Samuel of Hazai

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Samuel Freiherr von Hazai as Colonel General

Samuel Hazai , from 1912 Baron von Hazai (born December 26, 1851 in Rimaszombat , Hungary , † February 13, 1942 in Budapest ) was Colonel General of the Austro-Hungarian Austro-Hungarian Army . He was also known as the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Habsburg army.

family

Samuel Baron von Hazai was born Samu Khon in Rimaszombat in 1851. When his father converted to Christianity , he also changed his name to Khon-Hazai. In 1876 he finally took the name Samuel Hazai.

Life

Education and career before the war

He began his military career in the Ludovica Military Academy in Budapest , which he as at November 1, 1874 Cadet 51. towards Honvéd - infantry battalion left. On May 1, 1876, he was placed as a lieutenant in active service with the Honvéd. From 1879 to 1881 he graduated from the kuk war school in Vienna with "excellent results" and was promoted to first lieutenant on May 1, 1883 . Then Samuel Hazai married Maria Juhasz, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. In 1886 he got his first job in the Hungarian Honvéd Ministry . With the exception of only brief breaks for the troop service, he spent much of his military career in this ministry. His theoretical skills were recognized very quickly, which earned him a position as a trainer at the Ludovika Academy. In 1888 he was promoted to captain 2nd class, followed by captain 1st class on September 1, 1889. On May 1, 1895, he was promoted to major , and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on November 1, 1897. In 1900 he was named Instructor to the school for higher-ranking Honvéd officers, the ku Landwehr staff officer course, transferred. The appointment as colonel took place on November 1 of the same year.

In 1902 he took over command of the ku Landwehr staff officer course and was responsible for the quality of the education of all higher-ranking officers in the Royal Hungarian Armed Forces. In autumn 1904 he returned to the Honvéd Ministry as head of the first department. On May 1, 1907, Hazai was named major general. The Hungarian Prime Minister Stefan Tisza was very impressed by his ideas and his work for the Honvéd and subsequently protected him from any political ambushes. When the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and the chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff Conrad von Hötzendorf reorganized the army around 1907, they made the modern-minded Friedrich Freiherr von Georgi the Imperial and Royal Austrian Minister for National Defense , and Samuel von Hazai, unsurprisingly, the royal Hungarian counterpart . Both young generals represented a new period in territorial defense. In January 1910, Samuel Hazai was made Honvédminister, followed by his promotion to Field Marshal Lieutenant on November 1, 1910. Similar to Georgi, he increased the quality of officer training within the Royal Hungarian Armed Forces and tried to raise more money for his ministry. The latter endeavor turned out to be very difficult (also for political reasons) as the Hungarian politicians were not very generous financially. It was not until March 1913, five years later when Georgi made it into the Austrian half of the empire, that Hazai was able to provide the Honvéds with an artillery weapon. Because of his achievements, he was raised to the status of a Hungarian baron on December 12, 1912 .

First World War

It is in the nature of the position of Secretary of Defense to be a little more politician than officer. But under the circumstances, in Hazai's case, it was the dominant factor. When the war started, Hazai was in the meantime promoted to general of the infantry on November 1, 1914 , he had big problems with the Hungarian politicians. They were often of the opinion that the Hungarians invested more resources in the war and that more Hungarian soldiers lost their lives than other peoples of the Danube monarchy did. Hazai found himself in the dilemma of fulfilling his duties as defense minister on the one hand and sending urgently needed personnel and material to the front, and on the other hand appeasing the Hungarian opposition. Sometimes it seemed as if only the Emperor and the Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza supported him in this delicate task.

In 1916 he was appointed Colonel Owner of Infantry Regiment No. 46 by the Emperor. His extremely difficult position in the monarchy is also expressed in the fact that, as one of the most important Hungarian politicians, he was never presented with the Order of St. Stephen . The problem with the supply of material and soldiers for the front became worse and worse, especially in Hungary, so that the new emperor Karl appointed the general of the infantry Hazai in February 1917 as chief of the substitute system for the entire armed force . It was a good decision to transfer the competencies for material replenishment and the substitute teams into one hand and to fill this post with a Hungarian. A less fortunate decision by the emperor was shown by the fact that he did not inform the persons previously responsible for these measures. As a result, Hazai faced many unexpected problems. On February 19, 1917, the emperor deposed him as Honvédminister and awarded him a second time the Great Military Merit Medal in gold to give him more time for his new post as substitute chief. Due to his diplomatic talent, however, he was able to cope with the initial problems of his new office. On November 1, 1917, he was promoted to Colonel General due to seniority . Soon he set up a central office for replenishment and so-called branch offices in Vienna . Colonel-General Hazai remained in this important post until the end of the war. After the collapse of the monarchy, he moved to Budapest, where he lived until his death in 1942.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Born as Samu Khon, he took the baptismal name Khon-Hazai, which he changed to Hazai in 1876.
  2. ↑ Hungarian ennoblement as báró Hazai Samu, dubbed Freiherr in German-language documents.
personal data
SURNAME Hazai, Samuel of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hazai, Samuel Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian general
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Rimaszombat, Hungary
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1942
Place of death Budapest