- Archduke Johann was the brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz I. He was born in Florence as the 13th child of Duke Leopold of Tuscany.
- He had been disgraced militarily and fell out of favour with his brother, the emperor. He had unsuccessfully supported the people of Tyrol in their uprising against Napoleon and thus his brother forbade him to enter Tyrol.
- Because of these occurrences, he discovered Styria and found a new home there.
- He was very successful in economics: he initiated the construction of the train line across the Semmering, he founded the Styrian State Archive, a higher school in Vordernberg (which later became the Montan University in Leoben) and he founded the Technical University of Graz as well as a bank and an insurance agency.
- In 1819 during a stay at Toplitzsee, Johann made the acquaintance of 15-year-old Anna Plochl, the daughter of a postmaster, and fell in love. Out of consideration for his imperial brother, their marriage didn’t take place until ten years later.
- Anna was ennobled to Baroness of Brandhofen in 1834; her only son Franz, who was born in 1839, was given the title Count Meran in 1845.
- In 1850, Anna also received the title Countess Meran.
- Johann died in 1850 but Anna did not follow him until 1885. The statue of Archduke Johann was revealed at the 50th memorial of his passing on August 11th, 1935 in the Kurpark of Bad Aussee.
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Mittelpunkt-Stein In 1949, the magazine `Große Österreichische...
