Page - 428 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

428 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 tion and land-grabs had taken place, whilst some people had enriched themselves. Ru- thenians, i.e. Ukrainians, had attacked Poles, and Poles had attacked Ruthenians.1021 It was the task of the returning Austrian administration to take action against all of this, to reverse its impact and to allow a return to normality. Yet,the country continued to be a rear war zone, which meant that unrestricted martial law was in place. Almost as a matter of course, the Army High Command also exerted from the out- set an influence on foreign policy, and the position papers on war aims, special peace, territorial cessions, the annexation of former enemy states to the Dual Monarchy and similar matters characterised this side of activities of the Army High Command and accompanied the path it took. At times of crisis and above all in spring 1915, this process was marked by a clear lack of patience. The measures of the Austrian government  – which was the almost exclusive addressee of the increasingly brusque dispute  – were insufficiently energetic and too late for the liking of the Army High Command, and above all in the personnel decisions the wishes of the Command were not always kept in mind to the desired extent. Martial law was not declared for the entire territory of the Dual Monarchy, the question of the governor in Bohemia and in Galicia became a touchstone for the mu- tual relationship, and the moment of the major bust-up approached. At this point, a new ‘player’ entered the field, namely the Command of the South- West Front, which led to the Austrian government being absolutely grilled. From the moment when the Command of the South-Western Front was deployed, there was a third power centre again, just like there had been under Potiorek. The Command of the South-Western Front developed, however, a far greater dynamic and exceeded by far what the Balkan High Command had embodied in its day, as well as the second Com- mand of the Balkan Armed Forces. The reason for this altered situation is not easy to ascertain, since the accumulation of military power does not in itself suffice as an expla- nation. It was rather linked to the fact that the hinterland of the Balkan front stretched to the Hungarian half of the Empire, whilst the hinterland of the south-western front led to the Austrian half of the Empire and directly touched the core lands of the Mon- archy. The officer corps, which came for the most part from this half of the Empire and was above all also predominantly German, especially the generals, who were headed by Archduke Eugen, thus began to exert influence on politics with very similar objectives to the Army High Command and only ostensibly in competition with it, and with the central authorities in Vienna. For the regions in the rear of the south-western front, the command authorities in Maribor (Marburg an der Drau), but also Archduke Eugen, General Dankl or General Rohr, were closer than Cieszyn (Teschen), Archduke Frie- drich or Conrad. And perhaps, and without wanting it, this division of power granted a period of grace to the ministry of Stürgkh. Emperor Franz Joseph was forced into the role of arbitrator.