On April 1, 1922, the last emperor of Austria died on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He only became heir to the throne after the assassination of his uncle Franz Ferdinand. In November 1916, he assumed regency over an empire in the midst of war and in urgent need of reform. Karl could not stop the progressive erosion of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy, but he did try to set new accents. In the Austrian half of the Reich, he replaced the previous political elites, reconvened the Reichsrat and issued a political amnesty. Foreign policy attempts to broker a peace deal with the Entente or to install a Habsburg as king of Ukraine were unsuccessful. His manifesto of the people in the autumn of 1918 was a belated attempt to prevent the political disintegration of Central Europe. All in all, the image of Emperor Karl appears ambiguous and his short reign also makes a scientific and critical assessment difficult. The projected anthology aims to present Charles I in his strengths and weaknesses, his (missed) opportunities and his hopes and doubts regarding today's Europe. German language, hardback edition, 540 pages.