Page - 596 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

596 The Nameless in a clear increase in national liberties.1373 The war was only a means to this end. And Budapest was also imaginable as the imperial capital and seat of royal residence. No-one was more trapped in this vicious circle of accepting and rejecting on the part of the German leadership in the war than the Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army, Conrad von Hötzendorf. And no-one expressed this di- lemma more eloquently. Conrad had reluctantly bowed to the installation of the Joint Supreme War Command and then only because both the Monarch and the nominal Army Supreme Commander, Archduke Friedrich, had forsaken him in his resistance. Aside from the fact that a huge thorn had remained, Conrad was not willing to de- viate from resisting the domination of the German Supreme Army Command. The position of the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff had been considerably depreciated, and it was actually an open secret that Conrad might and should have been dismissed. The fact that a suitable successor could not be named was the only circumstance that kept Conrad in office. According to the notations of Conrad’s ad- jutant, Colonel Kundmann, for a time the Army High Command ‘smelt a rotting carcass’, but Kundmann claimed that the Emperor and the heir to the throne would think long and hard before dropping Conrad. ‘Think only of the [potential] succes- sors ! Arz ? Krauss ? [O]r even Tersztyánszky ? Each one of them [is] valuable in his own way ; but none of them [is] greater !’1374 Yet no-one in the Army High Command knew how Conrad’s position hung by a thread. The Emperor wanted, as before, to make the vote of the heir to the throne the basis for his decision. Karl, however, argued for Conrad to be retained. He named the same personnel alternatives as Kundmann, namely Arz and Krauß, but also in addition Major General Csicserics. If Conrad were to stay, however, according to Archduke Karl, then at the next opportunity the Army Supreme Commander, Archduke Friedrich, would have to be replaced by Archduke Eugen, who was alone capable of tidying up the mess of the subordinate organs in Cieszyn (Teschen).1375 On 14 September Conrad sent one of his last long letters to the Chief of the Im- perial Military Chancellery, General Baron Bolfras. In it, he vented all the frustration that had built up over the previous weeks.1376 ‘With the dawn of the Ludendorff era, for which Hindenburg only provides a cover name, a much sharper tempo was introduced to all military, but especiall all political, affairs’, began Conrad. ‘Bismarckian ruthless- ness’ reigned. ‘I believe I would characterise Falkenhayn’s programme by saying that he thought of a close, lasting [and] equal association on the part of Austria-Hungary, though with a certain influence of Germany on our military consolidation, however without touching the complete sovereign independence of the Monarchy.’ (Conrad had evidently very quickly forgotten how severe his conflict with Falkenhayn had been for a time and how much he had castigated the latter’s attitude to the Army High Com- mand. But now a new era had begun.) And Conrad continued : ‘[…] Ludendorff’s pro-