Article contents
The Shield of the Dynasty: Reflections on the Habsburg Army, 1649–1918
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
Abstract
![Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'](https://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0067237800011218/resource/name/firstPage-S0067237800011218a.jpg)
- Type
- Forum: The Habsburg Military
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2001
References
1 Among notable early critics, Moriz Edler von Angeli, Wien nach 1848 (Vienna, 1905), and Eduard Bartels von Bartberg, Der Krieg im Jahre 1866 (Leipzig, 1867) and Der Krieg im jahre 1859 (Bamberg, 1894), were probably the most important. Other critical observers included R. W.Seton–Watson and Colonel Thomas á Court Repington, while the most vociferous detractors of their ally included Generals Erich Ludendorff, Meine Kriegserinnerungen (Berlin, 1919), and Max Hoffman, War Diaries and Other Papers, 2 vols. (London, 1929).
2 For an excellent summary of the historiography of the Austro–Hungarian mobilization and deployment and its bias, see Tunstall, Graydon A. Jr, Planning for War against Russia and Serbia: Austro–Hungarian and German Military Strategies, 1871–1914 (New York, 1993), 189–209.Google Scholar
3 Manfried, Rauchensteiner, “Die Militärgeschichtsschreibung in Österreich nach 1945,” Vorträge zur Militärgeschichte, vol.6: Militärgeschichte in Deutschland und Osterreich vom 18. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart (Berlin, 1985), 134–61. Among authors favorable to the Austrian army are Gunther E. Rothenberg, Christopher Duffy, István Deák, and others, while Alan Sked is more critical and Geoffrey Wawro is hostile.Google Scholar
4 Charles, Ingrao, “Campaigning in 1805 and 1809: A Commentary,” in The Consortium of Revolutionary Europe, 1750–1850: Selected Papers, 1995, ed. Cook, Bernard A., Eidahl, Kyle O., Horward, Donald D., and Roider, Karl A. ([Tallahassee, Fla.], 1995), 329–33.Google Scholar
5 Charles, Ingrao, “Query: The Habsburg Military: Why Mediocrity?” H–Diplo–[email protected], 08. 17,1999.Google Scholar
6 The basic thesis was provided by Michael, Roberts, The Military Revolution, 1560–1660 (Belfast,1965)Google Scholar, and expanded on by Geoffrey, Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 1988), 5–64Google Scholar ff. Parker discusses the problems of the new tactics, supply, pay, and state administration. Compare the discussion in Jeremy, Black, European Warfare, 1660–1815 (New Haven, Conn., 1994), 3–12.Google Scholar
7 Rothenberg, Gunther E., The Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1522–1747 (Urbana, 111., 1960),27–29; observations by Duke Joseph Friedrich zu Sachsen–Hildburghausen, KA HKR Kanzlei Archiv 8-349.Google Scholar
8 The unfortunately superficial history of this office by Oskar, Regele, Der Österreichische Hofkriegsrat (Vienna, 1949), needs to be replaced.Google Scholar
9 Allmayer–Beck, Johann C., Die kaiserlichen KriegsvÖlker von Maximilian I. bis Prinz Eugen 1479–1718 (Munich, 1978), is the latest summary of this period.Google Scholar
10 Leiberich, Col CarlMack, Baron, cited in Max von Angeli, “Die Heere des Kaisers und der franzÖsischen Revolution im Beginn des Jahres 1792,” Mitteilungen des k.k. Kriegsarchivs, n.s.4 (1889): 24.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 103; Lund, Erik A., War for the Every Day: Generals, Knowledge, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe, 1680–1740 (Westport, Conn., 1999), 30–34.Google Scholar
12 Ingrao, Charles W., “Habsburg Strategy and Geopolitics during the Eighteen century,” in Whr in Central European Society and War in the Pre–Revolutionary Eighteenth Century, ed. Rothenberg, Gunther E., Kiraly, Béla K., and Peter, Sugar (Boulder, Colo., 1982), 48–59.Google Scholar
13 Theodor, Fuchs, Geschichte des europäischen Kriegswesens (Vienna, 1974), 44–45.Google Scholar
14 On Montecuccoli, see Rothenberg, Gunther E., “Maurice of Nassau, Gustavus Adolphus, Montecuccoli and the Military Revolution of the Seventeenth Century,” in Makers of Modern Strategy, ed. Peter, Paret (Princeton, N.J., 1986), 55–63.Google Scholar
15 Barker, Thomas M., Double Eagle and Crescent: Vienna's Second Turkish Siege in Its Historical Setting (Albany, N.Y., 1967), 160,207–8Google Scholar; Derek, McKay, Prince Eugene of Savoy (London, 1977), 39,65Google Scholar; Alfred, von Arneth, Prinz Eugen von Savoyen, 3 vols.(Vienna, 1858), 1:309–10.Google Scholar
16 McKay, , Prince Eugene of Savoy, 169–78, 227–33.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., 236–39; Black, , European Warfare,122.Google Scholar
18 Roider, Karl A., The Reluctant Ally: Austria's Policy in the Austro–Turkish War, 1737–1739 (Baton Rouge, La., 1972), 17–25, 35–37, 51, 73Google Scholar; Lund, , War for the Every Day, 162–88.Google Scholar
19 Christopher, Duffy, Russia's Military Way to the West (London,1981), 125–26.Google Scholar
20 Christopher, Duffy, The Army of Maria Theresa (New York, 1977),152.Google Scholar
21 On the use of Military Border troops in Central Europe, see Rothenberg, Gunther E., The Military Border in Croatia, 1740–1881 (Chicago, 1966), 18–21,40–41.Google Scholar
22 Duffy, , Army of Maria Theresa, 159.Google Scholar
23 Fuchs, , bGeschichte des europäischen Kriegswesens, 184,188.Google Scholar
24 A convenient summary of the Theresan military reforms can be found in Allmayer–Beck, Johann C., “Wandlungen im Heerwesen zur Zeit Maria Theresia's,” Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums in Wien 3 (1967): 7–24Google Scholar. On the subject of the fiscal reforms, seeDickson, P. G. M., Finance and Government under Maria Theresa, 1740–1780, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1987), 1:228–32,8–36.Google Scholar
25 The most recent and best discussion of these developments is Michael Hochedlinger, “Mars Ennobled: The Ascent of the Military and the Creation of a Military Nobility in Mid–Eighteenth Century Austria,” German History 17 (1999): 141–76.Google Scholar
26 Rothenberg, , The Military Border in Croatia, 18–29.Google Scholar
27 Christopher, Duffy, “The Seven Years’ War as a Limited War,” in War in Central European Society and War in the Pre–Revolutionary Eighteenth Century, ed. Rothenberg, Király, and Sugar, , 70–71.Google Scholar
28 This figure is according to Dickson, , Finance and Government under Maria Theresa, 353–54. Other sources give the strength at no more than 359,000, with only 230,000 effectives.Google Scholar
29 Paul, Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (New York, 1987), 91.Google Scholar
30 Cyril, Falls, The Art of War from Napoleon to the Present Day (Oxford, 1961), 34Google Scholar; Albert, Sorel, ĹEurope et la révolution française,8 vols.(Paris, 1907–1918), 1:455.Google Scholar
31 The following section is based on Rothenberg, Gunther E., Napoleon's Great Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army, 1792–1814 (Bloomington, Ind., 1982), where the necessary citations can be found.Google Scholar
32 von Angeli, Col Moritz, cited in Manfried Rauchensteiner, Kaiser Franz und Erzherzog Carl (Munich, 1972), 74.Google Scholar
33 These are also the conclusions of the archduke's latest biographers, Helmut, Hertenberger and Franz, Wiltschek, Erzherzog Karl. Der Sieger von Aspern (Vienna, 1983), 256–58, 264–80.Google Scholar
34 Antonio, Schmidt–Brentano, Die Armee in Österreich, Militär, Staat und Gesellschaft 1848–67 (Boppard am Rhein, 1975), 405–9Google Scholar, argues that Austria spent more money and provided better conditions than did Russia or Prussia, but this contention is refuted by Alan, Sked, The Survival of the Habsburg Empire: Radetzky, the Imperial Army, and the Class War, 1848 (London, 1979), 35–38.Google Scholar
35 For this and much of the following sections, see Rothenberg, Gunther E., The Army of Francis Joseph (West Lafayette, Ind., 1976), 9–10, 15Google Scholar. See also the excellent book by Alan, Sked, The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815–1918 (London, 1989), 12–15.Google Scholar
36 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 17Google Scholar; Angeli, , Wien nach 1848, 222–25.Google Scholar
37 Sked, , Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 14–15, 22.Google Scholar
38 Sked, , Survival of the Habsburg Empire, 86–91.Google Scholar
39 Rothenberg, , The Military Border in Croatia, 140–42.Google Scholar
40 See the well–founded discussion in Sked, , Survival of the Habsburg Empire, 44–54, though here the important Croatian–Hungarian tensions are not given much consideration.Google Scholar
41 For an excellent brief discussion of these dilemmas, see István, Deák, Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848–1918 (New York, 1990), 31–40.Google Scholar
42 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 26–27. Radetzky, perhaps the outstanding Habsburg commander between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, has received little attention in the English literature.Google Scholar
43 Steven, Beller, Francis Joseph (London, 1996), 33.Google Scholar
44 Roberts, Ian W., Nicholas I and the Russian Intervention in Hungary (London, 1991), 124–25,153–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45 Sked, , Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 108.Google Scholar
46 Deák, , Beyond Nationalism, 38–40, has a sophisticated discussion of the motivations that caused career officers to change their allegiance.Google Scholar
47 Albrecht to Generaladjutant Count Crenneville, Nov. 5, 1862, in Heinrich von Srbik, Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit (Salzburg, 1949), 139.
48 Peter, Katzenstein, Disjointed Partners: Austria and Germany since 1815 (Berkeley, Calif., 1976), 87–89.Google Scholar
49 Corti, Count Egon C., Mensch und Herrscher. Wege und Schicksale Kaiser Franz Josephs I zwischen Thronbesteigung und Berliner Kongress (Graz, 1952), 27.Google Scholar
50 Geoffrey, Wawro, “An ‘Army of Pigs’: The Technical, Social, and Political Bases of Austrian Shock Tactics, 1859–1866,“ journal of Military History 59 (1995): 407–16ff.Google Scholar
51 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 49–52.Google Scholar
52 István, Deak, “Defeat at Solferino: The Nationality Question and the Habsburg Army in the War of 1859,” in War and Society in East Central Europe: The Crucial Decade, 1859–70, ed. Király, B. K. (Boulder, Colo., 1984), 511.Google Scholar
53 Allmayer–Beck, Johann C., “Die bewaffnete Macht in Staat und Gesellschaft,” in Die Bewaffnete Macht, ed. Adam, Wandruszka and Peter, Urbanitsch, vol.5 of Die Habsburger Monarchie (Vienna,1987), 45–47.Google Scholar The latest detailed study of Archduke, Albrecht is Allmayer–Beck, Der stumme Reiter. Erzherzog Albrecht der Feldherr GesamtÖsterreichs (Graz, 1997), 143–46 and passim.Google Scholar
54 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 57–59.Google Scholar
55 Ibid., 59–62; the newest and perhaps too critical assessment is Geoffrey, Wawro, The Austro–Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866 (New York, 1996), 25–29.Google Scholar
56 Wawro, , The Austro–Prussian War, 31–35.Google Scholar
57 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 65–66.Google Scholar
58 Jürgen, Angelow, Von Wien nach KÖniggrätz. Die Sicherheitspolitik des deutschen Bundes im europäischen Gleichgewicht 1815–1866 (Munich, 1966), 241–45.Google Scholar
59 The latest analysis is in Wawro, , The Austro–Prussian War, 125–273.Google Scholar
60 Ibid.,87–123. Compare Allmayer–Beck, , Der stumme Reiter, 176–77.Google Scholar
61 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 86–87.Google Scholar
62 Kurt, Peball and Rothenberg, Gunther E., “Der Fall ‘U’. Die geplante Besetzung Ungarns durch die k.u.k. Armee im Herbst 1905,” Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums in Wien 4(1969): 85–125.Google Scholar
63 Norman, Stone, “Army and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1900–1914,” Past and Present 33 (1966): 103.Google Scholar
64 Rudolf, Kiszling, “Das Nationalitätenproblem in Habsburgs Wehrmacht 1848–1918,” Der Donauraum 4 (1955): 88–89.Google Scholar
65 Cited in Niall, Ferguson, The Pity of War (London, 1998),99.Google Scholar
66 Seton–Watson, R. W., Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), 256.Google Scholar
67 Hart, B. H.Liddell, The Real War, 1914–1918 (Boston, 1930), 39.Google Scholar
68 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 128,151.Google Scholar
69 Taylor, A. J. P., The Habsburg Monarchy, 1815–1918 (New York, 1965), 229.Google Scholar
70 The above section is largely based on Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 81–83,127–31,145–46,151Google Scholar, and passim, but se also the introduction to Manfried, Rauchensteiner, Der Tod des Doppeladlers. Österreich–Ungarn und der Erste Weltkrieg (Graz, 1994), 41–48.Google Scholar
71 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 170–71.Google Scholar
72 Bridge, Roy F., From Sadowa to Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria–Hungary, 1866–1914 (London, 1972),370.Google Scholar
73 For the expansionist plans and activities promoted by General Friedrich Beck and others, see Lacey, Scott W., The Rebirth of the Habsburg Army: Friedrich Beck and the Rise of the General Staff (Westport, Conn., 1995), 60–82.Google Scholar
74 Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 101–4.Google Scholar
75 Tunstall, Planning for War, is but the latest in the discussion of the various meetings and exchanges.
76 Kurt, Peball, ed., Conrad von HÖtzendorf. Private Aufzeichnungen (Vienna, 1977), 91,188.Google Scholar
77 For the preceding paragraphs, see Rothenberg, , Army of Francis Joseph, 144–45,163–65.Google Scholar
78 Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Österrreich–Ungarns letzter Krieg, 7 vols.(Vienna, 1930–1938), 2:271.
79 Cyril, Falls, The Great War, 1914–1918 (New York, 1961), 36.Google Scholar
80 Memorandum of December 15,1911, in Conrad von Hotzendorf, Aus meiner Dienstzeit, 1906–1918, 5 vols. (Vienna, 1921–1925), 2:455.
81 Tunstall, , Planning for War, 181–88, describes the controversy of railway mobilization, as well as historiography of the debate regarding the opening phase of the war, including the “Command Conspiracy” (189–209).Google Scholar
82 The Serbian forces have been portrayed as well trained and well led and their armament as in some cases superior to that of the Austro–Hungarian. See Rothenberg, Gunther E., “The Austro–Hungarian Campaign against Serbia in 1914,” Journal of Military History 53 (1989): 134,145CrossRefGoogle Scholar.This favorable picture of the Serbian army needs to be corrected. The real condition of the Serbian army is described by Lyon, James M. B., “‘A Peasant Mob’: The Serbian Army on the Eve of the Great War,” Journal of Military History 61 (1997): 481–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
83 For German arms and equipment deliveries, changes in artillery, uniforms, and such, see Herwig, Holger H., The First World War: Germany and Austria–Hungary, 1914–1918 (London, 1997), 234–38.Google Scholar
84 Among others, see Kurt, Peball, “Führungsfragen der Österreichisch–ungarischen Südtiroloffensive im Jahre 1916,” Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 31 (1973): 423.Google Scholar
85 Mark, Cornwall, “Morale and Patriotism in the Austro–Hungarian Army, 1914–1918” in State, Society, and Mobilization in Europe during the First World War (Cambridge, 1997), is perhaps the latest on these problems, but R. Plaschka, A. Haselsteiner, and A. Suppan, Innere Front. Milita'mssistenz, Widerstand und Umsturz in der Donaumonarchie 1918, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1974), remains the basic treatment.Google Scholar
86 Zeman, Z. A. B., The Break–up of the Habsburg Empire, 1914–1918 (London, 1961), 39; Sked, Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 261.Google Scholar
87 Rauchensteiner, , Der Tod des Doppeladlers, 621–22.Google Scholar
88 Heinrich, Benedikt, Monarchic der Gegensätze (Vienna, 1949), 195.Google Scholar
89 Stanislav, Andreski, Military Organization and Society (Berkeley, Calif., 1968), 70.Google Scholar
90 Kurt, Peball, “Sendung und Erbe,” Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift, special issue (1966):59–61.Google Scholar
- 3
- Cited by