POCKING, Germany, July 5 (UPI) -- Otto von Hapsburg, the last crown prince in the Austrian imperial family and a longtime member of the European Parliament, has died at age 98.
A spokeswoman said Hapsburg died "peacefully and without pain" Monday at his home in Germany, The New York Times reported. He lived in Pocking in Lower Bavaria near the Austrian border, and had stayed out of the public eye since his wife's death last year.
Hapsburg was born in 1912 in Reichenau, Austria, the great-great-nephew of Emperor Franz Josef. His father, Charles, became heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and became emperor two years later.
The empire ended with its defeat in 1918, and Charles died in 1922. While Hapsburg did not give up his claim to the throne until 1961, he became actively engaged in European politics and an advocate of European unity.
Hapsburg was educated in several European countries and received a doctorate in political and social sciences at the University of Louvain in Belgium.
He opposed the German annexation of Austria in 1938 and lived in the United States from 1940 to 1944.
In addition to his 20 years in parliament, Hapsburg served as head of the Pan-European League. In 1989, he and Imre Pozsgay of Hungary organized a Pan-European Picnic on the border between Austria and Hungary, helping 700 East Germans escape.
