Stephan Sarkotić from Lovćen

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Stephan Freiherr Sarkotić von Lovćen or Stjepan barun Sarkotić Lovćenski (born October 4, 1858 in Sinac near Otočac , † October 16, 1939 in Vienna ) was Colonel General of the Austro-Hungarian Army and military governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the First World War .

Sarkotić in uniform as Lieutenant Field Marshal (1915)

Life

Education and military career

Sarkotić came from a Croatian officer family. His father Mathias Sarkotić served in the 2nd border regiment of Otočac . He attended high school in Senj and graduated from the Theresian Military Academy by 1879 and attended the Vienna War School from 1882–84 . His military service began in the 16th Infantry Regiment in Trebinje . In 1886 he was transferred to the 1st Mountain Brigade in Mostar . In 1889 he was promoted to captain . He then traveled to the neighboring states of Serbia , Bulgaria and the then Ottoman Macedonia as a military envoy of the Habsburg Monarchy . With the rank of major , he served in the 7th Infantry Regiment in Osijek . Between 1900 and 1903 he was head of the Pola Naval Port Command . During this time he was promoted to colonel . On June 6, 1910, Sarkotić was raised to the Hungarian hereditary nobility. In April 1912, Sarkotić also took command of the 6th Hungarian Landwehr District (Honvéd) .

First World War

With the beginning of the First World War Sarkotić was one of the main commanders of the Austro-Hungarian troops. In the campaign against Serbia during the Battle of the Drina in September 1914 (as part of the 5th Army ) he commanded the 42nd Honved Infantry Division in the Zvornik area . After the failure of the offensives against Serbia, Sarkotić was appointed supreme general and governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina on January 1, 1915 as the successor to the unsuccessful Oskar Potiorek . This made him the first representative of the emperor in Bosnia and Herzegovina of Croatian descent.

Sarkotić was a staunch opponent of the creation of a unified South Slav state outside the Habsburg monarchy. Instead, he advocated the unification of the Austrian crown land Dalmatia with the Hungarian part belonging to Croatia-Slavonia .

As the country chief of Bosnia-Herzegovina, he carried out extensive repression measures against alleged or actual Serbian separatists in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Around 5,000 Serb families were evicted, 3,000 to 5,000 Bosnian Serbs were imprisoned, many of whom died. The conditions in the internment camps were considered inhuman. The lifting of hostages was the order of the day to protect militarily important objects and transports. Sarkotić forbade the use of the Cyrillic script outside the Orthodox churches , Serbian associations were liquidated and strict press and letter censorship was introduced. Political life stood still, the Bosnian state parliament was finally dissolved. Trials for treason as the Banja Luka process against 151 accused were carried out.

In January 1916, Sarkotić led the campaign against the Kingdom of Montenegro from the naval base in Kotor . His troops attacked the Montenegrins near the Lovćen Mountains. The Lovćen was conquered within two days and the Montenegrin capital Cetinje three days later . For this military success, Sarkotić was awarded the Leopold Order, First Class. With the resolution of the monarch of January 2, 1917, Sarkotić was elevated to the status of a Hungarian baron ; on June 9, 1917 he also received the addition of Lovćen to his name . The corresponding baron diploma was issued on July 23, 1918 in Vienna. In November 1917 he was promoted to colonel general.

At a conference in Sarajevo with the military governor of Serbia Baron Rhemen and the military governor of Montenegro Heinrich Clam-Martinic on May 13 and 14, 1918, Sarkotić spoke out in favor of Serbia, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as a unified national territory to unite the monarchy. Croatia and Slavonia were not included.

At the Council of Ministers on May 30, 1918, Sarkotić was of the opinion that the majority of the Serbian and Muslim population of Bosnia-Herzegovina would speak out in favor of joining Hungary . The South Slav question will only be resolved through the annexation of Serbia and Montenegro. An independent Serbia, supported by the Entente , would be a “hearth of perpetual intrigues” against the monarchy. According to this, all southern Slavs are to be divided between Austria and Hungary for “digestion”, the Croats with Austria, the Serbs with Hungary.

Sarkotić's grave in Vienna's central cemetery

After the war

Sarkotić remained the Paladin of Bosnia-Herzegovina until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary , declared his resignation on November 1, 1918 and left Sarajevo on November 6. After a brief imprisonment in Agram , he ended up in Vienna.

After moving to Vienna, he joined groups in exile in Croatia to organize resistance against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . He frequently wrote articles in the Austrian Reichspost that were directed against the Yugoslav kings Petar Karađorđević and Alexander I. Karađorđević .

Sarkotić's exile lasted until the end of his life. He died in Vienna in 1939, shortly after the start of the Second World War , and was buried in a crypt niche in Vienna's central cemetery in the "Neue Arkaden" next to the cemetery church of St. Karl Borromeo.

Fonts

  • The Russian War Theater. Strategic and geographic study . Vienna 1894.
  • Yugoslavia . Fromme publishing house, Vienna 1919.
  • The Banjaluka Trial. German translation based on the Croatian original text checked by the Oriental Seminar in Berlin . 2 volumes, publisher, Working Committee of German Associations, Berlin 1933.

literature

  • Otto Friedrich Winter :  Sarkotić by Lovčen Stefan Baron. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 424 f. (Direct links on p. 424 , p. 425 ).
  • Ernest Bauer: The last paladin of the empire. Colonel General Stefan Frhr. Sarkotić from Lovćen . Verlag Styria, Graz 1988, ISBN 3-222-11782-9 .
  • Signe Klein: Baron Sarkotić von Lovćen. The time of his administration in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1914 to 1918 . Rough Dissertation, Vienna 1969.
  • Marc Stefan Peters: Stefan Freiherr von Sarkotić and the South Slavic question in the Danube monarchy. Austria-Hungary's last commanding general and country chief of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a political officer in the First World War . Rough Dissertation, Vienna 2005. Abstract

Web links

Commons : Stefan Sarkotic from Lovcen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spencer Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of World War I. A Political, Social and Military History . ABC-Clio Verlag, Santa Barbara 2005, ISBN 1-85109-420-2 , p. 1053.
  2. ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Karl I / IV. Károly király (1916-1921) , Graz 2016, p. 198 ( ISBN 978-3-9504153-1-5 ).
  3. ↑ Spencer Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of World War I. A Political, Social and Military History . ABC-Clio Verlag, Santa Barbara 2005, ISBN 1-85109-420-2 , p. 1053.
  4. ↑ Austria-Hungary's last war. Volume 1, Vienna 1930, p. 616 f.
  5. ^ Noel Malcolm: History of Bosnia. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-10-029202-2 , p. 187.
  6. ^ Richard Georg Plaschka: Two southern Slavs on the threshold from 1918 . In: Richard Georg Plaschka, Horst Haselsteiner (Ed.): Nationalism, State Authority, Resistance. Aspects of national and social development in East Central and Southeast Europe . Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-486-52831-9 , pp. 324–333, here pp. 330f.
  7. ↑ Spencer Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of World War I. A Political, Social and Military History . ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2005, ISBN 1-85109-420-2 , pp. 1053f.
  8. ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Karl I / IV. Károly király (1916-1921) , Graz 2016, p. 198 ( ISBN 978-3-9504153-1-5 ).
  9. ↑ Spencer Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of World War I. A Political, Social and Military History . ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2005, ISBN 1-85109-420-2 , pp. 1053f.
  10. ^ Felix Höglinger: Prime Minister Count Clam-Martinic . Böhlau, Vienna / Graz / Cologne 1964, p. 215.
  11. ↑ Miklós Komjáthy (Ed.): Protocols of the Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1914–1918) . Budapest 1966, p. 661ff.
  12. ^ Richard Georg Plaschka: Two southern Slavs on the threshold from 1918 . In: Richard Georg Plaschka, Horst Haselsteiner (Ed.): Nationalism, State Authority, Resistance. Aspects of national and social development in East Central and Southeast Europe . Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-486-52831-9 , pp. 324–333, here pp. 332f.
personal data
SURNAME Sarkotić from Lovćen, Stephan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sarkotić, Stjepan barun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Colonel General
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Sinac near Otočac
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1939
Place of death Vienna