Attack at Temes Kubin

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The attack at Temes Kubin (today: Kovin in Serbia ) is a battle that never took place, but played a role in the declaration of war by Emperor Franz Joseph on July 27, 1914 against Serbia .

The attack and the declaration of war on Serbia

After the assassination in Sarajevo Serbia had one of Austria-Hungary posed ultimatum from the perspective of imperial answered -Monarchie only insufficient, the government served as an opportunity to declare war on the neighboring country. Foreign Minister Leopold Berchtold presented to the Kaiser on July 27, 1914 in Bad Ischl the declaration of war, which had already been prepared around July 20, for signature. Prior to this, according to the file note, he reported to the monarch:

“According to a report from the 4th Corps Command, Serbian troops from Danube steamers near Temes-Kubin fired at our troops yesterday and there was a major skirmish when the fire was returned. The hostilities have hereby actually been opened and it therefore seems all the more imperative to secure the freedom of movement for the army in terms of international law which it only has when a state of war arises. ... "

Draft of the declaration of war of July 27, 1914 with the words of Emperor Franz Joseph. Foreign Minister Berchtold subsequently crossed out the reference to the battle at Temes Kubin and sent the declaration of war in this arbitrarily modified version.

The draft of the text of the declaration of war submitted to the emperor and signed by him also contained a reference to this Serbian attack. The mysterious battle at Temes Kubin (Kevevára) on the north bank of the Danube across from Semendria ( Smederevo ) does not seem to have taken place or the related report of the IV Corps to Vienna was wrong or exaggerated. On July 26, there was only the stopping of a river steamer by the 14th Infantry Brigade's own fire, which was released again after an investigation, and from the Serbian Semendria the shelling of its own steamers, which were hit but not damaged. In any case, before the publication of the declaration of war, Foreign Minister Berchtold, who had now returned to Vienna, deleted the passage about Temes Kubin from the declaration of war signed by the emperor on the morning of July 28, 1914.

On the afternoon of July 28, the declaration of war was sent to Belgrade by telegraph via Romania . Only in the course of July 29th, after everything had taken its course with the "improved" declaration of war (and Emperor Franz Josef, for example, telegraphed King Carol of Romania on July 28th that he was forced to open hostilities against Serbia, after they not only failed to meet the demands, but also “provoked a battle without a previous declaration of war”) Berchtold reported to the emperor himself that “the news of a battle at Temes Kubin received no confirmation, but only a single report of a minor skirmish at Gradište “and the declaration of war signed by the emperor was subsequently manipulated, to which the emperor reacted extremely indignantly, according to his wing adjutant Catinelli.

Some contemporaries and historians asserted that the process was a deliberate deception by Berchtold, but it is now considered unlikely. The emperor did not first have to be persuaded to go to war, but was already determined to do so. For the decision to go to war within the Austro-Hungarian leadership, the phantom battle was ultimately not of great importance. Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia marked the beginning of the First World War .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfried Rauchsteiner : The death of the double-headed eagle. Austria-Hungary and the First World War . Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-222-12116-8 , p. 92.
  2. ^ A b Wolfdieter Bihl : The First World War 1914–1918. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78379-4 , p. 50 .
  3. ↑ Manfried Rauchsteiner: The Death of the Double Eagle: Austria-Hungary and the First World War . Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-222-12116-8 , p. 93f.
  4. ^ Alma Hannig: Franz Ferdinand. The biography. Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-85002-845-5 ( excerpt from Google Books ).
  5. ↑ 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. 483.