As of: January 27, 2024, 12:00 p.m
By: Andreas Steppan
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The new book by Sandra Freudenberg from Tölz deals with Empress Elisabeth and her passion for hiking.
The work was recently published by Frederking & Thaler.
© Christian Scholle
In her new book, the Tölz author Sandra Freudenberg approaches Empress Elisabeth as a great mountaineer.
Bad Tölz – Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, has been omnipresent in recent years.
Two series on RTL and Netflix revolved around the life of the monarch, writer Karen Duve dedicated a novel to her - and the old Sissi films with Romy Schneider are firmly anchored in general cultural memory anyway.
The Tölz author Sandra Freudenberg now approaches the Empress from a completely different perspective.
Her new book “Sisi – Long Live Freedom” is dedicated to Elisabeth as one of the “greatest mountaineers of the 19th century,” as the text says.
Sisi was a “hard-working mountaineer”
Sandra Freudenberg, who lives in Bad Tölz and Taubenberg in the Miesbach district, has already made a name for herself as the author of several mountain books and is also known as the founder of the “Alpen Film Festival”.
The path to Sisi led her through work on her previous work, in which she described Ludwig II's favorite places in the mountains.
From there it was just a step further to Elisabeth.
Sandra Freudenberg first felt connected to the Empress as an athlete.
“She rode side-saddle, and I do that too,” says the 53-year-old.
In the course of her research, the woman from Tölz also discovered the outstanding mountaineer personality in Sisi.
A comparison with other important female alpinists of her time shows that Elisabeth may not have completed the most demanding tours, but she was an exceptionally “hard-working” mountaineer in terms of quantity.
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The Empress meditated in the great outdoors
As Freudenberg points out in her text, women hike differently.
“At a time when mountains like the Grossglockner were conquered by men who spoke of 'slaying a beast,' Elisabeth meditated in God's great outdoors, enjoying the spirituality of lonely heights and the mountain spirits that lived there,” writes Freudenberg.
For her book, the author followed Elisabeth's footsteps over the course of her three-year work and followed the hiking trails that she has proven to have followed.
It begins with tracing young Sisi's early and happy years on the Isar and Lake Starnberg.
The tours were also escapes from the Viennese court
Freudenberg further explored historical sites in Bad Ischl, where the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I fell in love with his cousin, Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria, at a ball for his 23rd birthday.
The Empress later escaped the constraints of the Viennese court into the mountains around Heiligenblut am Großglockner, hiked in the Salzkammergut, also sought refuge in South Tyrol, enjoyed the summer resort on Lake Tegernsee and found a “last place of longing” on Lake Geneva.
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The trips brought her many “illuminating moments,” says Sandra Freudenberg.
In the Vienna Hofburg, for example, she was able to understand how restricted the Empress, whom she describes as “anti-monarchical and pacifist,” felt.
She was also able to take a look behind some otherwise closed doors, for example into a riding arena near Vienna.
“You had the feeling there that Elisabeth had just gotten off her horse.”
Extensive work in the archives
When she followed Sisi's path through the mountains, she occasionally got out of breath, the Tölzer native admits.
But her endurance was not only required as a hiker.
Above all, the extensive archive and research work resembled an “eight-thousander ascent,” with the mountains piling up in front of her in the form of stacks of books on her desk.
Sandra Freudenberg relied primarily on “The Poetic Diary” of the Empress herself, the diaries of her daughter Valerie, her niece Amelie and her ladies-in-waiting, as well as the biography of Elisabeth's mother Ludovika by Christian Sepp.
Cleared up clichés and misinformation
The author wanted to dispel some of the clichés and misinformation about the Empress.
“She was by no means a farm girl with poor education, and I was also able to dispel legends such as her alleged obsession with beauty or her anorexia,” said the woman from Tölz.
During this time, the woman from Tölzer deliberately did not watch the new TV series about Sisi so as not to allow her view to be obscured.
“I only allowed myself to do that now.”
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In her book, Freudenberg combines lively and entertaining biographical information with descriptions of the landscapes in which Sisi moved.
Each chapter ends with hiking tips, with something for everyone - from a gentle stroll in Possenhofen to climbing the Rochers de Naye with a view of Lake Geneva.
“And if you can’t hike yourself, you can hike with your eyes,” she says.
This is made possible by the large-format photographs by Andy Dauer in the lovingly decorated illustrated book.
The book
“Sisi – Long Live Freedom – Favorite Ways of an Indomitable Empress” by Sandra Freudenberg and Andy Dauer has been published by Frederking & Thaler;
208 pages, 34.99 euros.