Viktor Dankl

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Viktor Julius Ignaz Ferdinand Dankl , from 1917 Freiherr von Dankl , from 1918 Count Dankl von Kraśnik , from 1919 Viktor Dankl (born September 18, 1854 in Udine ( Veneto ), † January 8, 1941 in Innsbruck ), was a Colonel General of the Austria Hungarian army .

Dankl as Lieutenant Field Marshal (photography by Eugen Schöfer)

Life

Born as Victor Dankl, he was the son of one of Vienna originating captain of the Imperial Army . After his father resigned in 1865, the family moved to Gorizia and later to Trieste . Dankl attended the German grammar school in both cities. At the age of fourteen he entered the Austro-Hungarian cadet institute in St. Pölten in 1869 and switched from there to the Maria Theresa Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt in 1870 .

In 1873 he was promoted to lieutenant and got a job with the Dragoon Regiment "King Albert" No. 3 in Enns . Dankl attended the war school in Vienna from 1877 to 1879 and was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Brigade in Prague as a general staff officer on December 1, 1880 . In 1883 he was transferred to the headquarters of the 32nd Infantry Troop Division in Budapest .

In the meantime, Lieutenant Colonel in the Bohemian Uhlan Regiment "Alexander II. Emperor of Russia" No. 11 , Dankl in 1896 was Chief of Staff of the XIII. Army corps appointed in Agram . In 1899 he was appointed head of the central bureau of the kuk staff in Vienna. With the promotion to major general on May 16, 1903, he was given command of the 66th Infantry Brigade in Komárom . In 1905 he was given command of the 16th Infantry Brigade in Trento . In connection with the promotion to field marshal lieutenant in 1907 he became commander of the 36th Infantry Division in Agram. Dankl reached the last stage of his military career before the outbreak of the First World War when he was in command of the XIV Army Corps in Innsbruck - thus responsible for North , South and Western Tyrol .

First World War

180th doctorate of the Military Maria Theresa Order on August 17, 1917 in the Villa Wartholz (Colonel General Dankl on the far left, with a commander's cross around his neck)

Promoted to General of the Cavalry on October 29, 1912 , he was given command of the 1st Army , consisting of the 1st, 5th and Xth Army Corps, during the mobilization in 1914 . With that, Dankl fought for the first victory of the Austro-Hungarian over the Russian army in the battle of Kraśnik in Galicia from 23 to 25 August 1914 and advanced with his troops to Lublin . After that attacked Dankls 1st Army during the Battle of the Vistula from 23 October with the V Corps on the right and the I Corps on the left wing against the line radome Ivangorod , but failed because of the tough Russian resistance. On October 27th the 1st Army had to retreat, which the cavalry of General Leopold von Hauer covered back to Ostrowiec via Radom. On October 31, Dankl stopped his retreat on Opatówka and then headed the defensive front north of Krakow until May 1915 .

In May 1915 Dankl was transferred to the Italian front and took over command of the defense of Tyrol . With the actually completely inadequate forces at his disposal there, he nevertheless managed to stop the attacks by the Italians until reinforcements arrived from the northeast front. In March 1916 he was given command of the 11th Army , which was concentrated in Trentino . Promoted to Colonel General on May 1, 1916, he headed the South Tyrol Offensive from mid-May . The 11th Army attacked south of Rovereto against the Zugna Torta and across the plateau of Folgaria against the line Arsiero and Asiago . Almost all of Vallarsa had been conquered by the beginning of June , as well as the Col Santo massif to Monte Pasubio and the Val Posino south of Arsiero.

Dankl's grave in the cemetery of the Wilten basilica .

For health reasons, he handed over command of his units to Colonel General Franz Rohr von Denta on June 17, 1916 . He was made available after a serious larynx operation and no longer took active command.

Honors

Coat of arms of Count Dankl von Krasnik, 1918

Dankl became an honorary captain of the Arcièren bodyguard and then, on behalf of Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, colonel of all bodyguards . He was also appointed to the Privy Council and D. hc of the University of Innsbruck . On November 10, 1918, just before the end of the monarchy, he was raised to the rank of count after he had received the hereditary Austrian baron status and the title "von Krasnik" in connection with the award of the Military Maria Theresa Order in 1917 . A few months later, in April 1919, it was decided to abolish the nobility .

After the war, Dankl was the protector of the building of the hero monument in the Outer Burgtor (Vienna) . In 1925 he became Chancellor of the Military Maria Theresa Order and President of the Legitimist Association of the Reichsbund der Österreicher .

reception

After the Austro-Hungarian collapse and the formation of the Republic of German-Austria , mystifying war reports quickly began to overlay the actual war misery. The uncritical, respectful portrayal of former army commanders also affected Viktor Dankl, who was described in the 1925 yearbook of the Kaiserschützenbund as “a genuinely Austrian soldier, a leader in the full meaning of the word” and as a “general who was always revered by his soldiers”. This type of historical instrumentalization dominated in the interwar period and was decisively shaped by legitimizing publications such as in particular the memoirs of the former chief of the general staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The title was made bourgeois on the basis of the "Law on the Abolition of the Nobility, Secular Knights and Ladies Orders and Certain Titles and Dignities" of the Republic of Austria (Nobility Repeal Act ) of April 3, 1919 with effect from April 10, 1919.
  2. ↑ a b Dankl by Krasnik Viktor Graf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 169.
  3. ↑ Laurence Cole: Land Divided and Tales Separated . In: Hannes Obermair u. a. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion. Festschrift for Hans Heiss (=  Cittadini innanzi tutto ). Folio Verlag, Vienna-Bozen 2012, ISBN 978-3-85256-618-4 , p. 502-531, here: p. 509 .

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Dankl, Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dankl von Krasnik, Viktor Karl Graf; Dankl, Viktor (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colonel General of the Austro-Hungarian Army
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Udine
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1941
Place of death innsbruck