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934 An Empire Resigns
Csáky, etc. were only present in the military schematisms and ranking lists, however,
when one or the other family members occupied a generally lower reserve officer rank
predominantly in a cavalry regiment. Some older generals, for example Prince Hugo
Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg or Count Felix Thun-Hohenstein, were reactivated but
they were without doubt no longer suitable for senior troop commands. Particularly
conspicuous was the absence of the Hungarian high nobility, which was clearly out-
stripped by its Polish counterpart. Even here, however, such important families as the
Potockys, the Lubomirskis and others were missing.
The retreat of the high nobility had already been looming since the mid-19th century.
The fact that graduation from the War Academy and a career as a General Staff officer
were necessary for high and highest ranks had not least contributed to this absence.
Only very few wanted to go to this trouble. The expectations in the Navy were the same.
Of course, the lack of the high nobility was also an expression of neither the majorate
gentlemen nor other male members of the long-standing families wanting to connect
their personal fate and that of their families with that of the ruling house. The absence
of the high nobility could be understood as a partial renunciation of the Empire and,
above all, the ruling dynasty. This absence went so far that some gentlemen, large land-
owners and industrial magnates exercised extreme restraint in the subscription of war
bonds. (Reference was already made to this in the chapter ‘How is a War Financed ?’)
In the case of the moneyed (high) aristocracy, the risk assessment permitted, or so
it seemed, only the most necessary payments. At any rate, money was allocated very
cautiously.
Among those colonels and generals who fell in battle as members of the Imperial
and Royal Army during the First World War, there was not a single member of the
ancient nobility and just one member of a comital house, the Commander of Dragoon
Regiment No. 2, Colonel Count Johann Bolesta-Koziebrodzki. This was a noticeable,
even stark, contrast with the experiences of the German Army, where from 1915 to
1919 in the different series of the Almanach de Gotha the names of the fallen of the
ancient noble and comital houses filled dozens of pages each.
In fact, the absence of the Austrian and Hungarian high aristocracy should have been
conspicuous even whilst Emperor Franz Joseph was still alive. But this had not been the
case. The aristocratic absence only became altogether clear under Emperor Karl. Not
even the countless honours that the Emperor showered on aristocrats and non-aristo-
crats helped here. Even four new comital families (Conrad, Benigni, Scheuchenstuel
and Dankl) could not compensate for the absence of the great, old names. And it made
a difference whether someone was to fight in this war for God, the Emperor and the
Fatherland as a lieutenant of the reserves or as a general.
At the latest by 1918, Emperor Karl had in any case the feeling that there were too
many generals. In view of the discontinuation of the front in Russia and the victory
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 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