Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)
GODSEY, William D. Jr.: Officers vs. Diplomats: Bureaucracy and Foreign Policy in Austria-Hungary 1906–1914
William D. Godsey grudgingly gave his assent.35 On another occasion, the foreign minister had requested the recall of the military attache in Belgrade, Major Gabriel Tánczos, possibly also for broader political reasons.* 40 Thus, while the Ballhausplatz neither proposed candidates for military attaché nor generally called for their removal, it had opportunities on several levels to influence the process. When the presence of an officer threatened unpleasant political repercussions, the intervention of the foreign minister could be decisive. In another area, the establishment of new posts of military attache, the foreign ministry exercised authority even more pronounced. Between 1860, when the first three such were created, in Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburg, and the turn of the century, only four other military observation positions abroad had been systematized (Contantinople in 1869, Rome in 1872, Belgrade in 1882, and Bucharest in 1884). In London and Tokyo, the militaiy agenda of the local missions had irregularly been overseen by wealthy, aristocratic officers who volunteered their services without pay. His familial connections to the English peerage through his mother, Lady Sarah Villiers, doubtlessly accounted for Prince Alois Esterházy’s willingness to act in that capacity at the Court of St. James from 1885 to 1901. Such considerations played no role in the more unusual decision of Baron Franz Aehrenthal, the brother of the later foreign minister, to spend the years 1895-1897 in Tokyo, a destination shunned by civilian diplomats. Only toward the end of General Baron Friedrich Beck’s long tenure as Chief of the General Staff (1881-1906) did the Monarchy regularize several new posts. Sofia in 1903 was followed the next year, in response to the crisis in the Far East, first by Tokyo and then by London.41 In February 1906, the military attaché in Tokyo, Adalbert von Dáni, made a convincing case for closer observation of the Chinese army, which the Japanese had begun to reorganize and train.42 Shortly thereafter, the attaché in Japan received responsibility for China as well, where he was expected to spend three months annually.43 For the creation of each of these posts, the military needed the assent of the foreign ministry.44 When the position in question, like that in Peking, appeared of little political significance to the Ballhausplatz, permission usually followed without difficulty. But when General Conrad became Chief of Staff and began aggressively pushing for more military attachés, he encountered the resistance of Aehrenthal’s foreign office. Conrad concentrated his efforts on the Balkans and the major neutral states, KA, KM Präs. 1910, 47/5-2/4, fol. 15-17: Aehrenthal to Schönaich, November 7, 1910, and „Bemerkung des k. und k. Chefs des Generalstabes“, November 11, 1910. Before the Ungem-Stemberg affair broke, Conrad had already begun planning to replace Spannocchi. 40 KA, KM Präs. 1909, 47-7/21: Vortrag Schönaich to Francis Joseph, May 29, 1909. 41 Between 1898 and 1903, the military attaché in Constantinople had been accredited to the mission in Sofia as well. Only in 1903 did Beck send an independent military attaché to Bulgaria. Allmayer-Beck: Die Archive der k. u. k. Militärbevollmächtigten und Militär-Adjoints, p. 368. 42 KA, KM Präs. 1906, 47-10/11: Dáni to General Baron Friedrich Beck, February 2, 1906. 43 Ibidem: Beck to the war ministry, March 15, 1906. 44 See, for instance, war ministry to the foreign office, draft, April 28, 1906, ibidem, requesting the latter to agree to the creation of the post of military attaché in Peking. 50
