F35239 AUSTRO - HUNGARIAN OFFICER

The officer corps of the Austro-Hungarian army on the eve of the outbreak of World War I consisted of approx. 24 thousand. officers who graduated from one of the three higher officer schools in the monarchy. These schools are: The Teresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Military University of Technology in Mödling and the Empress Ludwig Military Academy in Budapest. In order to be able to apply for them at all, the future officer had to graduate from one of the Cadet Schools or pass the high school diploma. It is worth adding that an officer's career in the Danube Monarchy was not reserved only for the Germans, but was open to a representative of virtually every national minority of that country - including Poles. This distinguished it significantly from the German or Russian armies. It is assumed that the Austro-Hungarian officer corps was highly loyal to the throne, and the military doctrine which it followed - especially at the beginning of World War I - was highly offensive. Formally, at the outbreak of World War I, the army was headed by Emperor Franz Joseph I and the commander-in-chief Frederick Habsburg, but the de facto title of the "first soldier" was given to the chief of the general staff, General Conrad von Hötzendorf.