Erzherzog Joseph
Erzherzog
Joseph (August Victor Klemens Maria) was born on the 9th of August 1872 at
Alcsuth in Hungary. He was the eldest son of General der Kavallerie Erzherzog
Joseph, the supreme commander of the Hungarian Honvéd, and Erzherzogin
Clothilde from the Sachsen-Coburg family. He was thus a member of the so-called
"Hungarian Branch" of the House of Habsburg. After attending the
Benediktinergymansium at Raab he was commissioned as a Leutnant in infantry
regiment number 1 on the 26th of April 1890 where he received the Order of the
Golden Fleece on the 24th of March 1891. He was transferred to infantry regiment
number 72, shortly followed by his promotion to Oberleutnant on the 27th of
October 1893. In the same year he married Augusta Maria Luise, the daughter of
Prinz Leopold von Bayern, followed by the award of the Bavarian St.Hubertus
Order on the 4th of September 1893 - some wags put this down to the fact that
the Princess was corpulent and ugly! They had six children, Josef Franz, Gisela,
Sophie, Ladislaus Luitpold and Matthias but Gisela and Matthias died as babies.
Their eldest son Erzherzog Joseph Franz (born on the 28th March 1895) became a
Rittmeister in hussar regiment number 7 and winner of the silver Bravery Medal
for Officers at the end of World War 1 and later entered the Hungarian Army.
In 1894 Erzherzog Joseph was transferred to dragoon regiment number 6 where
he received his promotion to Rittmeister on the 1st of November 1898. As an
Archduke he often received high foreign decorations amongst others the Grand
cross of the Order of Saint Joseph from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (27th May
1897), the Marianer cross of the Deutscher Ritterorden (1895) and the Portrait
decoration in Brilliants of the Shah of Persia (October 1900). Throughout his
life he considered himself first and foremost an Hungarian and so it was not
surprising that he asked the Kaiser for a post with Hungarian Honvéd. On the
1st of May 1902 he was promoted to Major and stimulatingly transferred to Honvéd
Hussar Regiment number 1. He soon received his promotion to Oberstleutnant (1st
November 1903) and took over the command of this regiment (July 1904), followed
by promotion to Oberst on the 1st of May 1905. In this year he also received the
Military Merit Cross (29th March 1905), the title of Oberstinhaber of dragoon
regiment number 15 (28th April 1905) and the Grand cross of the Bulgarian Order
of Alexander. Besides his military career he studied Law at the University of
Budapest. After his promotion to Generalmajor on the 1st of November 1908, he
assumedr command of the 79th Honvéd infantry brigade. For his performance there
he received the commendation of the Kaiser, the bronze Military Merit Medal (Signum
Laudis) on the 20th of September 1911. In early April 1911 he was appointed to
the command of the 31st infantry division at Budapest followed by his promotion
to Feldmarschall-Leutnant on the 1st of May 1911. During his years at Budapest
he was honored several times by foreign awards: the Order of the Black Eagle and
the 1st class of the Order of the Red Eagle from Prussia (1906), the Grand cross
of the Victorian Order of Great Britain (1908), the Grand cross of the Order of
Karl III. of Spain (1909) and the Grand cross of the Bulgarian Order of Cyrill
and Methodius on the 22nd June 1912.
With
the outbreak of war in 1914 Erzherzog Joseph's division was first engaged on the
southern and then on the Galician theatre. Erzherzog Joseph who was promoted to
General der Kavallerie (1st November 1914) and honored by the award of the 1st
class of the Order of the Iron Crown with war decoration (25th October 1914)
took over the command of the VII corps (originally for Temesvár) during the
heavy fighting in the Carpathian mountains. After Italy entered the war his
corps was first transferred to the Carinthian border and finally integrated into
the Isonzo army. On the southern wing of this army his VII corps, especially his
17th infantry and 20th Honvéd divisions fought long and hard in the ensuing
battles of the Isonzo. During the 2nd battle of the Isonzo (18th July - August
3rd 1915) his corps held the so-called Carso, a barren wilderness of rock and
particularly the important positions of Monte San Michele and Monte Sei Busi.
His corps lost 5,500 men in the first 48 hours of the Italian offensive and in
see-saw battles Monte San Michele was taken and retaken. By the 24th of July his
corps had suffered 25,000 casualties in it's defence of the Doberdo Plateau. Equally
difficult was the fighting in the fourth battle where the 17th division alone
lost 11,700 soldiers during the period 15th October to 15th November 1915 in its
desperate but successful struggle to hold Monte San Michele. Archduke
Joseph would remain on the Italian front until the conclusion of the ninth battle of the
Isonzo (31 October - 4 November 1916) in command of his VII corps.
His inspirational leadership of the predominantly Magyar troops under his
command brought about a blizzard of honours and decorations: The neck
badge of the Red Cross with war decoration (31st May 1915), the Grand cross of
the Order of Leopold with war decoration (29th July 1915), the bronze Military
Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) with war ribbon (2nd March 1916) and the Military
Merit Cross 1st class with war decoration (17th October 1916). The young
Archduke was one of the most beloved superior commanders by the troops. He
wished to see the tactical situation at first hand which resulted in frequent
visits to the trenches and forward most lines and he was the only senior general
to earn the Karl Troop Cross. He loved to be among his common soldiers, he felt
as one of them, always interested in improving their support, medical and hygiene
situation. The troops of Hungarian nationality were especially encouraged
to high efforts when he was in their area. In 1915 he was awarded the
breast cross of the Malteser Ritterorden and received the Iron Cross 2nd class.
During the year 1916 he received the Ottoman Imtiaz medal in Silver and Gold
(March 1916), the Grand cross of the Bavarian Military Merit order with sword
(4th July 1916) and the Prussian Iron Cross 1st class.
In November 1916 he assumed the command of the Heeresfront against Russian
and Romania accompanied by his promotion to Generaloberst on the 1st of November
1916. With his forces he re-conquered the eastern parts of the Siebenbürgen
and started the armistice talks. Besides the Karl-Truppen-Kreuz and the Merit
star of the Red Cross with war decoration (March 1917) he was further honored by
the award of the large golden Military Merit Medal with war ribbon and sword
(5th August 1917) and the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite (30th May 1917). During
the Chapter meeting of the Militär-Maria Theresien-Orden he was honored, for
his leading performance during the Isonzo-battles with the award of the
Commanders cross of this order on the 17th of August 1917. In January 1918 he
took over command of the 6th army again in the southern theatre and in July over
the Armeegruppe Tirol, composed from the 10th and 11th Army). On the 26th of
March 1918 he received the Oak leaves to his Prussian Pour le Mérite. An
example of his desire to be with the forward most troops is the fact that during
the Montello battle in June 1918 he was able to halt the fleeing troops, reform
them and lead them back over the Piave river under constant heavy enemy fire.
For this act of personal heroism he was awarded the Golden Bravery Medal for
Officers by the Chapter of the Military Maria Theresien Order on the 31st May
1927. At the end of October 1918 he took over command of the Heeresgruppe Kövess
in Balkan theatre. On the 18th of March 1918 he was honored by the award of the
Grand cross of the Hungarian Order of St.Stephen and received as the last
officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army the promotion to Feldmarschall on the 24th
of October 1918. With these honours Kaiser Karl hoped to calm down the Hungarian
nationalists at a time that troops of Hungarian nationality refused to do their
duty - but it was to late.
On
the 27th of October 1918 Kaiser Karl appointed Feldmarschall Erzherzog Joseph as
"Homo regius" for Hungary. After this Erzherzog Joseph requested the
Kaiser to be released from his oath of allegiance. He immediately started negotiations
and appointed Graf Janos Hadik with the building of a new national government on
the 29th of October 1918. However all efforts were destroyed by the outbreak of
the revolution on the 31st of October 1918. During the Räterepublik, Erzherzog
Joseph was held under observation on his estate at Alcsuth. He was so popular
that not even the Bolsheviks would risk harming him more than this. After the
collapse of the red revolution he again took over the function of head of state
with the title "Reichsverweser", he appointed Istvan Friedrich as
Prime Minister and confirmed Admiral Nikolaus von Horthy as supreme commander of
the Hungarian National Army. Erzherzog Joseph never made any secret of his plan
to get the legal monarch Kaiser Karl back to the throne of Hungary and
consequently the Entente Powers finally forced him to abdicate and hand over
power to Horthy on the 23rd of August 1919. He did not completely retire from
politics and when the House of Lords was installed again in 1927 he became a
member of that institution but concentrated his efforts more to science and
society work and published his memoirs. Before the war he received two honorary
doctorates, one in Philosophy from the university of Budapest and one in
technical sciences from the technical university of Budapest He now became an
honorary member of the Hungarian Akademie der Wissenschaften, from 1936 to 1944
he was its president. After the early death of Kaiser Karl in 1922 it was often
rumored that Erzherzog Joseph had some interests in the Hungarian Crown, for
himself or his son Joseph Franz. This was not possible, because of Horthy, but
it lead to serious trouble with Kaiserin Zita and the rest of the Habsburg
family and it took until the 1950s for them to become reconciled. At the end of
1944 he escaped from Hungary to the USA, later he settled down with his sister Fürstin
Margarethe von Thurn und Taxis in Regensburg/Germany. He died on the 6th of July
1962 at Rain near Straubing in Germany as the last Feldmarschall of the
Austro-Hungarian Army.
Finally a remarkable note for the decoration enthusiasts:
In
his memoirs Erzherzog Joseph stated that Kaiser Karl had awarded him, during a
talk at the end of October 1918, the war decoration and the swords to his Grand
cross of the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen. This was strange enough because
the Order of Saint Stephen was only for civil merit and no such decoration was
ever instituted. The only person who could confirm his story, Kaiser Karl, was
dead by the time Joseph first stated this but then why should an Archduke lie in
such a case? During the late 1920s Erzherzog Joseph organized the manufacture of
the decoration and wore the breast star during the following years. (An
illustration of a modern copy is to the right) The latest research in this case
demonstrates that Kaiser Karl had some ideas at the end of October 1918 to
create such a war decoration for the (civil) Order of Saint Stephen to calm down
the Hungarian nationalists. The somewhat emotional Karl always had a tendency
for the unusual. Two examples are his awarding of the 2nd Class Order of the
Iron Crown to a very junior officer - Oberleutnant Franz Kern and his promotion
of Generaloberst Franz Rohr to Feldmarschall. Only a few years ago in the archives
a handwritten page was found in which he had asked for some suggestions
regarding the look and regulations for such a decoration. However the war
decoration and the swords were never legally instituted, produced or awarded!
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