Archduke Otto had a few years earlier renounced his claim to the throne of Austria so as to be permitted to return to his native country, but in Britain Prince Charles had just been invested as Prince of Wales, and in Spain, Prince Juan Carlos had been named successor to Generalissimo Franco. A profound discussion, rich in historical detail, of the survival of monarchy in the modern world, the future of Europe, and what happens to regimes following a national debacle. OvH: "You see, the Weimar Republic died not because it was bad-it had its faults, indisputably-but especially because it was an expression of Germany's defeat in the First World War. Hitler and his people were able to hang onto the Weimar Republic the symbol and the stigma of defeat. It's exactly the same thing we had with the First Republic in Austria.... [It] began in disaster, that is to say, the dissolution of the old Empire. And consequently, there was almost, I would say, a built-in death wish in that regime."