Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)

LUND, Erik: The generation of 1683: Habsburg General Officers and the military technical Corps, 1686–1723

The Generation of 1683

perg17; the artillerist Field-Marshals Max Adam, Count von Starhemberg (1669- 1727), a General Director of Artillery, and Gschwind von Pöckstein; the engineer Generals Carl Ernst von Rappach (fl. 1704-1717) (commandant of the Engineer Academy from 1716); artillerist Generals included Christoph, Baron von Börner (fl. 1683-1711), Claudius Alexandre, Count de Bonneval (1675-1747), Carl Leopold, Count von Herberstein (fl. 1695-1728), and Georg Wilhelm, Baron von Löf- felholtz-Colberg (1661-1720); engineer Lieutenant-Field-Marshals included Simon, Count de Beaulfe (fl. 1720-1738)18, Luigi, Count de Peroni (fl. 1701-1733), and Jean Peter de St. Amour (fl. 1723). Artillerist Lieutenant-Field-Marshals included Cesare, Count Berzetti von Buronzot (fl. 1702-1718), and Franz Anton von Steinberg (fl. 1708-1723). Some of these officers, it should be noted, are variously described as engineers or artillerists depending on appointment, for engineers were often given artillery appointments. The list includes three Italians, one Swiss, three French, two Protestant and four Catholic Germans and four Germans of unidentified religion. Two individuals, a Field Marshal and a Lieutenant Field Marshal (Gschwind and Berzetti) bear patronymics as well as fiefs, probably showing familial non-noble origins, while the mystery of Börner’s antecedents has already been mentioned. Conversely, Daun, Starhemberg, and Herberstein were all members of great court clans, Bonneval was a member of an established French provincial noble family, and Biirkli and Löffelholtz could take pride in their families’ centuries long histories as burghers of, respectively, Zurich and Nuremberg. (In both cases they were noble burghers, which is not an oxymoron in early modem Germany.) The relatively large proportion of Field-Marshals in this list suggests that technical officers enjoyed much better chances for promotion than their line counterparts.

Not only the top-heavy character of this list, but also its membership suggests that, there is little reason to believe in a class-rooted antipathy to service in the technical arms. That the title of chief engineer and artillerist was a distinguished court office is sufficiently indicated by the tenures in office of men of such distinction as Daun, and Starhemberg, or Prince Charles of Lorraine and Prince Wenzel Anton von Liechtenstein later in the century. Further, the tenures of technically accomplished arrivistes as Harsch and Rappach, or, later in the century, Count Gianini is evidence that technical ability also played a part in the selection process. We may, in fact, be totally off-base in assuming that military technocracy is a recent phenomena. It is interesting to note that one of the earliest Field-Marshals in the Generallisten, Manfredi Marquis Sforza di Corte Maggiore Pallavicini was listed as promoted to Chief Military Engineer [Obristkriegbaumeister] in 158519.

17 Daun as engineer, see for instance Le Campagne di Guerra in Piemonte 1703-1708 e l’Assedio di Torino. Studi, Documenti, lllustrazioni. P. 3, Vol. 8. Torino 1909, p. 284; for Harsch see Wurzbach: Biographisches Lexikon, Vol. 7, p. 388f. and Gatt i: Technische Militär-Akademie, Vol. 1, pp. 25-40.

18 De Beauffe or Le Bauffe see Regele, Oskar: Generalstabschefs aus vier Jahrhunderten. Das Amt des Chefs des Generalstabes in der Donaumonarchie. Seine Träger und Organe von 1529 bis 1918. Vienna 1966, pp. 21-24.

19 Further see K W M 28/1334, Kriegsbauwesen in 16 Jahrhundert, p. 5; a succinct history of this fascinia- ting family can be found in Dizionario enciclopedico italiano, Vol. 8, p 807f.

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