Alexander von Brosch-Aarenau

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Portrait of Alexander von Brosch-Aarenau by Hugo von Bouvard , Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna.

Alexander Brosch Edler von Aarenau (born October 8, 1870 in Temesvár , † September 7, 1914 near Hujcze / Rawa-Ruska , Galicia ) was an Austro-Hungarian officer. Brosch gained importance above all as the head of the military chancellery of the Archduke heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand , who influenced army, naval and foreign policy and prepared the time after the crown prince's accession to the throne.

Live and act

Youth and military career

Brosch, whose brother was General Theodor Brosch-Aarenau (1869-1944), graduated from the Technical Military Academy and in 1890 became lieutenant-genius. In 1895 he joined the General Staff, was appointed pioneer captain in 1897 and in 1899 he was appointed to the War Ministry . From 1906 to 1911 he was a major and lieutenant colonel in the wing of the Archduke heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand , who himself had selected him from a number of candidates, and head of his military chancellery in the Lower Belvedere in Vienna . The military chancellery of the heir to the throne - a kind of shadow government that was supposed to prepare the Crown Prince's foreseeable accession to power - was called a "small military chancellery" to distinguish it from the military chancellery of the emperor.

In 1911, Brosch was appointed commander of the 2nd regiment of the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger in Bozen by the Kaiser . He himself stated that he had sought a commando in order not to be accused of "troop shy"; but it was also suspected that opponents of Franz Ferdinand wanted to weaken this by removing his most important advisor. Franz Joseph I , who knew about the intensive support of the heir to the throne and his ideas, which often did not agree with the views of the emperor, is said to have amazed him at his inaugural audience as regimental commander with the statement " You have fought against me for six years ".

Political activity

Brosch was one of the most influential and important personalities in Franz Ferdinand's environment, and he enjoyed his full trust. The heir to the throne, who abhorred lasciviousness and affection, appreciated the openness and straightforwardness of Brosch and that he did not shy away from contradicting him - albeit with the necessary respect and tact. He knew all the more to appreciate the advice and views of his wing adjutant, who even had to take on the unpopular audiences of the heir to the throne. Brosch-Aarenau was only able to do this because he was an excellent expert on people and his political views were completely identical to those of the heir to the throne.

Brosch was generally considered to be the engine of the Archduke's military chancellery. Vladimir Dedijer described how this institution works as follows:

“The military chancellery contacted all ministries in Vienna and asked them for reports on their work and important political transactions. Before the military chancellery was opened, the Archduke had complained in 1905 that "he had to find out everything from the newspaper first, that the emperor did not hear him and that he learned less than 'the last house servant in Schönbrunn ". [...] Under the skilful direction of Colonel Brosch, the military chancellery developed into a first-class observation post from which one could follow the events in the Reich. "

Brosch developed the military and political power of the Archduke with great diplomatic skill and made arrangements for the time after the change of the throne. With a team, he designed a program to change the throne (a later version developed under Brosch's successor Carl von Bardolff is preserved in Franz Ferdinand's estate), which took into account possible resistance to Franz Ferdinand's planned changes in constitutional law. Heinrich Lammasch , who was involved in the concept, is quoted as saying: “Everything was determined in every detail like a campaign plan, except for the list of the telegraph offices that were supposed to be on night duty. It was also determined which garrisons (especially in Hungary) should be reinforced. "

The agendas of the “small military chancellery” supervised by Brosch also included contacts with domestic and foreign newspapers, in which the heir's thoughts were repeatedly published. In Vienna, Franz Ferdinand and Brosch were primarily associated with the Christian social daily newspaper " Reichspost ", whose editor-in-chief Friedrich Funder had gained Franz Ferdinand's trust and was friends with Brosch.

death

Gordon Brook-Shepherd , Maximilian Polatschek and other biographers of the Archduke stated that after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand - whose accession to the throne he saw as the last chance to save the Danube monarchy - on June 28, 1914 in the wake of the assassination attempt in Sarajevo , Brosch was inwardly resigned and out of desperation about the “inevitably gloomy future” of the Habsburg Empire, I sought death at the front.

Friedrich Funder reported that he had as a “precious souvenir the letter he wrote to me after the assassination of the heir to the throne from Bolzano: There is no more hope for me. It's all over. For me life has lost its meaning. According to other sources, the “hunt for the Maria Theresa Order ” played an important role, in which the now unprotected brooch exposed himself and his teams to unnecessary risk.

At the beginning of the First World War , Brosch led his regiment into the field as a colonel and, fighting at its head, fell in a battle near Hujcze- Rawa Ruska in Galicia as early as the fifth week of the war . Funder received details from Field Curate Dr. Karl Drexel , a former Christian Socialist MP, reports. The battalion was trapped in a swampy depression by the enemy that night. The Tyroleans did not surrender. They fought until they ran out of ammunition. Drexel was one of the very few who fell into the hands of the Russians as prisoners. The chapter of the Maria Theresa Order awarded “Colonel Alexander Brosch Edlem von Aarenau” the golden honorary commemorative medal for bravery “for the successful attack on the Russian camp near Hujcze and for the exemplary, heroic and probably only self-sacrificing endurance [ ...] from September 6th to 7th 1914, which made it possible for the entire 3rd Infantry Troop Division to be saved from enemy encirclement [...] [...]. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the use of the title of nobility analogous to FM. Conrad
  2. ^ Friedrich Weissensteiner : Franz Ferdinand. The prevented ruler. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-215-04828-0 , p. 159.
  3. ↑ Vladimir Dedijer : The time bomb. Sarajevo 1914. (American original: The Road to Sarajevo. ) Europa Verlag, Vienna 1967, p. 208.
  4. ^ Friedrich Weissensteiner: Franz Ferdinand. The prevented ruler. 1983, p. 191 ff.
  5. ↑ Friedrich Funder: From yesterday to today. From the Empire to the Republic. Herold Verlag, Vienna 1971, p. 384.
  6. ↑ Günther Kronenbitter : "War in Peace". The leadership of the Austro-Hungarian army and the great power politics of Austria-Hungary 1906–1914. Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56700-4 , p. 522
  7. ↑ Friedrich Funder: From yesterday to today. From the Empire to the Republic. 1971, p. 384 f.
personal data
SURNAME Brosch-Aarenau, Alexander von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aarenau, Alexander Brosch Edler von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian officer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Temesvár
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1914
Place of death near Hujcze, Rawa-Ruska , Galicia