Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Habsburg-Reuter


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. Nja 247 08:39, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Habsburg-Reuter

 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

This is a hoax. After the opening sentence, the first half of the article is a straight description of the House of Habsburg, and is indeed copied from House of Habsburg. The second half, about the "House of Habsburg-Reuter" is, as far as I can discover, fiction. There is nothing in Scholar or Books, all the Google results seem to be Wikipedia mirrors, and "Reuter" does not appear in this list. A few more searches are listed on the article talk page.

The article as first input by SPA cited no sources. However a month later, like the thirteenth stroke of a clock, an IP added the last two lines about James Crittenden-Cavendish, a name familiar to connoisseurs of CAT:HOAX for an article claiming for him an incredible list of grand titles which was deleted at AfD in January. The deletion debate has been courtesy-blanked, but can be read in the history; it was over-written in April by IP 138.251.95.1 with a complaint that it was slanderous. That IP, which is registered to the University of St Andrews, also edited this article the day after it was input; the IP which added the two lines about James C-C is also registered to the University, where, according to his previous article, he is a student.

There is an impressive-looking reference to "the Almanach de Gotha on-line". However, our Almanach de Gotha article says that the old Almanach ceased publication in 1944, another publisher produced a few editions up to 2004 but "in mid-2006 the website for the London publication (www.almanachdegotha.com) ceased to function." So what is "almanachdegotha.org" and is it a reliable source?

WHOIS does not disclose the owner, but there is a sister site www.imperialcollegeofprincesandcounts.com - same layout, same type-face, they both play the Emperor waltz - which also lists James C-C as Graf and Freiherr von Reuter, and WHOIS for that one shows its owner as His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Karl Fredericke of Germany, Royal Mail Post Office 276, Teddington, Middlesex. To complete the picture, this website, at the foot of the page, quotes this ad from TIME, 30 December 2002: "NOBLE TITLES OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE Certain Noble Titles, Styles, and Appellations etc, will be, formally Created and Conferred by The Sovereign Act of Letters Patent in exchange for a Financial Stipend by Private Treaty The Noble Titles of PRINCE, DUKE, MARQUIS, COUNT, VISCOUNT, BARON, LORD and KNIGHT, with the associated Appellation Styles of HIGHNESS, SERENE HIGHNESS and EXCELLENCY, accordingly. Title Particulars £10.00 (UK) $20.00 (US) For further information please contact The Private Office of HIS IMPERIAL AND ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE KARL FREDERICKE VON DEUTSCHLAND, PO BOX 276, TEDDINGTON, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND"

Conclusion: this is a known hoaxer, the source cited is not reliable, searches find no confirmation. Delete. JohnCD (talk) 09:20, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Austria-related deletion discussions.  -- TexasAndroid (talk) 11:50, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Delete as a hoax based on one of the more thorough pre-AFD research efforts I've seen in a while. - TexasAndroid (talk) 11:53, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * LOL: What site is absent from Whois? I did the one you mention and the admin contacts are on hotmail and msn. Quite nice to see royalty using free US based eemail accounts for web contact points. tracert has them somewhere behind register-1.border1.nyj001.pnap.net. Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 13:32, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * For "almanachdegotha.org", the one cited in the article, all WHOIS gives is an address in Funchal, Madeira and contact via "Domain Discreet". It needed finding "imperialcollegeofprincesandcounts.com", which is an obvious sister site and also lists J C-C as Graf von Reuter, to establish the connection with HI&RH Prince Karl who confers titles for a "financial stipend", and suggest an answer to the question how come J C-C is listed in this official-looking site. The Prince also has "almanachdeholyromanempire.org" and no doubt others. JohnCD (talk) 14:29, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * they seem to be behind the same pnap.net machine...

Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 14:37, 26 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete as hoax. Edward321 (talk) 00:49, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Thanks to nom for the thorough work to expose this hoax. Johnuniq (talk) 08:11, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.