Page - 154 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

154 Unleashing the War him. Friedrich was tremendously rich, but was regarded personally as very modest and liked to see himself as a patron.364 He appeared to be an exemplary family man and was occasionally referred to as the ‘Imperial and Royal grandpa’. Archduke Eugen was admittedly brought into play once more and was supposed to assume command at least in the Balkans. The Emperor summoned him on 1 August. The audience lasted ten minutes. But Eugen turned him down anew.365 The Balkan armed forces were then placed under the command of the hitherto regional commander for Bosnia and Herzegovina, General of Artillery Oskar Potiorek. Whilst the question of the supreme command was not easy to solve, or was at least dependent on a series of considerations, there was no doubt that the Chief of the Gen- eral Staff would be the actual focal point and that he ultimately held all threads in his hands. He was thus from the first moment on the hero of the day. Everyone believed in his virtues as a commander and both he and his close entourage were most convinced that he was the only man who could wield supreme command, whilst the actual Su- preme Commander, Archduke Friedrich, was regarded more or less as a ‘nobody’. For Conrad and the members of the General Staff Office, it was a foregone conclusion that the Army High Command would not have its headquarters in or near Vienna, for it would then have been subjected too much to the influence of the central authorities and also the very active court camarilla. There were also military reasons for locating the Army High Command closer to the front, as it seemed impossible to conduct op- erations from a long distance away. From here on in there existed the typical wartime division into two independent domains : the front and the home front. Connected to this was also the creation of new centres of power and the displacement of others. Whereas before the war Vienna had been a single power centre, in which domestic, foreign and military policies were made for both halves of the Empire and which was of course also the focal point of the administration of Cisleithania, now the existing structures admittedly remained in the imperial capital and seat of royal residence, but in the Balkans and above all at the headquarters of the Army High Command new power centres emerged in which the abuse of power played a role from the first day on. Representatives of the Foreign Ministry and both Ministries of the Interior were attached to the Army High Command and to the Balkan High Command. The rep- resentative of the Imperial-Royal Interior Ministry attached to the Army High Com- mand, Baron Eichhoff, described the situation as follows : ‘No-one at the time knew what significance this assignment had, at least none of us civilians. The assignment was provided for in the secretive logbook for senior commanders. This logbook was the work of the General Staff, but even they didn’t really know what they should do with me.’366 If Eichhoff had really not received any instructions, then it was the fault of his Inte- rior Minister, Baron Heinold. The Foreign Minister had certainly given his represent-