Vol. XXXII · 2001 · pp. 169-206 (38)

Gunther E. Rothenberg

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Abstract

History has not been kind to the memory of the regular army of the Habsburg, or, as it was commonly called from the mid-eighteenth century on, the Austrian, monarchy. Although there were always critics of the army and questions regarding the reliability of this multinational force had been raised as early as the wars of the French Revolution, the major damage to its reputation derived from German complaints about its alleged incompetence and poor combat record during World War I. In Austria, of course, serious military history of the war was almost exclusively written by former general staff officers who, with few exceptions, did their best to uphold the reputation of Conrad von Hötzendorf and the combat performance of the army during the war. In the post-World War II period, much of this "official version" was accepted by Austrian, British, and American historians, who also seemed to have arrived at a more favorable consensus of the earlier achievements of the Habsburg army. More recently, however, the trend toward the so-called new military history, with its emphasis on the social dynamics of military forces, seems to have resurrected a more critical examination of Habsburg military history.