Karl Stephan struck with "fashionable malady"

May 26, 1898

Archduke Karl Stephan of Austria, the "sailor member of the imperial house of Habsburg." is the "first scion of a sovereign house to be stricken with the now fashionable malady of appendicitis," reports the Marquise de Fontenoy. Archduke Karl Stephan, who is the brother of the Queen Regent of Spain, has been recovering for several weeks at a Berlin sanatorium. The surgery was performed by the eminent German surgeon, Dr. Sonnenburg, who successfully removed the archduke's "vermiform appendix." The Marquise said she placed "this operation on record" in her column because "it is the first occasion that a member of one of the reigning houses of Europe" has had an appendectomy.

Archduke Karl Stephan, who maintains a large estate in Poland, is married to Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria. They have six children: Archduchess Eleonora, Archduchess Renata, Archduke Karl Albrecht, Archduchess Mechtildis, Archduke Leo and Archduke Wilhelm.