Page - 958 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

958 The Twilight Empire been issued for the reason that otherwise, the officers at the front would have killed all members of the General Staff, and a man who called the highest military authorities a ‘lunatic asylum’ was sentenced ‘not for causing insult, but due to high betrayal of mili- tary secrets’.2314 The worst thing was that now, all those who had until then supported the concept of empire and who had finally fought for this empire had given up hope. At the beginning of July 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was on the brink of collapse. It was of no help that Emperor Karl made a sacrifice that must surely have not have caused him much grief : on 11 July, he relieved Conrad von Hötzendorf of the com- mand of the army group that bore Conrad’s name, and gave him the title of ‘Count’, as well as the honorary post of ‘Colonel of all the Guards’.2315 In this way, the Emperor, according to the Saxon envoy in Vienna, von Nostitz, was merely setting ‘the honorary monument to a military commander whose glory is long faded’.2316 However, Conrad was by no means the main culprit in the debacle and, ultimately, he had only been in a position to recommend his operational concept. The decision as to which operational approach should be selected and where the focus of the action was to be lay with the Army High Command. The Chief of the General Staff, Arz von Straußenburg, also accordingly tendered his resignation,2317 since he had been largely responsible for the planning debacle. The Emperor wished him to remain in his position, however. Even so, the Chief of the Operations Division, Baron Waldstätten, saw no grounds for personal consequences. It was already evident from the first requests to speak in the Hungarian House of Representatives that a bitter and emotional settling of accounts would ensue. ‘Reckless- ness and unscrupulousness’ was the tenor of the reactions given. Some people, such as Count Viktor Széchényi, who had taken part in the fighting as a squadron commander and aide-de-camp in the 1st Cavalry Division, was not only concerned with errors of leadership and logistical problems ; he also recounted a particularly stark case of poor troop leadership, in which the Commander of the Isonzo Army, General Baron von Wurm, who in light of the retreat of the 1st Cavalry Division, and despite the fact that it had lost 5,000 Hussars, had apparently had nothing to say to the division other than : ‘I express my regret to the troops over their lack of resilience.’2318 On 9 July 1918, the deputy of the Viennese Reichsrat (Imperial Assembly) August Kemeter, in the name of the German Catholic Centre Party and in his role as execu- tive member of the Union of German National Parties (Verband der Deutschnationalen Parteien) posed 23 questions regarding the reasons for the failure of the Piave Offensive to the Imperial-Royal Minister for National Defence, Czapp von Birkstätten, successor to Minister Georgi who had served in the post for many years. He did so in order to receive documents for a secret meeting of the House of Representatives, which was due to take place on 22 and 23 July, and was to discuss the June battle in Veneto. As ‘painful’