The Salt Princess
Publisher: Hubert Pointinger
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Austria, www.the-hyper-saltprincess.com
Format: E-book
Number of pages: 180
Description: The deep bond that existed between the famous Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. and the "simple, hard-working and honest" folk of the Salzkammergut, a beautiful region right at the heart of Austria, is well known. 
But what is little known and rarely mentioned is that the emperor had a special liking for the pretty girls of the area, whom the local people call the "fesche Menscha". The emperor's inclinations found their expression in his love affair with the farm girl Theresia, the salt princess, whom he lovingly called Reserl. 
Despite the vast difference in their social classes, the two of them shared a very close and passionate relationship. The story shows the emperor as he has never been seen before, as a passionate man with human failings. It was only much later that Anna Nahowski and Katharina Schratt took the place of Reserl Pointinger, whose liaison with Franz Joseph would probably have lasted much longer - had not a hunter who formed part of the imperial entourage successfully conquered the emperor’s mistress. 
But in this story, the most important role is played not by the emperor, but by Reserl herself. She was a remarkable woman, decisive, brave, tough and resourceful. Franz Joseph appreciated her not only because of her gracefulness and love, but also because of her loyalty: she treated their liaison with the utmost discretion. Throughout her lifetime this allowed her to bask in the emperor’s favour, which goes some way to explaining why she dared to live a life that went against most of the norms and morals of her time.
In fact Reserl secretly made history during her 82 years of life. That’s because she exerted a not inconsiderable influence on the emperor of Austria and bore him four children, children nowhere mentioned and almost forgotten despite their imperial origins. This book commemorates and describes their lives, some of which progressed very tragically.
The book also describes how people lived in those times and shows how a dynasty of farmers flourished and then went into decline. This was the family from which Reserl descended. Like in a thrilling novel, this story is characterised by jealousy, rivalry and compulsive gambling, by love and crackling eroticism – with the key difference that this story was written by life itself.  
When Reserl became bedridden in the last days of her life, a nun – her granddaughter – took care of her. It was then that the emperor's mistress revealed her secret liaison with Franz Joseph to her granddaughter in a confession. Her secret would never have come to light had not the author Hubert Pointinger, a direct descendent of one of the emperor's children - and therefore a descendent of the emperor himself – written down these events. The story told in this book is based not only on information passed down from one generation to the next, but also on several years of comprehensive ancestral research.