Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 52. (2007)
FRIED, Marvin Benjamin: Feldmarschall Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf: A Memoir Analysis
Marvin Fried invaded by Germany, knowing that Russia was treaty bound to enter on the side of France if she were attacked, still questions France’s motives when “pour les beaux yeux de la Serbie, [it] threw itself into the World War.”100 He conveniently ignores that the Schlieffen plan was for Germany to neutralize France before she turned against Russia, something no self-respecting sovereign state could accept. Instead, he calls the French ‘plan’ “far-seeing”101 and “thoroughly] prepared] and executed,”102 to which most historians would be hard-pressed to see how the potential fall of France was part of her overall strategy of power maximization. Such facts make it seem that Conrad is guilty of having some of the same “gross ignorance”103 as he accuses the foreign politicians of displaying. He attempts to defend the Central Powers by justifying their war as “a question of survival,”104 and accuses the Entente of “igniting”105 war to increase their power. Thus, it was “purely material”106 desires and “imperialist expansion”107 for which the Entente effectuated the Great War. In an uncanny prophecy which resembles Foch’s famous comments after Versailles, Conrad argues that “a second time there will not be as many allies jumping to the aid”108 of France. He does not understand how France and Russia could be so “unreasonable and criminal”109 as to precipitate the World War as a result of the localized Austro-Hungarian/Serbian conflict. The answer, he felt, lay in the Russian desire to force war by unnecessarily coming to the aid of Serbia. Conrad reaches the conclusion that Russia was to be unequivocally blamed for igniting the World War, while the other Entente members were to be blamed for creating a world in which such a war was possible. Conrad, exploring the reasons for Russia’s decision to “awaken”110 a World War for reasons as elusive as ‘pan- Slavism,’ decides that Russia wanted control of the Turkish straits and, indeed, to gain control over its Slavic kinsmen. Prophetically, Conrad refers to the Slavic nations of or near Austria-Hungary as mere “satellites”111 of Russia. He explains that Serbia “challenged [and] forced the Monarchy”112 to war and that Russia was responsible for having precipitated the World War “which brought all the horrors of 100 Conrad von Hötzendorf, Franz: Private Aufzeichnungen, Pg. 161. 101 Ibid, Pg. 160. 102 Ibid, Pg. 160. 103 Ibid, Pg. 179. 104 Ibid, Pg. 222. 105 Ibid, Pg. 222. 106 Ibid, Pg. 169. 107 Ibid, Pg. 169. 108 Ibid, Pg. 143. 109 Ibid, Pg. 210. "° Ibid, Pg. 196. 111 Ibid, Pg. 216. 112 Ibid, Pg. 66. 236
