Page - 1105 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

An Empire Resigns 1105 2245 KA, KM Präs 1915 1- 4/15-2. 2246 The text of the proposal is in Germann, Österreichisch-ungarische Kriegsführung, 143 et seq. The dismissal of General Meixner had been requested by Emperor Franz Joseph, who was responding to German criticism. 2247 KA, Tagebuch Zanantoni, 413. 2248 Zeynek, Ein Offizier im Generalstabskorps, 241. 2249 Ibid., 256. 2250 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA, Kew), FO 371/2602, Horace Rumbold (Bern) to Foreign Secretary Grey, 7.11.1916. 2251 KA, KM Präs Sonderreihe, Box 2872. The full generals were Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, Baron Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin and Count Viktor Dankl. 2252 See Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck, Das Heeresgeschichtliche Museum  – Wien. Das Museum. Die Repräsentationsräume (Salzburg, 1981), 82–89. The names are listed in the pantheon of the Military History Museum on plaques XXXVII to XLIII. Missing are the names  – as in the case of Brigadier Bolzano  – of the generals and colonels who died under mysterious circumstances or later succumbed to their wounds. 2253 KA, KM Präs 1918 1-5/3 2254 Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg, Vol. VII, 361. 2255 KA, KM Präs 1918/19, Box 2137. 2256 Forstner, Premyśl, 234. The army order issued by Army Supreme Commander Archduke Friedrich at the request of the Emperor cited the ‘undefeated heroes of Przemyśl’, who had been ‘vanquished not by the enemy but by forces of nature’. 2257 Bernd Ulrich, Die Desillusionierung der Kriegsfreiwilligen von 1914, in : Der Krieg des kleinen Mannes. Eine Militärgeschichte von unten, edited by Wolfram Wette (Munich/Zürich, 1992), 121 et seq. 2258 Hofer, Nervenschwäche und Krieg, 258. 2259 Ulrich, Die Desillusionierung, 122. 2260 Geoffrey Wawro, Morale in the Austro-Hungarian Army : The Evidence of Habsburg Army Cam- paign Reports and Allied Intelligence Officers, in : Hugh Cecil, Peter Liddle, Facing Armageddon. The First World War Experience (Barnsley, 2003), 399–412, here 403 and note 14. 2261 Biwald, Von Helden und Krüppeln 2, 405. 2262 Ibid., 490 et seq. and 512–522. 2263 Hanisch, Männlichkeiten, 330. 2264 Ibid., 327 (quoting family and estate papers in KA, B/507). 2265 As in the case of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, the submissions for bestowal of Medals of Brav- ery continued to be processed after the war. Here the dual purpose also applied of honouring people and  – which was soon at least as important  – providing them access to the financial perks connected with the conferment of the Medals for Bravery. The commission did not have any influence on the payment outside of the Empire. Allowances were only paid in Austria and Hungary. 2266 The figures cited here were meticulously compiled, but minor inaccuracies cannot be ruled out. The entries in the register held in the War Archives in Vienna of the recipients of the Gold Medal for Bravery are, in some cases, barely legible anymore and an allocation to individual troop bodies is not always possible. The exact figures cannot be clarified for the number of Medals for Bravery awarded during the war and the number bestowed thereafter. Until March 1918 alone, 2,900 (genuine) Gold and around 800 gilded Medals for Bravery were conferred. The cheaply manufactured items were supposed to be exchanged after the war for genuine golden medals. This, of course, never happened.