Austrian military history

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The article Austrian Military History is intended to give an overview of the development and status of the armed forces, military facilities and the armaments industry in the various epochs.

history

Austrian hereditary lands and the Imperial Army

The beginning of Habsburg rule in what was then the Duchy of Austria was linked to war. The Duke of Babenberg, Frederick the Warrior , fell in battle against the approaching Hungarians in 1246 without leaving a male heir. Ottokar II Přemysl , King of Bohemia , had made Austria subject to this without observing the imperial regulations. In 1276 he was expelled from Austria by the German King Rudolf I of Habsburg . This now enfeoffed his sons with the duchy. In 1278 the stubborn Ottokar was defeated in the battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen in what is now Lower Austria . Ottokar fell in battle. This battle of two armies of knights is described in Franz Grillparzer's drama König Ottokar Glück und Ende .

Like all other dynasties, the House of Habsburg achieved its increase in power mainly through wars and dynastic marriages . The Austrian House of Habsburg attained special importance when it gained the Roman imperial dignity in the Holy Roman Empire in 1438. From then on, the fortunes of the hereditary lands were closely linked to that of the empire. The Imperial Army that emerged in the 15th century was always recruited from all over the empire, but also from other European territories. According to the imperial claim, the tasks were universally European, but always connected with the defense of Austrian territory against the Ottoman Empire and later against France . The first Turkish siege of Vienna took place in 1529 . In 1556, the Imperial War Council, the first independent military administrative authority of the emperor in Vienna, was founded. It outlived the Holy Roman Empire and was renamed the War Ministry in the Austrian Empire in 1848 .

A standing imperial army did not develop until the early modern period . Before that, generals and officers had to be appointed and serfs had to be forcibly recruited or mercenaries had to be recruited. It was under these circumstances that the Imperialists fought in the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648 . Their most famous general was Wallenstein , who was later murdered on behalf of the emperor .

After the war, a standing troop emerged, which until the 19th century were not mainly recruited from Austria, but from the clerical principalities and imperial cities . The imperial districts also formed permanent advertising areas.

In 1677 the Imperial Armory was built , which was used to cast cannons. In 1683 the second Turkish siege of Vienna could only be repulsed with help from Poland-Lithuania and the Reich. As a result, Prince Eugene of Savoy fundamentally reorganized the Imperial Army and expelled the Turks from Central Europe.

Military conflicts:

  • First coalition war 1792 to 1797 with Prussia, Sardinia-Piedmont, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Naples against France
  • Second Coalition War 1798 to 1802 with Great Britain, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples and the Papal States against France

Important imperial generals, which will be discussed in more detail here, were u. a. Wallenstein , Tilly , Starhemberg , Daun , Laudon , Archduke Karl , Schwarzenberg and Radetzky , Tegetthoff became famous as an admiral .

Austrian Empire (1804–1867)

Military conflicts:

Austria-Hungary (1867-1918)

Main article: Structure and organization of the Austro-Hungarian land forces

When the Austrian Empire became a dual monarchy in 1867 because Hungary had to be recognized as a separate state, the army and navy remained joint affairs for both halves of the empire under the direction of the Austro- Hungarian War Ministry in Vienna. Accordingly, the name has now been changed from the Imperial Royal (kk) Army to Imperial and Royal Army (kuk Army).

The military laws (which stipulated who had to be conscripted for how long ), the Austrian Landwehr and its Hungarian counterpart, the Honvéd, were not among the common issues . These were administered separately by the Austrian Landwehr Minister and the Hungarian Honvéd Minister.

The Austro-Hungarian War Ministry was only responsible for administrative tasks of the army and the navy, since Emperor Franz Joseph personally had the supreme command . The Ministry had a naval section for the Austro-Hungarian Navy .

Franz Joseph I (r. 1848–1916) acted personally as the supreme commander of his armed power for almost his entire life as a monarch and could only be seen in uniform at home.

Well-known military units were the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger , the Deutschmeister (Vienna's “house regiment”), the Hungarian hussars and the Polish Uhlans . The most famous military march was the Radetzky March, composed by Johann Strauss in 1848 (later also the title of a - twice filmed - novel by Joseph Roth about a family of soldiers in the last decades of the monarchy). Joseph Lanner was a prominent military bandmaster .

A well-known award was the Leopold Order, which was awarded only four times between 1808 and 1918. From 1757 to 1931, the Maria Theresa Order was awarded a total of 1241 times for “excellent service in war”. With many other medals and decorations, attempts were made to compensate for the known poor pay of the officers.

Notable officers of Austria-Hungary's last years (selection):

Military conflicts:

See also: List of kuk combat troops , list of kuk combat support troops , Austrian fortifications on the border with Italy , the Austro-Hungarian hussars , kk stand Schützenkompanie Strigno

First World War

Main article: Austria-Hungary's army in World War I

( Army ) and Kriegsmarine ( kuk Kriegsmarine ) were used, later also the combat aircraft of the kuk aviation troops .

Shortly before the end of the war, Hungary ended the Real Union with Austria on October 31, 1918 and withdrew its troops from the Isonzo front . With that the Austro-Hungarian army was broken. Their end was portrayed by Franz Theodor Csokor , himself an officer in the war, in his play November 3, 1918 (on that day the armistice with Italy came into force). Karl Kraus brought up the shamefulness of war in the play The Last Days of Mankind .

See also: List of Austria-Hungary flying aces in the First World War

German-Austria (1918-1919)

From November 5, 1918, the Provisional Government of German Austria set up the People's Army . This consisted of former members of the Austro-Hungarian army and volunteers. It was dissolved on March 18, 1920 according to the provisions of the Treaty of St. Germain and replaced by the Federal Army .

Military conflicts:

First Republic and Corporate State (1919–1938)

Main article: Federal Army

After the First World War , the Republic of Austria created the Federal Army. In 1938, Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg decided not to use it against the National Socialist takeover in Austria (“no German blood shed”), although the military leadership had prepared to offer resistance. The Austrian units were immediately incorporated into the German armed forces .

Austria as part of the German Reich (1938–1945)

Main article: Wehrmacht

There was no separate Austrian military system in the Second World War . Hundreds of thousands of Austrians did military service in the German armed forces in accordance with the applicable German regulations. The Austrian Federal President Kurt Waldheim later said that the Austrian soldiers had only done their duty . Anyone who, like the Upper Austrian farmer's son Franz Jägerstätter , refused to do this was sentenced to death.

Individual German officers of Austrian origin were convicted as war criminals abroad after the war ended. Most of the Austrians involved did not reflect on their own role in the Nazi war of extermination. Many of the dead were immortalized on war memorials and, as you can read there, died for their homeland .

The Austrian Declaration of Independence of April 27, 1945, not true to the truth, claimed that no true Austrian had ever wanted Nazi aggression against foreign peoples. Comradeship associations , in which the heroic deeds of the Wehrmacht are commemorated, exist in Austria to this day.

Second Republic (1955 to the present day)

Main article: Federal Army

After the Allied occupation troops withdrew in 1955, the Austrian Armed Forces (BH) were re-established. The air force also belongs to it. The armed forces are subordinate to the Federal Ministry for National Defense (BMLV) . The commander-in-chief is the Federal President. The BMLV is also responsible for two of the three Austrian intelligence services , namely the Abwehramt and the Army Intelligence Agency . The third intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism , reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI).

The first important deployment of the young armed forces took place in the fall of 1956 on the eastern border when the Red Army crushed the Hungarian uprising . The federal government had issued an order to fire in the event that Soviet soldiers enter Austrian territory and do not allow themselves to be disarmed. However, there was no confrontation with the Red Army. Most of the border guards of the armed forces had only been drafted a few weeks earlier and lacked any combat training. The psychological significance of this mission for the Hungarian refugees who reached Austrian territory and for the people living there was, however, very great.

After the crackdown on the Prague Spring during the Cold War in 1968 , a bunker was built by 1977, which should provide space for the federal government in an emergency. The “ base room operations center ” also included an alternative studio for the ORF and the headquarters for the “ Goldhaube ” air monitoring system, which is still used today in a modernized form .

During the Cold War, Austria developed the concept of space defense, which was also recognized internationally .

The armed forces suffered almost constantly from a lack of money and therefore insufficient equipment and armament. In 1955, Austria's politicians spoke of neutrality based on the Swiss model , but did not even consider increasing defense spending to the usual level in Switzerland. Without ever saying it, the responsible politicians believed that in a major conflict, NATO would come to their aid if necessary .

The armed forces' missions abroad, mostly on the basis of UN mandates, have become important in the last few decades. Austrian soldiers were or are active in Cyprus , in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel, in Bosnia-Herzegovina , in Lebanon and other conflict areas.

Military economy

See also: Austrian arms manufacturers

Several arms companies, which are subject to restrictions due to Austria's neutrality status, still have their headquarters or production facilities in Austria after the majority of the arms industry was destroyed by the Allies either in the course of the First or Second World War . Including the large ammunition factory of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy Wöllersdorfer Werke and the locomotive and armaments manufacturers “ Raxwerke ” and “ Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf ”. Several companies that still exist today were once spun off from the large industrial group Steyr Daimler Puch . This is the firearms manufacturer Steyr Mannlicher , which originally emerged from the Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft , and the military vehicle manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug GmbH , which, among other things, produces the Pandur armored armored vehicles in Austria, which was sold to the US General Dynamics group . In 2005, the Portuguese army ordered 260 units of this, and in February 2006 the Czech Republic ordered 234 units.

The permitted possibilities for the import, export or transit of war material are severely restricted in the Austrian War Material Act. For example, the export of war material to countries that need this war material to implement resolutions of the United Nations Security Council is permitted, with a few other exceptions. However, the interpretation of this and other principles of this constitutional law is extremely different. In 1999, Steyr-Daimler-Puch special vehicles sold 22 tank destroyers and armored personnel carriers to Botswana, although the Federal Chancellery suspected that development aid money was being used for them, and in 2001 66 troop transporters were exported to Zimbabwe, which soon became an arms embargo from the EU got imposed. The firearms manufacturer Steyr Mannlicher, however, was banned from exporting rifles to South America, with reference to terrorist groups operating there. Its STEYR AUG assault rifles have been "export hits" for decades and have already been delivered to dozens of different countries. The export of 800 Steyr HS.50 sniper rifles to Iran, which it claims to need to fight drug-related crime, resulted in an arms embargo by the USA against Steyr-Mannlicher . However, these large-caliber sniper rifles can also be used effectively against lightly armored vehicles up to two kilometers away.

See also: Noricum scandal

The Lower Austrian firearms manufacturer GLOCK represents an exceptional case in the history of the Austrian arms and arms industry . This company was founded in 1963 and, unlike any other armaments company that was founded before 1945, was never state-owned. Also founded by a private individual owned and operated the Vienna is mine detectors and - drones manufacturer Schiebel .

For a long time the most important source of supply for rifles was the rifle factory on Alsergrund in Vienna.

Automotive

See also: Radpanzer (Austria)

Even before the First World War, the use of motor vehicles in the military began in the Danube Monarchy.

monarchy

In 1896, the Technical Military Committee was privately provided with the first Austro-Daimler passenger car for testing. The results of the test drives were given to the War Ministry for evaluation.

The Austro-Hungarian Army had previously purchased a locomobile for test purposes . It was hoped that such tractors would be able to carry out heavy mass transports in the hinterland. The result does not seem to have been convincing, because the Technical Military Committee proposed the purchase of a vehicle with a combustion engine suitable for transporting loads. In March 1898 the company Bierenz, Fischer & Cie delivered the first military truck in Austria .

Over the next few years, the various manufacturers repeatedly made trucks available to the army for testing. In addition to the normal driving characteristics, the army was primarily interested in the suitability as a towing vehicle for the artillery .

The Austro-Daimler company developed an all- wheel -drive armored vehicle in three years of secret work . In 1906 it was presented to the public for the first time and during the 1906 maneuver it was able to demonstrate its capabilities to the top army command. When the engine started for a special presentation on Feldherrnhügel, the horses became shy. In the turmoil, Emperor Franz Joseph I grumbled about the armored car, which was generally rated very well. As a result of the greatest indignation , the sales contract, which was ready for signature, was put on file.

In 1909 a heavy road freight truck was commissioned from Daimler in Wiener Neustadt . The motor car was a gasoline engine and a directly coupled DC - Dynamo equipped. The motor vehicle and all the trailers were powered by electric motors that drove each wheel individually ( wheel hub motors ).

In order to save costs when introducing trucks to the army, the so-called “ subsidy truck ” was launched. The army issued certain technical specifications that the trucks had to meet. The purchase of such trucks by private individuals was subsidized by the army. To do this, the owner had to keep the vehicle in perfect condition for five years, make no changes and, if necessary, make it available to the army administration.

The draft armored tracked vehicle offered by Gunther Burstyn to the War Department in 1911 was rejected. The armored vehicles used by Austria-Hungary later in World War I were armored and machine-gun armed vehicles with wheel drive.

The Puchwerke AG , Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik , Gräf & Stift AG , Austro-Fiat AG , Saurer-Werke AG and the Austrian Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft were domestic vehicle suppliers to the Austro- Hungarian Army.

At the beginning of the war, Austria-Hungary was the country with the best motorized heavy artillery.

Interwar period

In the interwar period, of course, the technical development of motor vehicles continued and also affected motor vehicles for the armed forces.

One could hardly get beyond the development and production of half-track vehicles . Only a small, unarmored tracked vehicle with a man crew and a machine gun as armament was built. For the heavy artillery, tow vehicles with chain drives were purchased. Likewise the tanks, which mostly came from Italy .

Armored wheeled vehicles were developed and produced. After the annexation to the Third Reich , these vehicles were mainly used in the police force.

Österreichische Automobilfabriks AG, Steyr-Werke AG, Saurer-Werke AG, Austro-Daimler-Puch-Werke AG, Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG and Gräf & Stift AG were domestic vehicle suppliers to the Federal Army.

post war period

Cuirassier

During the occupation, the general shortage of motor vehicles, especially transport vehicles, first had to be covered. The vehicles left behind by the Allies after the withdrawal from Austria formed the basis of army vehicles. But vehicles from the Wehrmacht (" Opel Blitz ") were also used.

From post-war Austrian production, the Steyr 480 was one of the first vehicles in the Austrian Armed Forces . First the " Haflinger " (from 1959 ) and later the " Pinzgauer " (from 1973) became internationally famous , both of which come from Steyr Daimler Puch .

Leopard 2A4 (Austrian Armed Forces)

The currently used battle tank " Leopard 2 A4" comes from Germany , while the light tanks are almost 100% Austrian products.

The armored personnel carriers and transport tanks were developed by the Saurer company and are produced and further developed by the Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge (SSF) company.

The “ Kürassier ” tank destroyer , also from SSF, also comes from Austrian development and production . At the same time, the “ Greif ” armored recovery vehicle was constructed.

Current Austrian armored vehicles are the armored transport vehicle (wheeled armored vehicle) " Pandur ", of which 260 pieces were exported to Portugal and 234 pieces to the Czech Republic and the armored personnel carrier " Ulan ". Both armored vehicles are produced and further developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge (SSF).

Air surveillance

After the Second World War, air surveillance began in 1958 with mobile radar devices on Saurer trucks. In the same year the first fixed station was put into operation, in 1960 a second. It was not until 1968 that the radar system could be fully operational, but it was still not able to overlook the entire country. It was not until 1973 that the implementation of a comprehensive air monitoring system, which was later called the Goldhaube , began.

In 1980 years, Saab 35 Draken - interceptor procured for air surveillance. On July 9th, 2004 four F-5E "Tiger II" leased from Switzerland were ceremonially put into operation in Graz-Thalerhof . These are intended to serve as a temporary solution for the time between the decommissioning of the Draken and the delivery of new interceptors. On July 1, 2005, the F-5 jets then completely took over air surveillance in Austria. The procurement of 15 Eurofighters is currently in progress , which will secure the Austrian airspace in the future.

Military facilities

The first imperial arsenal for the manufacture of warships for the Danube was built as early as 1500 . In 1562 another large arms depot was built in Vienna with the Bürgerliches Zeugshaus .

Austria-Hungary:
Military executives were trained at the Austro-Hungarian War School , the Theresian Military Academy , the Austro-Hungarian Franz Joseph Military Academy and the Technical Military Academy. The naval academy existed for the navy . Riding instructors were trained in the Military Riding Instructor Institute . The cadet schools existed as a preparatory school for the military academies . The largest was in today's Theodor Körner command building in Breitensee in Vienna. Research into medicines and remedies for soldiers was carried out in the Military Medicines Directorate in Vienna. The catering of the army was controlled from the military catering establishment . There was also the kuk military fencing and gymnastics instructor institute , as well as the kuk artillery shooting school and the kuk army shooting school See also: List of barracks of the Austrian Armed Forces , military facilities in Vienna

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Legal provision for the War Material Act

literature

  • Peter Fichtenbauer , Christian Ortner : The history of the Austrian army from Maria Theresa to the present in essays and pictorial representations , Verlag Militaria, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902526-71-7
  • Peter Pilz: Die Panzermacher - The Austrian armaments industry and its exports , publisher for social criticism, bv no. 0124297.
  • Walter J. Spielberger: Motor vehicles and tanks of the Austrian army 1896 to today , Motorbuchverlag, ISBN 3-87943-455-7 .

Web links

Commons : Military of Austria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files