Oskar Potiorek

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Oskar Potiorek (born November 20, 1853 in Bleiberg , Carinthia ; † December 17, 1933 in Klagenfurt , Carinthia) was an Austro-Hungarian officer, country chief of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, at the beginning of World War I, supreme commander of the Balkan armed forces of the dual monarchy . He was best known in connection with the assassination attempt in Sarajevo on Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este and with the three failed offensives of Austria-Hungary against Serbia in 1914.

Feldzeugmeister Oskar Potiorek

Life

Potiorek was the son of the mining clerk Paul Potiorek. After attending school he was trained at the Technical Military Academy in St. Pölten from 1867 and at the kuk war school in Vienna from 1875 . On November 1, 1877, he became a general staff officer in the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Vienna. In September and October 1878, during the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was assigned to the General Staff Department of the post-mobilized V Army Corps, then to the 36th Infantry Troop Division. In 1879 he was accepted directly into the General Staff , as its chief from 1881 Friedrich von Beck-Rzikowsky acted. Between November 1, 1883 and May 1, 1886 he led the 3rd Company of Infantry Regiment 17 in Laibach . From 1886 he worked in the office for operational and special general staff work and was promoted to major on May 1, 1887 , and to lieutenant colonel in the general staff on November 1, 1889 . From November 1, 1890 to October 22, 1891 Potiorek led the 4th Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 7 in Klagenfurt. On March 15, 1892, when he returned to Vienna, he assumed the post of head of the operations office. His last active period of service brought him, promoted to major general since May 1, 1898 , to Budapest where he took over command of the 64th Infantry Brigade. In 1902 Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him Deputy Chief of Staff of the Joint Army .

However, in the new order of the Chief of Staff in 1906, the emperor decided not Potiorek but at the request of Archduke heir apparent Franz Ferdinand for Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf . Potiorek was in February 1907 commanding general of III. Corps in Graz and promoted to Feldzeugmeister on November 1st ; the corps garrisons were in Styria , Carinthia , Carniola , Gorizia, and Istria .

On 16 April 1910 Potiorek became the Army inspector in Sarajevo appointed in 1911 by the Emperor as state leader of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered (Governor of any of the two parts of the empire belonging to the country). Now Potiorek had a double function both as civil administration chief, subordinate to the joint finance minister , and as military commander-in-chief of the country (subordinate to the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff).

Assassination attempt in Sarajevo

In 1913 Potiorek invited the heir to the throne to maneuvers in Bosnia, which were carried out on June 26 and 27, 1914 under Potiorek's command in the presence of the Archduke. Potiorek turned down the early departure of the Archduke, planned for security concerns on the evening of June 27 and renouncing the visit to Sarajevo planned for June 28, among other things out of concern for his own prestige.

On the morning of June 28, 1914, two attacks were carried out on Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Duchess von Hohenberg . On the way from Sarajevo's city hall to the garrison hospital, shots were fired at her open limousine, killing both of them. Potiorek as well as Count Franz Harrach , the owner of the car, and his driver, Leopold Lojka , were uninjured, although the assassin, Gavrilo Princip , later stated that he wanted to kill Potiorek with his second shot.

" Potiorek was responsible for the lax security measures, not to mention the fact that after the first attack he had urged that the heir to the throne not be removed from the city immediately ... "

First World War

Regardless of this catastrophe, Potiorek was kept in office by the Emperor and at the beginning of the First World War, which Austria-Hungary had triggered with his declaration of war on Serbia at the end of July 1914 as a result of the July crisis caused by the assassination of the heir to the throne , he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Balkan Forces of the Dual Monarchy.

However, his attempt at the rapid military overthrow of Serbia failed due to poor planning and the bitter Serbian resistance against the Austro-Hungarian army . In three offensives between August and December 1914 Potiorek did not succeed in defeating the Serbian armed forces decisively. Serbia remained undefeated in all major battles ( Battle of Cer in August, Battle of the Drina in September and Battle of Kolubara in November and December of that year) and finally forced the invaders to retreat to their own territory.

The Serbian army, often reviled by the Austro-Hungarian advocates of war, which was inferior in soldiers and resources to the Austro-Hungarian and additionally weakened by the two Balkan wars , inflicted losses of more than 200,000 on the kuk Balkan armed forces, which numbered around 460,000 at the start of the war Dead and over 170,000 wounded and sick due to extremely bad weather in the field). 70,000 other Austro-Hungarian soldiers were taken prisoner by Serbians.

Potiorek had in its planning the logistics neglected and his soldiers claimed: Belief in the war-crucial role of will power and recklessness in the use of which he commands troops were particularly evident in Potiorek to light ... . After the failure of his last offensive against Serbia, he was finally removed from his post on January 1, 1915 and retired at the same time.

After the war

Potiorek, who at times had thoughts of suicide due to his dismissal, lived secluded in Klagenfurt until his death. Potiorek kept the sofa on which heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand was laid after the assassination and on which he died a little later in his apartment. It can be seen today in the Army History Museum in Vienna.

Oskar Potiorek died on December 17, 1933 after several strokes and was buried in the Annabichl cemetery (since 1938 a district of Klagenfurt). In 1966 his remains were transferred to the cemetery of the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt .

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ A b c Anton Kreuzer: Carinthian Biographical Sketches . Kärntner Druck und Verlagsgesellschaft, Klagenfurt 1995, ISBN 3-85391-128-5 , pp. 35-39.
  2. 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. 462.
  3. a b Manfried Rauchsteiner : The death of the double-headed eagle. Austria-Hungary and the First World War. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1993, p. 187.
  4. 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. 521.
  5. ^ Rudolf Jeřábek: Potiorek. General in the shadow of Sarajevo. Styria, Graz / Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-222-12067-6 , p. 214 ff.