Arthur Giesl Freiherr von
Gieslingen
Arthur Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen was born at
Krakow on the
19th of June 1857. He was the eldest son of the late
Feldzeugmeister Heinrich Karl Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen and
his first wife Emilie and like his younger brother Wladimir he was destined for
a military career. After attending the cadet institute at
Eisenstadt he passed through the Theresian Military Academy and
was commissioned as a Leutnant in dragoon regiment number 2 on
the 1st of September 1875. In this regiment he received his
promotion to Oberleutnant on the 1st of May 1880. After attending
the Kriegsschule he was attached to the general staff of the18th cavalry brigade at Stuhlweißenburg and
transferred in the same function to the 25th infantry division on the 1st of November
1883. On the 1st of November 1884 he received his promotion to
Hauptmann 1st class in the general staff. Very little is known of what he
actually really did in the decade between 1877 and 1887. He was probably engaged
in clandestine missions for the
military intelligence office - some details in his later career
made this suggestion plausible. On the 24th of July 1887 he
married Helene Virginia Comploier (24th January 1860-4th March 1944). They had
two daughters, Margarete (10th April 1888-30th January 1919) married with to
Freiherr von Chlumecky and Theodora who died 1894 at the age of 3 weeks.
On the 26th of April 1887 he was appointed as Ordonannz-officer (orderly
officer) to the heir to the throne Erzherzog Rudolf. Together with the Flügeladjutant Major Graf
Orsini, he
was now one of the two officers with the closest contact to the future Kaiser. It is
possible to speculate that he was sent by military intelligence
to inform the general staff about the plans and activities of the
heir to the throne but there is nothing to prove this suggestion.
But fact was, that Giesl and Orsini were both strongly involved in the Mayerling
affair. Arthur Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen was one of
the very few people who personally witnessed the rooms and the corpses shortly after the
fatal shots and he was the
first (and the only personally involved) person to give details to a
newspaper in the 1930's telling for the first time about the double suicide. At this time it was commonly
believed that the
heir to the throne was murdered possibly by foreign powers.
Today it is known that Erzherzog Rudolf had shot his mistress
Mary Vetsera followed by his suicide at the estate of Mayerling
but many questions are still unanswered. The main
reason for this was the great effort to draw a veil of secrecy over the whole
affair which started
immediately after - and both officers were the main figures during
this operation. However Arthur Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen was
honored "for his services to the deceased heir to the
throne" by the award of the 3rd class of the Order of the
Iron Crown on the 24th of February 1889. Indeed a very high decoration
for a Hauptmann usually only awarded to an Oberst or a Generalmajor
during peacetime. After a short period of duty with the troops he was
appointed as Flügeladjutant to the Kaiser with simultaneous
promotion to Major on the 1st of May 1891. During this and the
previous duty close to the imperial court he received many foreign
decorations: The silver 50 years Crown jubilee Medal of Queen
Victoria of Great Britain (7th October 1887), the 5th class of
the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (1887), the 3rd class of the Prussian Order of the Crown (5th July 1888), the 3rd class of
the Persian Order of the Sun and the Lion (5th October 1889), the
Commander's Cross of the Order Crown of Romania (October 1890),
the 2nd class of the Prussian Order of the Crown (1891), the
Officer's Cross of the Saxon Order of Albrecht (1891), the 3rd
class of the Serbian Takovo Order (11th October 1891) and the
Commander's Cross of the Saxon Order of Albrecht (January 1892).
On the 27th of April 1892 he was transferred to the general
staff of the cavalry division at Lemberg followed by duty with
the troops with ulan regiment number 3 where he received his
promotion to Oberstleutnant on the 1st of May 1894. In January
1896 he was appointed as chief of the general staff of the 8th
corps at Prague followed by his promotion to Oberst on the 6th of
May 1897. For his achievements in this post he was honored with
the award of the Military Merit Cross on the 22nd of June 1898.
On the 18th of June 1898 he was appointed as Chief of the
Evidenzbureau (office of military intelligence) at the
Kriegsministerium. It was in the nature of such services that
only a little is known about their activities and in contemporary publications such
career moves were not published. Dr. Albert
Pethö, who wrote the remarkable book "Agenten für den
Doppeladler" (published 1998) reported after more than a
decade of research that, especially during the last month of
1918, so many files and material had been destroyed that it would be
never possible to find answers to a great deal of questions.
He wrote further that in the archives two different
"official" lists of the Chiefs of the Evidenzbureau for
the period pre 1900 exist, one with 6 and one with 13 names on
it! However Giesl's name is on both of them. In practice an officer would not be
appointed to this post without previous experience in clandestine missions
abroad so it seems he must previously have worked for military intelligence. During
this period of command several activities in many countries had to be performed
but mainly in Russia
and this was the reason why he had two young officers from the
general staff who spoke fluent Russian posted into the Evidenzbureau.
One was Major Anton Liposcak, the later General der Infanterie
and last governor of Poland and the other was Hauptmann Alfred
Redl, who received dubious glory as a Russian
"Master-Spy" in 1912! During his years at the
Evidenzbureau Giesl received the following foreign awards: the
2nd class of the Württemberg Order of Friedrich (9th January
1900) and the 2nd class of the Persian Order of the Sun and the
Lion with Brilliants (17th January 1901). Finally he was honored
for his outstanding performance with the military intelligence
services with the award of the Knight's Cross of the Order of
Leopold on the 20th of April 1903.
On the 20th of April 1903 he assumed command of the 10th infantry brigade shortly followed by promotion to
Generalmajor on the 17th of May 1903. During the summer months of
1903 a large flood disaster near Troppau necessitated the assistance of the army
and consequently 33 persons from Korporal upwards were
honored by decree of the war ministry - Generalmajor Giesl von
Gieslingen was one of them. On the 19th of January 1904 he
received the breast star to his Commander's Cross of the Prussian Order of the Crown. On the 12th of September 1905 he was
appointed as commander of the Theresian Military Academy at
Wiener Neustadt. For the following five years he was now the
commander of the most important educational institute for officers
of the Austro-Hungarian Army. On the 3rd of November 1907 he was
promoted to Feldmarschall-Leutnant and was honored by the award
of the Knight's Cross (the so-call Kleinkreuz) of the Hungarian
Order of Saint Stephen on the 12th of March 1909. The military
academy was often visited by foreign delegations and so he
received additionally the Ehrengroßkreuz des
großherzoglich-oldenburgischen Haus- und Verdienstordens des
Herzogs Peter Friedrich Ludwig (October 1908), the Grand cross of
the Swedish Order of the Sword, the 1st class of the Japanese
Order of the Holy Treasure and finally the 3rd step of the 2nd
grade of the Chinese Order of the Double Dragon!
On the 8th of April 1910 he took over command of the 29th infantry division at Theresienstadt. On the 1st of October 1912
he was appointed to the command of the 8th corps and to be the commanding
general at Prague followed by his promotion to General der
Kavallerie on the 30th of that month. At his new command he
remembered the excellent general staff officer Alfred Redl, who
was meanwhile an Oberst and Deputy Chief of the Evidenzbureau and
made him his Chief of the general staff at 8th corps. But
the fortune of this high-flying officer had come to an end. The
agents of military intelligence had discovered that he was
the Russian spy within the general staff for whom they had searched for so long
and when he was in Vienna to again collect money from dubious sources, he was visited at his hotel by two officers. They gave
him a pistol and left the room. On the 25th of May 1913, the day
after, the chief of the Evidenzbureau August von Urbansky and
Major-Auditor Wenzel Vorlicek traveled to Prague to meet Giesl and
informed him about Redl. Together in civilian clothes they opened Redl's flat and cleared
it of it's contents. Giesl was now
one of the very few superior commanders and general staff
officers who was completely in the know regarding this affair. Again he
was a leading personality in a large cover-up operation. It was not difficult to
conceal the facts from the public and it was years before the affair became
general knowledge and much is still unknown. However the main task of the
officers involved was to surprises the fact
that one of their own, an Oberst of the general staff had been extorted on the
account of his homosexuality and delivered material over years to the
Russians. Their suppression of the facts was so rapid and perfect that - until today -
no one could exactly say what he had given to the enemy.
There was no interrogation, no investigation, only a cover-up - to include the public and the Kaiser! For
example the safe of the 8th
corps at Prague had contained the complete operations plan which would be executed
in the event of war with Russia. The limited attempt at finding the facts
did
not ascertain whether Redl had passed it on to the Russians and more than this,
they informed the Chief of the general staff and the Kaiser that
he had definitely not done so. Consequently no major changes were made to
the plans until 1914. Later many historians ascribed the serious setbacks against Serbia and Russia at the beginning of the war as
a result Alfred Redls' treachery.
Giesl's handling of the immediate aftermath of Redl's death led to some
complications. When Redl's flat was searched Giesl had hired a local locksmith
to open the flat door and the desk drawers. The locksmith had remained
throughout the search and had overheard the conversations of the officers
searching the flat. He passed this on to the Prague newspaper journalist
Egon Erwin Kisch who brought the scandal to light in the 1920s. Additionally he
had Redl's belongings auctioned to pay the latter's debts without having them
properly examined. These included the browning pistol used in the suicide which
was army property and a camera including the negatives of the army mobilization
instructions. Fortunately the film was returned to the army authorities.
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was furious and wanted Giesl's head but Giesl was
protected by the Kaiser. Franz Ferdinand's later attempts to have Urbansky
relieved were thwarted by his own assassination at Sarajevo.
On the 11th of October 1913 General Giesl was honored with the title of Oberstinhaber of
infantry regiment number 16 and
with the title of Geheimer Rat (Privy Councillor) on the 20th of December of the
same year. When the war started in 1914 the 8th corps was a part
of the 5th army which advanced into Serbia on the 12th of August
1914. After crossing the Drina Giesl's corps was badly hit by the
Serbs on the Cer Plateau on the night of the16th and had to fall
back across the river. The 8th corps had suffered heavy
casualties and in particular the 21st Landwehr-Infantry Division
had not performed well. The neighbouring 13th corps was thus
obliged to retire also and shortly afterwards Giesl was relieved of command and replaced by
Feldmarschall-Leutnant Viktor von Scheuchenstuel. Remembering
back to the Redl affair, Arthur Giesl was possibly more responsible for this
defeat that at first sight. Following his relief General der Kavallerie Arthur Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen was
placed on half-pay status and sent on leave to Vienna. He was however reactivated in
1917 by Kaiser Karl and awarded the Bronze Military Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) with
swords on the 11the August 1917 for his services in 1914! With no active field
command being available he was assigned to the staff of the commander of
replacement services where he saw out the remainder of the war and was finally
permanently retired on the 1st of January 1919.
During the following years he lived in his flat in Vienna's
3rd district away from public life. In 1928 he became honorary president of the society of former
graduates of the
Theresian Military Acardemy "Alt-Neustadt". On his death in 1935 this
appointment was passed to General der Kavallerie
Rudolf Ritter von Brudermann, another cavalry general
who's
career had not survived the surprising defeats of 1914!
The general died on the 3rd of December 1935 was was
buried on the 6th of December in the family grave with his parents and his daughters.
His wife was interred there also following her death.
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