Joseph II - Emperor & Rebel

Joseph II was an emperor like no other. A rebel who had the common people at heart.

Joseph II was the Emperor of the Enlightenment. During his short term in office he changed his empire like no other. He wanted to understand the living conditions of the common people and alleviate their misery. Until his death he traveled 50,000 kilometres - more than once around the globe - through Europe, including visiting his sister Marie Antoinette in Versailles. If Louis XVI of France had taken the House of Habsburg as a model, there might not have been a French Revolution. How did the youthful rebel become the most revolutionary Habsburg, one who was so ahead of his time that shortly before his death the elite and the people rebelled against him?