Page - 475 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Winter War in Russia and Montenegro 475 wiped off the map, but instead had to be brought into a position in which it would have only the Habsburg Monarchy to thank for any form of state identity. It was also not conducive to this end that the German Empire had transferred those territories it had initially conquered to Bulgaria to be occupied. None of this was politics, but instead unadorned revenge and dismemberment. And under no circumstances did Tisza want this. This was also not the intention of Conrad, who in his position papers on war aims from October and November 1915 had named the dependence of Serbia without dis- memberment as an objective  – one that diverged from Tisza’s view. Conrad described plans to incorporate Belgrade into the Banat region and to covert the Mačva region between the Sava and Drina Rivers into two Hungarian counties as ‘insane rape’.1122 Tisza and Conrad agreed that for the time being, not even the military objectives had been achieved in the Balkans. Thus, both of them declared that politics could only be pursued once Montenegro had also been defeated, Serbia had been completely isolated and left without an army, and the Albanian question had also been solved in a way that was adequate for the Central Powers. The German Supreme Army Command did not want to follow this view. Franz Joseph, on the other hand, was in agreement with it. Winter War in Russia and Montenegro The estrangement of the two general staff chiefs occurred at the same time as the Cen- tral Powers had won one of their greatest victories in the war and the balance sheet for the year was by all means acceptable. The culmination point of the war had brought a range of factors to light that initiated the collapse of the present war coalition. A turn- ing point had been reached. An alteration in the entourage of the Austro-Hungarian Army High Command, which appeared to be rather incidental, would play a part in everything that followed. Archduke Friedrich brought his former steward, Brigadier Count Herbert Herberstein, who had assumed command of a cavalry division in 1915 and then led a cavalry corps, back to the headquarters in Cieszyn. Herberstein had requested a command at the front at the time because he could no longer endure life in the wartime court household and no longer wanted to participate in the monotonous luxuriousness in Khyriv (Chyriw), later Nowy Targ (Neumarkt) and finally Cieszyn. He was furthermore displeased with Archduke Friedrich in so many ways, above all due to his readiness to content himself with his wretched role, so that Herberstein wanted to leave this environment as soon as possible. His diary entries from the period speak volumes : ‘The Archduke could again play Army Supreme Commander for a quarter of an hour. This quarter of an hour, as well as many evenings, are […] all that bear reference to the Army Supreme Command of the Archduke, I mean with regard to operations. I cannot comprehend how someone