Page - 599 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

On the Convention of the Austrian Parliament 599 demonstrate the necessary gratitude.1377 The things expressed in Cramon’s notations constituted a widely-held opinion and ultimately became a cliché. We have now covered the whole range of impressions and concrete problems that combine to form the autumn balance of polarity, radicality and perhaps also totality. Everyone, and not least the Chief of the Imperial and Royal General Staff, was not concerned so much at this point in time about the situation on any of the fronts ; that had by no means priority. All problems were dominated by the question of the status of the Dual Monarchy vis-à-vis the German Empire. The possible solution indicated by Cramon was ultimately simple : the army should assume power and, equipped with special authorities, take decisive action ; he called this an ‘imperative intervention of the army’. He evidently expected no resistance from Emperor Franz Joseph, and action should be taken before Archduke Karl ascended to the throne. What sounded so deter- mined, however, was in fact only bluster. Conrad von Hötzendorf cultivated a radical turn of phrase, but he did not have the stuff to be a military tribune. And he was  – when it came down to it  – never, under any circumstances, disloyal. It was perhaps under- standable that he doubted his Emperor. And even if Conrad continued to dominate the Army High Command, it was a long way from pushing through its demands beyond the theatre of war. ‘The Monarchy has perhaps never been in such a grave situation as [it is] now, and precisely at this moment it is lacking a strong hand that should unify everything on the home front’, noted the Adjutant General of the Archduke Friedrich, Count Her- berstein at the very same moment. ‘My Lord [Archduke Friedrich] is destined more than any other in view of his status to intervene powerfully, but unfortunately he is not the right man ! And Conrad is perhaps an excellent strategist, but a notoriously poor statesman !’1378 On the Convention of the Austrian Parliament This discussion about the future of Austria-Hungary was going round in circles. Ger- man domination was rejected and was a cause for concern. On the other hand, Ger- many was needed for military and economic reasons. In foreign policy, any room for manoeuvre had long since been forfeited. German assistance was required in order to regain it. Barely had this been pondered on when the discussion returned to where, in the view of the army, as well as the Germans and many Austrians, the root of the problem was, namely the structure of the Empire and domestic policy. The structure of the Empire touched on its dualism, and in Austria it was first and foremost a case of criticising the Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza. On the other hand, Tisza was valued as an extremely powerful and also very consistent statesman. It was only due to Tisza