“Als ob die Welt aus den Fugen ginge”: Kriegserfahrungen österreichisch-ungarischer Offiziere 1914–18

Abstract

Martin Schmitz, a student of Günther Kronenbitter at Augsburg University, one of the foremost experts on the late Austro-Hungarian army, has worked his way through the extensive collection of private papers of World War I officers in the Viennese War Archive, as well as a number of reports specifically recording lessons learnt after the first months of fighting. Schmitz focuses on the peculiarities of the Austro-Hungarian army, in particular its multinational character, yet takes care to keep in mind a comparison with the difficulties experienced by both her allies and her opponents. Thus, both the initial cult of the offensive and the somewhat hysterical hunt for spies in 1914 find parallels elsewhere. Of course, Schmitz reviews the feuds within the military elite and the ambivalent relationship to Austria’s ‘big brother’ Germany, rightly regarded as more efficient but often lacking in tact. The attitude of Austro-Hungarian officers was often characterized by a somewhat schizophrenic approach: While defending the record of their army and praising its achievements, they at the same time pointed a finger at the treasonable activities of some of the constituent nations of the old monarchy. Schmitz wisely steers a middle course when discussing these phenomena: Alleged treasonable behaviour is hard to prove and often boils down to a search for scapegoats; at the same time, it is obvious that a lack of linguistic abilities limited the extent of empathy and camaraderie between officers and privates who were unable to communicate with each other. Within that context, mutual suspicions of different ethnic groups may well have acted as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ (p. 401). Apart from this, the gap between officers and other ranks does seem to have been more pronounced in the Habsburg armed forces than say in the German army. German officers criticized that many of their Austrian comrades were apparently less concerned with the welfare of the soldiers entrusted to them, with different food rations being an obvious bone of contention (p. 160).