| Franz Ferdinand |
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& the k.u.k. Armee |
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After being declared restored to full health on 23rd March, 1898, Franz Ferdinand assumed his first official duty as Thronfolger only six days later – he was appointed Inspector-General of the Army 29th March, 1898. In this capacity he had control over the kaiserliches und königliches Armee, and having been a part of that army, serving in various posts throughout the creaking Empire, he had ample experience to be astutely aware that the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were woefully inadequate to take to the field in a future large war against, particularly, Russia. Both equipment and tactics were quite out-of-date, but even more outmoded was military thinking in Vienna and Budapest. The Chief of Staff, General Friedrich Graf Beck-Rzikowsky, had maintained his position ever since the Emperor's uncle, Archduke Albrecht, had died in 1875, since when the Austro-Hungarian General Staff had remained but a poor reflection of the efficient Prussian model which had trounced the Habsburg Heer at Königgrätz/Sadowa in 1866 – the battle which sealed the supremacy of the Hohenzollerns over the Habsburgs. With his new position Franz Ferdinand was accorded a secretariat to administer day-to-day running of affairs. However, this was situated in the Hofburg in central Vienna where both it and Franz Ferdinand were, and felt, very much scrutinised by the senior command. So when most of the renovations and improvements to the palace were completed, on 15th May, 1899, Franz Ferdinand moved himself and his secretariat to the Unteres Belvedere (which nowadays houses the Museum of Austrian Baroque Art) where he immediately set about developing it into a Militärkanzlerei, a military chancellery, which, in effect, was to be the future government that could implement Franz Ferdinand's reforms. [see also The Politician] In 1903, along with the Chief of Staff, General Graf Beck-Rzikowsky, Franz Ferdinand witnessed a mock marine landing on the Dalmatian coast. He deemed it a shambles. But the wretched performance of the Army was exactly what he needed to goad the All-Highest into positive action. The Archduke immediately drew up a long report to the Emperor condemning the poor condition of the armed forces. The Army was the Emperor's beloved, but reality dictated that reforms be introduced. The army was a uniquely complex institution – it would have given even the Prussians serious headaches to organise efficiently! It was drawn from no fewer than 11 main nationalities (several smaller ones were exempt): Austrians (i.e. German-speaking Austrians), Hungarians, Italians, Rumanians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Galicians (Ukrainians), Ruthenians (slightly different Ukrainians), Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Perhaps not surprisingly, a major problem throughout the peacetime k.u.k. Armee was manning. In 1910, out of the Empire's total population of 50 million, only 125,000 men were available for conscription. Whereas the better-educated Austrians, Hungarians and Czechs gravitated toward the traditionally-prestigious cavalry, the technically-minded artillery and the fashionably 'glamorous' engineers, almost 70% of men in the k.u.k. Infantry were Slavs. Magyars, especially, hated the Slavs and care was required not to mix formations – hardly conducive to cohesion on a future battlefield. Franz Ferdinand toured the Empire, tirelessly 'kicking backsides,' but change remained slow. He needed a senior serving Army man – 'on the inside,' as it were – who shared his desire for military reforms, and would therefore actively assist in the kicking of backsides. In 1905, at army manoeuvres in the Nonstal in southern Tyrol, he noticed the commander of the 8.Infanterie-Division, Feldmarschalleutnant Franz Baron Conrad von Hötzendorff, showing a certain flair, particularly in organisation and logistics. After a few private conversations Franz Ferdinand felt that Conrad von Hötzendorff shared his fury at the muddle and lethargy that was crippling the Empire's armed forces. Clearly this was the man for the much-needed shaking-up at the top. At his nephew's urging, Franz Josef dismissed General Graf Beck-Rzikowsky and on 18th November, 1906, appointed Conrad von Hötzendorff as the new Generalstabschef (Chief of the General Staff), with the rank of Feldzeugmeister of Infantry. This 'leapfrogging' upset a few within the senior command, but this dissipated as Conrad von Hötzendorff's reforms began to take effect, particularly as within a few short years he had dragged the ailing Heer into the 20th Century. Soon, he was hailed as Austria's greatest soldier since Radetzky in 1848–49. One (possibly apocryphal) story runs as follows. During military manoeuvres near the Italian border Conrad von Hötzendorff had urged the old Emperor to start a war against the Erzfeind Italy. The Emperor's response was, "Austria has never ever started a war." To which Conrad von Hötzendorff's answer was, "Alas, Your Majesty ..." Use of machine-guns was standardised with an MG company in each regiment (a Maxim copy manufactured at Steyr, the Schwarzlose M7/12 8mm was an effective and reliable weapon), as was use of the field-telephone for communications. The M1895 Mannlicher 8mm bolt-action rifle was as effective as any other modern rifle in the world, only not available in sufficient numbers to equip both the regular and the second line Landsturm and Népfelkelo formations, the latter often having to make do with the older M1890 and M1888 rifles.
Often Franz Ferdinand would stride into Emperor Franz Josef's office at the Hofburg or at Schönbrunn to deliver, with barely-restrained anger, carefully-worded advice or to castigate the Emperor's other advisors for their short-sighted and sabre-rattling machinations. Even more frequent were the occasions when he stomped into a weary Franz-Josef's study to counsel most earnestly and vehemently against precipitate military action by the overtly anti-Serbian Chief of the General Staff. Invariably there then followed an at times tragi-comedy as the insulted General tendered his resignation that would not be accepted by the Emperor, each time he was thwarted and persuaded, urged or forced to stand-down his mobilisations against the ever-present stream of affrontry to Austria [Conrad von Hötzendorff's feelings on such occasions were committed to paper in letter form for the lush, dusky-eyed Gina von Reininghaus, and so for posterity; in them his vehement hatred of Serbia resembles charicatured 1980s Americans' fulminations against "pinko Commie faggot subversives"]. Because of mutually-incompatible difficulties with the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1907, Aloys Leopold Graf Lexa von Aehrenthal, Conrad von Hötzendorff resigned in a huff over opposition to his posturing against Serbia. At Franz Ferdinand's urging, the General was reinstated. In 1912, with the Serbs performing well in the First Balkan War, Conrad von Hötzendorff resigned again over protestations against yet another of his 'firm stance' policies by calling more reserves to the colours, only to be reinstated again – and immediately subjecting the Hofburg, Schönbrunn and the Belvedere to a barrage of written verbiage urging a 'final settlement' with that "dangerous little viper," Serbia. In May 1913 he offered his resignation over the embarrassing Colonel Redl Affair [see below]; the Emperor refused to accept it. And in September of the same year, following a practically public dressing-down by Franz Ferdinand at large-scale war games in Bohemia, a fuming and humiliated Conrad von Hötzendorff returned to the Stubenring in Vienna where he submitted yet another written request to accept his resignation. Franz Ferdinand had already picked out a new Chief-of-Staff, General Karl von Tersztyansky, head of the Budapest Army Corps, but on this occasion it was again Emperor Franz Josef's personal intervention and insistence that retained General Franz Baron Conrad von Hötzendorff. The three botched invasions of Serbia in 1914 were not planned by Conrad von Hötzendorff; that dubious honour goes to General Potiorek. However, Conrad von Hötzendorff was hailed by many at the time as the master strategist of both before and during the Great War ... which is difficult to qualify, for no matter how perceptive his strategic intentions to withstand the Russische Dampfwalze, he constantly failed to realize that his forces were incapable of carrying them through – even his one 'achievement,' his battleplan and the breakthrough at Gorlice-Tarnów in Galicia in 1915, depended to a considerable extent on German forces bolstering his own. Unified command – under German control – in September 1916 reduced Conrad von Hötzendorff to directing only the Italian front. As a sop to this relegation he was promoted to full Feldmarschall but on 1st March, 1917, was relieved as Generalstabschef by the young and pro-peace Emperor Karl. Conrad von Hötzendorff was then posted to command of the Austro-Hungarian army group in the Tirol–Trentino salient where a great victory again eluded him; as his own 10th and 11th Austro-Hungarian Armies were failing to make much headway, he could only grind his teeth over the brilliant German-supported 14. Armee breakthrough against the Italians at Caporetto. He was dismissed finally on 15th July, 1918. Perhaps the long-awaited war had come too soon for Franz Baron Conrad von Hötzendorff after all ...
Socially, the k.u.k. Armee continued to enjoy high standing, although fortunately not with the same obsequious reverence that prevailed throughout the German Empire. Foreign visitors and social commentators in Vienna were able to note in their diaries and society columns that military officers enjoying Viennese nightlife wore with aplomb the fanciest, brightest-coloured and most finely-tailored walking-out dress uniforms – particularly those of the 'fashionable' Hussar regiments with their ornate chest braid and (useless) pélisses dangling off one shoulder – outdoing the strutting Prussians in pomp and elegance. One of literature's funniest novels was – in fact, still is – Der Brave Soldat Schweig (or Czech: Švejk), Jaroslav Hašek's canny pastiche of Habsburg military hauteur. More succinct observers likened the pale-blue and red of these k.u.k. Armee uniforms to the finery of peacocks and to costumes commonly found in comic opera. For the Empire had acquired for itself a mocking nickname, although 'earned' would be more appropriate. One such social commentator was Austrian author Robert Musil. He belongs mostly to the post-imperial age, but in his younger years, with a fine sense of irony, he labelled the Habsburg Monarchy 'Kakania' in direct reference to the often absurd assortment of kuk, K.u.K. and/or k.u.k. titles given to the different imperial (Austrian) and royal (Hungarian) military, as well as pure Austrian and Hungarian aspects of the Dual Monarchy – to say little of the often 'cack-handed' manner in which the bureaucracy of 'The Kingdom of Shit' functioned. But despite the k.u.k. Armee's social standing, there was one particularly uncomfortable blip. Vienna, 25th May, 1913: scandal. At 7pm the previous evening a spy was unmasked. It turned out to be Colonel Alfred Redl, until 1912 the gifted head of the Kundschaftsbureau, the Evidenzbureau's counter-intelligence division. It was feared that as a closet homosexual he had been blackmailed, probably by the Russians, into betraying military secrets of army codes, supply structures, border fortifications and defences in Galicia, etc. News of this intelligence disaster was whispered into Conrad von Hötzendorff's ear in the dining-room at the Grand Hotel. Barely four hours later outraged officers frog-marched Redl into Room One at the Hotel Klomser, made him sign a typed 'confession,' gave him a loaded revolver with one round, and left him to Do The Right Thing. Conrad von Hötzendorff offered his resignation; the Emperor refused it. Franz Ferdinand was furious at this monumental blunder and made this evident to the embarrassed Generalstabschef. A most un-Catholic act, suicide. A most imprudent act, too – Redl should have been interrogated first to ascertain what the wretch had betrayed and to whom he had done so. The same day the smarting General renewed his offer of resignation to the Emperor, who refused it yet again. But the élan of the k.u.k. Armee had been tarnished, and for a few months neither the 'peacock' uniforms nor their wearers seemed so bright anymore ... Although considerable improvements were made by Franz Ferdinand and Conrad von Hötzendorff, when the Great War commenced in 1914 the k.u.k. Armee was still rather 'punching above its weight.' Despite the size of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy military establishment was comparatively weak; at its peak in May 1918 establishment barely reached 3.2 million. And the still bureaucracy-heavy 'muddle' seemed to support glaring insufficiencies. For example, artillery showed enormous contrasts: whereas Austria-Hungary boasted several of the most modern and effective heavy pieces – the 305mm howitzers, which were needed by the Germans to help subdue the Belgian forts around Liège and Namur – some fortress artillery was astonishingly archaic: field pieces dating from 1861 were still in use. Also, the Armee was divided into three commands (and two more Reserves once war was started). The k.u.k. Gemeinsames Heer was recruited from both parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and under central command. And there were two national armies controlled by their respective state governments, the Austrian KK Landwehr and the Hungarian KU Honvédség. The failed invasions of 'little Serbia' led von Moltke the younger to exclaim of Germany's ally, "We are shackled to a corpse ..." Although Austria boasted several senior field commanders of ability (eg. Pflanzer-Baltin, Böhm-Ermölli, and a few others), the minorities would, as Franz Ferdinand predicted, prove a considerable problem, particularly regarding their enthusiasm: whole regiments of Czechs and Galicians (Poles and/or Ukrainians), with their officers, would surrender voluntarily – i.e. defect – to the Russians on the Eastern Front or to the Italians in the Dolomites; the Czechs in particular were susceptible to 'suggestion' and were specifically targeted by Italian propagandists. This and a number of other inefficiencies would eventually lead to the entire k.u.k. Armee being subordinated to German command on all three major Austro-Hungarian fronts. 
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Franz Ferdinand's relationship with Conrad von Hötzendorff had started off cordially. The two men shared strange, stormy and self-willed personalities. The General also shared an all-consuming devotion to a woman who was technically 'out of bounds.' In Conrad von Hötzendorff's case this was a woman nearly thirty years his junior, Gina von Reininghaus – wife of an ennobled Styrian brewer and mother of six children. The General laid siege to her with a passionate letter written every day from 1907 onwards until, in what was perhaps Conrad von Hötzendorff's greatest triumph, she divorced her husband and married the General in 1915. Although Conrad von Hötzendorff continued to enjoy the Thronfolger's trust as the most talented soldier of the Empire and therefore the Best Man For The Job, the relationship between the two men would eventually cool as the General became one of the most outspoken hawks in Vienna – and the Empire's chief sabre-rattler – itching to unleash his modernising army against ... well, anyone whom he felt threatened both the integrity and the honour of the Habsburg Empire (although not necessarily in that order), forever seeing conspiracies and foul play in the slightest real or even imagined of Serb 'provocations' [see 
