Talk:Colonel Redl

Archduke or Crown Prince?

The paragraph containing the sentence, 'This character is often assumed to be the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but he is not named, and he is not biographically identical with any of the real archdukes; his politics "most closely resemble those of the deceased Rudolf"' and which identifies the character as the 'Crown Prince' is probably wrong. The character's politics, which are subject to interpretation, may well most closely resemble Rudolf but the circumstances of his death, actually depicted as the last shot of the film before the credits roll, exactly replicate Archduke Franz-Ferdinand. Rudolf committed suicide at the Mayerling hunting lodge with the paramour his father forbade him to marry. He was not shot while riding in a car...

Furthermore the character in question is credited as "Thronfolger" which Google Translate tells me means "Heir to the throne". Archduke Franz-Ferdinand was the heir to the throne at the time of Redl's suicide, May 1913, while Redl was only 25 at the time of Rudolf's death - a bit young for a full Colonel.

I'll leave to someone else to change the text - otherwise I'll probably get into an editing war.