five children.
Her eldest daughter, Marie-Christine (born on July 31, 1983) is a
student of economic sciences;
her son Imre (born on December 8, 1985) is still at school like her
other children, Christopher (born February 2, 1988) and Gabriella (born
March 26, 1994). Marie-Christine, the Princess’s eldest daughter, took
a year out after her final school exams to visit Christian’s sister,
Alexandra, who lives in Chile and looks after the children of
prisoners. She also assisted her father in a medical dispensary on the
island of Chileo, the largest island in South America.
Marie-Astrid is closely involved with organisations for abandoned
children, in particular the association “Tramontane” in Brussels. She
is very close to her parents and spent a lot of her free time with her
mother, the Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte of Luxembourg, during her
serious illness and likewise with her brothers and sisters who she
catches up with either abroad or in Geneva.
Her husband, Christian is delighted that Marie-Astrid’s grandfather,
the Emperor Charles (who died at the age of 35 in exile on the island
of Madeira in 1922) is to be beatified. The decree of beatification was
signed by Pope John Paul II on December 20, 2003 in a ceremony attended
by the Emperor’s four sons – Archduke Otto (91), Felix (87),
Charles-Louis (85) and Rodolphe (83). Christian, who is the director of
a finance company, has strongly supported his father, Charles Louis and
Felix, his uncle, in their negotiations with the Austrian authorities
towards the restitution of personal family property that were returned
to them in 1935, then
confiscated by the Nazis in 1938 who disapproved of the Hapsburg
link.Christian has also been assisted by Bill Clinton’s former
secretary, Stewart Eizenstat, who has been concentrating on the
injustices meted out during the Nazi era. The property in question
includes 25,000 hectars of forest, four houses in Vienna and the
Laxemburg Palace just outside Vienna. If and when the properties
in question are returned to the family, they will be shared out among
150 members of the Hapsburgs.
Source: Newspaper
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