Vienna Hofburg - Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, Silver Collection

The newspaper cuttings in the displays in front of and behind you give some idea of how Elisabeth was seen by contemporary journalists. It is evident that during her lifetime Elisabeth did not dominate the front pages of the press as the beautiful, popular and acclaimed empress – in fact there were very few reports about Elisabeth, as she withdrew from her public role as empress at a very early stage and during the last few years of her life was seldom in Vienna. Since the newspapers published within the empire were also subject to strict censorship, critical reports of the empress were unlikely to appear. It was Emperor Franz Joseph who assumed the far more important role here: as the “good old emperor“ he had a place in his peoples‘ hearts and was universally liked. This is borne out by newspaper reports following the death of the empress, in which sympathy was expressed for the emperor as the victim of yet another heavy blow of fate. It was not until after her tragic death that Eli