Seite - 546 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

546 Lutsk : The End of an Illusion (II) man Kaiser. The Adjutant General of Archduke Friedrich, Count Herberstein, used this opportunity  – when he was not forced to accompany his field marshal to the con- struction of what Herberstein called the ‘children’s playground’  – to work on drafts of an agreement with the Germans on the joint command. He was also able to win over one of the two aides-de-camp, Colonel Baron Viktor von Lorx, to assist him. On 6 Au- gust 1916, the Hungarian Honvéd Minister, Baron Hazai, travelled to Cieszyn. He also let on that he was in favour of the joint command of the German Kaiser. Hungary had long approached the Army High Command with distrust and rejection. With regard to an all too tight embrace of Germany, however, there was also concern and scepti- cism. Tisza continued to hold steadfastly to the close ties to the German Empire, but the Hungarian opposition did not take pleasure in an even stronger German influence, precisely at a time when the course was to be set for the post-war alliance.1283 Herberstein finally drafted  – and one should keep in mind here that he ultimately did this with the approval of Archduke Friedrich  – a written agreement on a joint com- mand, in which Bulgaria and Turkey would also be considered. Herberstein and Lorx first of all informed the German Plenipotentiary General, who reported the matter to Pszczyna.1284 ‘The Austrians’ were evidently ready ! With the creation of the ‘Hindenburg front’ and the containment of the military by the politicians, another part of Austria-Hungary’s leadership elite shattered, however. The military was, after all, not just a prerogative of the crown but also its most sig- nificant pillar. And with the rupture of the military hierarchy the Monarchy became unstable. This alone allows the actions of someone like Conrad to appear in a different light. With the inexorable disempowerment of the Army High Command, on the one hand the perversion of power shrank that had found its expression in the rudimentarily accomplished military dictatorship. The power centre in Cieszyn was in any case only an empty shell by autumn 1916. On the other hand, one of the pillars of the dynasty lost its sustainability, and this weighed much more heavily. First of all, the basic rela- tionship between politics and the conduct of the war changed and the period of domi- nance of the decentralised power centre of Cieszyn ended. Then, however, the military lost its function as an expression of sovereign power. And it should be noted that this development was not a consequence of the imperial succession but had instead begun months earlier. Since the beginning of the Brusilov Offensive, Minister Burián had begun to pose Conrad pressing questions with regard to the war situation. It seemed as though this was merely a revival of the old argument along the lines that the central authorities in Vienna lodged a complaint to the effect that they were not sufficiently well informed by the Army High Command. In view of the shift in power, however, these questions had a different weight. Then, on 26 June 1916, Conrad was summoned to Vienna to a session of the Joint Council of Ministers. He let himself be represented by Colonel Slamec-