Alfred Jansa

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Alfred Jansa (born July 16, 1884 in Stanislau , Galicia , Austria-Hungary as Alfred Johann Theophil Janša Edler von Tannenau ; † December 20, 1963 in Vienna ) was a leading officer in the army in the First Republic. He reached the rank of field marshal lieutenant and was chief of the general staff from 1935 until his forced retirement in 1938 .

Kuk officer

After completing the cadet school, Alfred Jansa entered the kuk infantry regiment No. 72 in Pozsony / Preßburg (Bratislava) and attended the war school from 1908 to 1911 . On November 1, 1912, he was taken over as a captain in the general staff of the army and assigned to the staff of the army inspector and country chief of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Feldzeugmeister Oskar Potiorek , in Sarajevo . There he witnessed the assassination of the heir to the throne and the start of the war in 1914.

During the First World War he was a general staff officer in almost all theaters of war. His three-time assignment to German staffs was not unimportant. From September 1915 to February 1916 he was assigned to the staff of Field Marshal August von Mackensen in the Balkans , whose trust he was able to earn. There he also met his chief of staff, General von Seeckt , who was to lead the development of the German Reichswehr after 1918 . He later also worked for the staff of the German General Otto von Below in Macedonia . He spent much of 1917 with Austro-Hungarian units on the Russian front . In 1918 he was finally assigned to the German Army High Command 14 of General Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen on the Italian front as a liaison officer.

Armament against Hitler's threats

After the war in the army of the First Republic adopted, he was appointed as Colonel Chief of Staff of the 3rd Brigade in St. Pölten . Promoted to major general on June 28, 1930 , he took command of the brigade , which he led until 1932. At the beginning of 1933 he was sent to the Geneva Disarmament Conference as a delegate from Austria . He was then appointed as a military attaché in the German Reich , where he was also accredited in Switzerland . Thanks to his excellent connections from the time of the First World War, he not only received in-depth knowledge of the armament of the armed forces that began after 1935 , but was also able to get an accurate picture of the National Socialist regime . He became fully aware of the danger posed by Hitler's Germany . In 1935 he was recalled from Berlin by the dictatorship government under Kurt Schuschnigg and from June 1st he was entrusted with the management of Section III of the Federal Ministry for National Defense . He was thus de facto Chief of the General Staff , even if the title was officially only awarded to him with the introduction of compulsory federal service on April 1, 1936.

He saw the rapid build-up of the army as his main task in order to make it able to defend itself against the German Reich. According to his estimates, an attack by Hitler was to be expected from 1939 onwards . However, there was insufficient budget for his far-reaching plans. A concept for the defense ("Jansa Plan") was worked out, and he tried above all to win support from Italy . A fastening system was also planned, but this was no longer implemented until 1938. Operationally, Jansa planned to defend against the German attackers on the Traunlinie , whereby it was important for him to gain time while avoiding a decisive battle until other countries - especially Italy - could intervene.

His clear rejection of the Third Reich and his energetic defensive demands were well known to the German leadership. It was therefore not surprising that Hitler's demands in the Berchtesgaden Agreement with Schuschnigg on February 12, 1938 also included the recall of Lieutenant Field Marshal Jansa from his post. This and his replacement by Major General Franz Böhme was recorded as point 8 of the agreement. Schuschnigg had given in so as not to irritate Hitler even more by maintaining a representative of a "hard line" against Germany, although he consoled himself with the fact that Jansa had reached the age limit anyway. The general was not officially informed of this decision. He found out about it from the media and from private sources and immediately submitted his resignation.

On February 16, 1938, Jansa made his farewell visit to the Commander- in -Chief, Federal President Miklas , who said with regret that Schuschnigg did not want any military resistance against Nazi Germany. On February 17th, he was presented with his retirement decree. With Jansa's departure, one of the pillars of Austrian resistance to Hitler's plans collapsed.

time of the nationalsocialism

Jansa wrote in his memoirs about his treatment after the “Anschluss” :

“For me personally, the Duce has retained his appreciation and the loyalty that was sealed with a handshake at Easter 1936: fruit. Liebitzky occasionally informed me of his recall in March 1938 that the latter had informed him of a telegram to Hitler stating that “General Jansa should not be touched a hair”. [...] If I experienced an incredibly mild treatment in relation to other terrible events, which was limited to a reduction in salary, expulsion from Austria and consolation in Erfurt , yes, if I am able to write down these memories today, I only thank the Duce's intercession, whose benevolence meant more to Hitler than the head of a general. "

On September 28, 1938, the Gestapo Vienna presented Alfred Jansa with two orders from Heydrich : the expulsion “from all countries in Austria” and the forced stay in Erfurt from September 30th. Jansa had to keep both orders secret under threat of being sent to the concentration camp . When his officer's pension was cut by a third in 1939 because he had stood up against National Socialism before 1938, he improved his pension as an insurance agent for the Gerling Group in order to be able to finance the studies of his daughters, who were brought in from Vienna. In 1943 he was banned from traveling as a representative. Now he worked for an auto parts distributor.

After the Second World War

In 1945 he was visited by Austrian prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp near Erfurt and thanked him for his moral support. He stayed in Erfurt for the time being even after the occupation was transferred from the US Army to the Red Army in order to save his home furnishings in Austria, but soon had to give up and moved to Graz in spring 1946 and from there to Vienna in early 1947 .

On January 15, 1947, Jansa was invited to talks about the future Austrian Armed Forces with Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl , Foreign Minister Karl Gruber and State Secretary Ferdinand Graf . At the time, these ÖVP politicians expected the early conclusion of the state treaty with the four occupying powers and wanted to appoint Jansa to the head of the new army. Until his 70th birthday in 1954, Jansa worked for the car parts sales branch in Vienna, for which he had already worked in Erfurt.

The Federal Army of the Second Republic , which could not be established until 1955 and, according to Jansa's memories, was created based on a concept drawn up in 1947, honors the last Chief of Staff of the First Republic with the name of the Jansa barracks in Großmittel near Wiener Neustadt .

Military awards (as of 1933)

Autobiography

  1. ↑ Alfred Jansa: From my life , written down to 1954 and 1962, Chapter X

literature

  • L. Jedlicka: An army in the shadow of the parties . Graz-Cologne 1955
  • N / A: The Armed Forces of the Republic of Austria 1918–1968 . Catalog for the special exhibition of the Army History Museum, Vienna 1968 (with additional literature)
  • L. Jedlicka: New Austrian Biography . Vol. XIX, Vienna 1977
  • J. Hafner: Lieutenant Field Marshal A. Jansa . Dissertation, Vienna 1990

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Jansa, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jansa von Tannenau, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Field Marshal Lieutenant in Austria
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Ivano-Frankivsk , Galicia , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1963
Place of death Vienna , Austria