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936 An Empire Resigns
For some general officers the observation could be made that they had barely pro-
gressed during the war. They were, however, to be left in their functions. Brigadier
Bolzano was one of them. Others were retired from public life out of ‘consideration for
the superior numbers’.2255
Emperor Karl demonstrated considerable consistency in this clearance of the most
senior ranks, which he otherwise frequently lacked. He could above all say, however,
that the retirements of high-ranking, old and poorly assessed officers did no harm to
his almost unbroken popularity, above all among the enlisted men. The abolition of
corporal punishments, the consideration for long-serving or especially sorely afflicted
soldiers – this is what the troops gave him credit for. The countless visits of the Em-
peror to the troops were rated by most of them as devotion and care, or at least as a
special occasion. When did a soldier get to see an – his – Emperor ?!
Four Million Heroes
The uniforms of the Imperial and Royal Army had become shabby. Ever more substitute
materials had to serve for manufacturing coats, trousers and above all shoes. Rucksacks
had replaced the calfskin kit bags. Instead of leather straps, woven shoulder straps and
body belts were used. Hardly anything remained from what had been called before the
war ‘shining misery’ and primarily characterised an officer’s social status. The officers still
had their separate kitchens and better uniforms, accommodation and front or sick leave
that was assessed differently to those of the enlisted men. Increasingly, however, these
were hinterland phenomena. In the trenches and the mountain positions, ‘those up top’
and ‘those down below’ were assimilating ever more. Ultimately, their life depended on
them not diverging in their conduct and being able to depend on each other. Whether
or not they felt like ‘heroes’, as they had been called since the beginning of the war, was
dependent on conditions on a given day and on military events. Completely burned out,
distressed, wounded, sick, hungry officers and soldiers felt least of all like heroes.
The struggle itself was heroic, however, as were the army, the officers, the soldiers
and all the more so those who fell in battle, died or ended up in prisoner of war captiv-
ity. However, it is necessary to differentiate here, and it was of course an endlessly big
difference whether someone deserted in the Carpathians as a member of the Prague
Infantry Regiment No. 28 and fell into captivity, or as one of the defenders of Premsył,
whom Emperor Franz Joseph did not neglect to thank for their heroic struggle and to
whom he sent his best wishes in prisoner of war captivity.2256 There were no heroes in
defeat. Meanwhile, however, a struggle for remembrance had in any case long since set
in. Speechlessness often spread here, though, since most of the dead had been buried in
mass graves and only received a shaft stuck in the landscape.
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