Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna

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Colonel Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna 1915 (Drawing: Oskar Brüch )

Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna (born July 3, 1875 in Linz , † September 18, 1926 in Frankfurt an der Oder ) was an Austrian officer and head of the Austro-Hungarian war press headquarters .

Life

Young years and military career until 1914

Eisner-Bubna, then just Eisner, was born in Linz on July 3, 1875, the son of an imperial and royal liner ensign. He first attended the military secondary school in Eisenstadt, followed by the military high school in Mährisch Weißkirchen . He graduated from the Theresian Military Academy in 1895 with a “very good success” and was then appointed as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army to Feldjäger Battalion No. 30 in Brody , where he served from 1895 to 1898. From 1898 to 1900 he attended the kuk war school in Vienna , which he graduated with "excellent success". In 1899 he was promoted to first lieutenant.

After completing the Austro-Hungarian War School, Wilhelm Eisner served from 1900 to 1901 as an officer in the General Staff of the 6th Austro-Hungarian Infantry Brigade in Salzburg . In 1901 he was ordered to the 6th Austro-Hungarian Mountain Brigade in Bilek, where he served as an officer of the General Staff until the end of 1902. After being promoted to captain , in 1902 he was transferred to the kuk Feldjäger Battalion No. 2 in Königgrätz , where he remained stationed until 1905. In 1904 Wilhelm Eisner was adopted by a Countess Bubna, after which he changed his name to Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna in the same year. Married in 1905, after a short period of service in the same year in Lienz , he moved to the General Staff Corps in Vienna at the end of the year, where he served in the mobilization group of the 3rd platoon command until 1908.

From 1908 to 1909 he worked as an officer in the presidential office of the Ministry of National Defense in Vienna. In 1909 he passed the major examination with “very good success” and became a representative of the presidential office and a reporter at major maneuvers in Moravia . In 1911 he played a leading role in setting up the new premises of the military science association in Graz, which he headed until 1912 and received a commendation for his services from the Imperial and Royal 3rd Corps Command. From 1912 to 1914 he was a wing adjutant of the army inspector GdK . Rudolf Ritter von Brudermann .

Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna was described by his superiors as a sporty man. In addition to hiking and cycling, he was a gifted fencer. Like other officers of his time, he was also interested in the young medium of photography and worked as a photographer himself. Through his extensive activities and frequent changes of location, he knew many countries and languages. In addition to German, he also spoke and written Bohemian, Polish, Italian and French and had a basic knowledge of Russian.

He has often been described as very proactive and lively with a talent for liaison. Major General Carl Scotti described Eisner-Bubna in a note sheet during his time in the General Staff of the 7th Corps as follows: “A highly intelligent, extremely lively and spirited person who likes to speak and write a lot and therefore does not always think about it. Also tends to overestimate one's own performance. Undoubtedly a good, dashing soldier with a lot of happy optimism. "

War years 1914–1918

From 1914 to 1916 Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna served as Chief of the General Staff of the VII Corps under Archduke Josef . In this role he was involved in all battles in the Carpathian Mountains , on the Plöcken , in the Carnic Ridge and in three of the Isonzo battles. In October 1916, Eisner-Bubna, who was promoted to colonel in the same year, was appointed to the kuk war press quarters in Vienna.

kuk war press headquarters

At first, Major General Maximilian von Hoen was assisted by Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna in the spring of 1917 as head of the war press office. On March 15, 1917, von Hoen was relieved of command of the war press headquarters by Kaiser Karl , who wanted to replace veteran functionaries, and handed over the management of the KPQ to Eisner-Bubna.

Since he was of the opinion that the editors of the KPQ should report on what they had experienced, Eisner-Bubna wanted to send the majority to the front at the beginning of his term of office. In this early period there was also a muster, which had been ordered on the “highest order”. The commission appointed for this purpose found almost all of the war reporters, painters and photographers working for the KPQ to be suitable, which is why they should fulfill their military duty. The war reporter Richard A. Bermann wrote in his post-war autobiography about this surprising pattern retrospectively : “Were only slackers at the KPQ? [...] Many of them were too old or not in a healthy position, would not have had to run into the barrage, but they did. At times, people pretended that the war press headquarters had started, waged and lost the war. "

But after a few months Eisner-Bubna had become a “newspaper man”, according to Carl Hannes Strobl . The former adjutant of Major General v. Hoen, Karl Lustig-Prean , kept his position under Colonel Eisner-Bubna, but he did not see the development of the KPQ as entirely positive. In his opinion, the KPQ transformed from a "war reporter's quarters into a war press office, an opinion factory with 10 departments, led by staff officers, it employed 1000 men." But the success proved Colonel Eisner-Bubna, who was said to have a particular organizational talent, right in his action and the KPQ quickly achieved unprecedented productivity under his leadership. Photographs, drawings, postcards, calendars, playing cards designed for propaganda purposes, song books, leaflets have been produced by a large number of painters, musicians, photographers, stage artists and writers. The number and task of actual war reporting faded into the background under his leadership. Eisner-Bubna was also ahead of its time with the desire to transform the KPQ into a Ministry of Information and Propaganda, but this plan could no longer be realized with the end of the war.

Post-war years

On April 1, 1919, Colonel Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna was retired by Ordinance Gazette 46. The Austro-Hungarian General Staff officer, historian and later National Socialist Edmund Glaises von Horstenau later wrote about Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna's whereabouts in the years after the war: “After 1918 he embarked on revolutionary business opportunities with full sails. But he was far too much of a faiseur to pass the bouquet […] ”. Colonel Eisner-Bubna committed suicide on September 18, 1926. He threw himself into the river near Frankfurt an der Oder after shooting himself in the chest.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna, qualification list, kuk Kriegsarchiv, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv.
  2. ↑ a b Peter Broucek (Ed.): A General in the Twilight. The memories of Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. Volume 1: K. uk General Staff Officer and Historian (= publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria. 67). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1980, ISBN 3-205-08740-2 , p. 214.
  3. ↑ Reservation sheet concerning Colonel Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna, 1916, kuk Army Group Command, by Gstb. Chief FML Carl Scotti, folder estate Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna, kuk war archives, Austrian State Archives.
  4. ^ Individual description of Major Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna, 1911, folder of the Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna estate, kuk Kriegsarchiv, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv.
  5. ^ A b Eva Macho: Karl Friedrich Nowak (1882–1932). His work as a war correspondent, author and publisher from a contemporary and today's perspective (= European university publications. Series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 1056). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-58168-1 , p. 19.
  6. ^ Eva Macho: Karl Friedrich Nowak (1882-1932). His work as a war correspondent, author and publisher from a contemporary and today's perspective (= European university publications. Series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 1056). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-58168-1 , p. 20.
  7. ^ Eva Macho: Karl Friedrich Nowak (1882-1932). His work as a war correspondent, author and publisher from a contemporary and today's perspective (= European university publications. Series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 1056). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-58168-1 , p. 21.
  8. ^ Confirmation, Ordinance Sheet No. 46, Wilhelm Eisner-Bubna estate, kuk Kriegsarchiv, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv.
personal data
SURNAME Eisner-Bubna, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and head of the Austro-Hungarian war press headquarters
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1926
Place of death Frankfurt Oder