The Supreme Failure of Conrad von Hötzendorf

General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, 
Austrian Chief of Staff

In all my reading during the centennial commemoration of the war, one major actor, who is featured prominently in the 1914-focused works, seems to have dropped off the radars of historians dealing with the fighting war and the final culmination of the disaster. I thought he deserves a little attention here in Roads, especially focusing on the end of the war and his legacy.

Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was a unique star in the constellation of personalities involved in the origins and conduct of the First World War. Other countries had their prewar tacticians who advocated the offensive at all costs, prewar strategists who drafted plans for preemptive strikes against neighboring countries, generals who made grave errors in implementing war plans in the summer of 1914, and wartime commanders who persevered–for lack of a better strategy–as the First World War dragged on and casualties mounted. In Austria-Hungary, Conrad filled all of these roles. Among the men responsible for shaping the tactics, strategies, and war plans that led the old order of Europe to destruction in the bloodletting of 1914–1918, he had no equal. Austro-Hungarian soldiers who died during the Great War total 1,495,200, including 480,000 who died as prisoners of war.

The death knell for the empire was sounded with the failure in June 1918 of the last effort on the Piave River to drive Italy out of the war. The effort failed and the ethnic disintegration of the army snowballed, bringing with it the collapse of the army. Emperor Karl used Conrad as a scapegoat and again dismissed him. He spent the last four months of the war in retirement and afterward lived in relative seclusion with his beloved young wife, Gina. He never acknowledged his share of responsibility for the war, but the deaths of his sons haunted him for the rest of his life. He died in 1925 of complications from a gall bladder ailment, before finishing his multi-volume memoirs.

Reviewing the Troops in 1916

Despite Conrad's dismal wartime record, after his death, most Austrians hailed him as a great hero. The pro-Austrian Christian Social party claimed him as a great Austrian patriot, while the pro-Anschluss German Nationalist party emphasized his conclusion (however reluctant) that Austria's fate should lie in union with Germany. Meanwhile, the opposition Social Democrats condemned him as a war criminal. During and after the war he enjoyed a good reputation in Germany; Germans placed him on a par with their own Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. Eventually, the Nazis claimed Conrad as a Greater German hero, holding frequent ceremonies at his Vienna tomb during the Second World War. Because the defense of Conrad's reputation after 1918 became bound up with the defense of the honor of the old Habsburg army, he remains a controversial figure within Austria down to the present day.

While some Austrian military writers persist in excusing Conrad von Hötzendorf's faults and errors, for other historians his vocal promotion of preventive warfare before 1914 and costly command decisions during the First World War place him among the leading villains of the era. Yet his greatest transgression was not that he advocated offensive measures and aggressive solutions, but that these measures and solutions did not fit the situation of his country or the capabilities of its army. While all the other great powers of the 20th century survived defeats in battles, campaigns, or wars, Austria-Hungary enjoyed no margin for error, and Conrad's failure proved fatal. The pursuit of aggressive solutions to foreign policy problems only increased the empire's dependence on its German ally; Conrad acknowledged this dilemma as early as 1913, agonized over it early in the war, then in the autumn of 1916 conceded that Austria's future would be either as a satellite or component part of the German Reich. Thus, in helping push Austria-Hungary toward war before 1914, he set a course that would result, win or lose, with the end of Austria-Hungary as an empire.

Source: Over the Top, August 2012