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The Hindenburg Front 539
command ; Falkenhayn himself had seized the argument that the damage done to the
prestige of the Army High Command together with the demoralisation of the Aus-
tro-Hungarian troops would complete the collapse of the Imperial and Royal Army,
and Falkenhayn had finally noted that only Conrad, not Hindenburg, could keep the
Slav troops in line.1271 The latter was a particularly shaky argument, however, since un-
der Conrad’s leadership numerous regiments with large Slav components had already
after all proved to no longer be obedient, whilst under Hindenburg’s command and
that of other German commanders, troops from the Slav lands of the Habsburg Mon-
archy had fought with enormous commitment. It was the Military Chancellery of the
Emperor that opened the eyes of the Chief of the General Staff regarding Falkenhayn’s
stance : ‘A large intrigue is being played out here. The aim is to constrain him.’ Falken-
hayn was not well-liked in Germany.1272
Further discussions and machinations took place, though the inner-German con-
troversy between Falkenhayn and Ludendorff played a much larger role in the ulti-
mate decision on the command on the Russian front, than perhaps the continual in-
fluence of the Foreign Ministry or Hungarian politicians. The latter only contributed
to strengthening the aversion in the Army High Command towards Hungary. Finally,
in at a high-level conference in Pszczyna (Pleß) planned for 27 July 1916, an initial
decision was made. Kaiser Wilhelm had invited Archduke Friedrich and the heads of
the Austro-Hungarian Army High Command to Pszczyna. Two hours before official
talks began, the German Kaiser and the Archduke met for a one-on-one talk. Frie-
drich was extremely nervous. His Adjutant General noted : ‘In his shyness, the poor
gentleman has the feeling of being led to the slaughter, and sweats on the outbound
journey with agitation.’1273 But Kaiser Wilhelm treated him with particular kindness.
All in all, the Germans approached the matter very wisely. Since they evidently knew
that the Adjutant General of the Archduke was convinced of the necessity of a joint
command and without a doubt exerted influence on the ‘Imperial and Royal grandpa’,
Count Herberstein was given additional grooming. Whilst Kaiser Wilhelm spoke with
Archduke Friedrich, Herberstein sat with the Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
von Jagow, who was a particular advocate of joint command. Afterwards, Wilhelm,
Friedrich, Conrad, Hindenburg and Ludendorff retired to a lounge in a corner of the
Castle of Pszczyna.
On one decisive point, Friedrich did not want to back down : he opposed the joint
command on all fronts of the Central Powers. He was most certainly not concerned
about his own status, since he had in any case been increasingly neutralised and he
was barely interested anymore in exercising leadership. During the serious setbacks on
the Russian front, he had primarily cultivated the garden in Cieszyn and then made a
considerable effort to build his grandson Nikolaus a hut complete with a bombproof
shelter.1274 Since Conrad so strictly opposed the joint command, however, and he was
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Title
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Subtitle
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Author
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 1192
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155