Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)

GODSEY, William D. Jr.: Officers vs. Diplomats: Bureaucracy and Foreign Policy in Austria-Hungary 1906–1914

Officers versus Diplomats

foreign office, which thereby learned the name of the candidate picked for the slot.” In 1910, Conrad proposed the experienced Colonel Maximilian von Csicserics for St. Petersburg. The choice of Csicserics, who spoke fluent Russian and had numerous contacts in the tsarist military from his time as an observer during the Russo- Japanese war, ran into opposition in the foreign office. Aehrenthal feared that his appointment would annoy the suspicious Russians and brought his objections to the attention of the emperor.” Although Conrad tried to dispel the doubts thus created in Francis Joseph’s mind and fought several months for his candidate, the foreign minister ultimately carried the day and Csicserics did not return to Russia. Shortly thereafter, Aehrenthal actually learned from the emperor himself the name of Conrad’s next nominee for the Russian post.” This time he raised no objection and the new attaché, Captain Prince Franz Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfiirst, took up his assignment in the Russian captial in early 1911.

The conflict about Csicserics had originally come about in connection with a request by the foreign office for the recall of the previous military attaché in St. Petersburg, Count Lelio Spannocchi.” The close involvement of the Ballhausplatz in the Spannocchi case, which had become a diplomatic-political question rather than merely one of personnel, stemmed from fears about further damage to already strained Austro-Russian relations. In the summer of 1910, a Baltic-Russian journalist named Baron Ernst Ungem-Sternberg was arrested in St. Petersburg and accused of selling secrets to the Austro-Hungarian military attaché.* 32 33 34 35 36 Ungem-Sternberg had stood in regular contact with the Monarchy’s representatives, visiting the embassy on a daily basis, providing information and receiving in return 200-300 rubles per month.37 Although their instructions forbade the military attaches to become involved in espionage, Spannocchi twice accepted from Ungern-Sternberg copies of confidential Russian documents concerning contingents of army recruits.38 Following the latter’s indictment, Aehrenthal initiated the recall of Spannocchi, to which Conrad

king of his posting there. KA, KM Präs. 1906, 47/11-10/3: Cajetan von Merey (foreign office) to the war ministry, May 4, 1906.

32 KA, KM Präs. 1907, 47/20-20/2: War ministry to the foreign office, draft letter, March21, 1907.

33 KA, KM Präs. 1910, 47/5-2/2: Aehrenthal to War Minister Baron Franz Schönaich, January 22, 1910; Conrad: Aus meiner Dienstzeit. Vol. 2, p. 52-3.

34 HHStA, AR, F 4, carton 138, personnel file Prince Franz Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst: Aehrenthal to Schönaich, draft letter, November 4, 1910.

35 KA, KM Präs. 1911, 47-2/2: Vortrag Schönaich to Francis Joseph, January 18, 1911.

36 For the charges against Ungem-Sternberg, see Julius von Szilassy (embassy counselor in St. Petersburg) to the foreign office, copy of original telegram, November 3, 1910: KA, KM Präs. 1910, 47/5-2/3.

37 KA, KM Präs. 1910, 51-2/12, fol. 74 and 77: August von Urbanski (intelligence bureau of the General Staff) to Conrad (with enclosure), June 30, 1910. For the prohibition on espionage activities for the military attachés, see Conrad: Aus meiner Dienstzeit. Vol. 1, p. 449; Hubka, Gustav-Allmayer- Beck, Johann Christoph: Österreichisch-ungarische Militárattachés und Militärbevollmächtigte. Ihr Wesen und Wirken im Auslande, sowie als Hilfsquelle der militärischen Zeitgeschichte, unpublished typescript, (Vienna, 1958), p. 13: KA, Nachlaß Hubka, B/61, Nr. 26.

38 KA, KM Präs. 1910, 51-2/12, fol. 74 and 77: Urbanski to Conrad (with enclosure), June 30, 1910.

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