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

minister necessarily proved instrumental in the change. In fact, the new assignments portended the course of the Monarchy’s policy in response to the challenges in the Balkans. On the other hand, Conrad’s efforts to build up an intelligence-gathering network worthy of his own aspirations must be judged a failure. Nor is there much evidence to support the notion that the famous „private“ letters to him from his minions abroad enabled him to influence the policy process any differently. At least two factors thwarted Conrad in his undertaking. First, as discussed earlier, the Danubian Monarchy lacked any flourishing tradition of military diplomacy. Second, and more significantly, the very different social compositions of the officer corps and the diplomatic service made the penetration of the latter by the former far more difficult than in Prussia, where cross-fertilization occurred regularly.

Disagreements between the military attache and the local diplomats rarely reached the point of open challenge, such as happened with relative frequency in German missions. A feature that distinguished Austro-Hungarian from German legations, however, was the social gulf that often separated an officer from his civilian counterparts. This created a source of tension and resentment that does not appear to have plagued the German service. As one authority has written, the officer corps of the Prussian army furnished „the Wilhelmstraße’s primary hunting ground“ for new recruits to diplomacy.86 As we have seen, such transfers did not occur in the Habsburg Monarchy and the backgrounds of the two groups differed radically. Whereas the diplomatic service was dominated by the court nobility, the officer corps came primarily from the middle classes or the new nobility.87 From Paris, the military attaché, Colonel Julius Vidalé, characterized the local embassy personnel thus: „Here the embassy consists exclusively of full-blooded aristocrats, 5 counts and 2 princes, all interrelated, stinking of arrogance, and talking through the nose.“88 In a letter to Conrad, he further referred to the ambassador, Count Nikolaus Szécsen, as „our Knight of the Golden Fleece with the degenerate nasal voice.“89 The Chief of the General Staff himself had a thoroughly middle-class Weltanschauung, had little use for the nobility per se, and scoffed at court rituals.90 The undertones of such social hostility are to be found in many of the communications of the officers who served as military attachés.

86 Cecil: The German Diplomatic Service, p. 104.

87 For the officer corps, see D e á k, István: Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918. New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

88 KA Nachlaß Conrad, B/1450, folder 76: Vidalé to August von Urbanski, February 27, 1913. „Hier besteht die Botschaft ausschliesslich aus Vollblutaristokraten, 5 Grafen und 2 Prinzen, alle untereinander verschwägert, theilweise stinkend vor Hochmut und durch die Nase sprechend.“

89 I b i d e m: Vidalé to Conrad, May 5, 1913, folder 84. „ ... unser Goldenervliessritter mit der Degenerationserscheinung des Näselns.“

90 Zeynek, Theodor: Das Leben eines oesterreichisch-ungarischen Generalstabs-Oöiziers (unpublished typescript), p. 54. For Conrad’s irritation with the „condescending and arrogant“ tone of the envoy in Rome, see C o n r a d: Aus meiner Dienstzeit. Vol. 2, p. 225. See also S t ü r g k h, Josef: Politische und militärische Erinnerungen. Leipzig: Paul List, 1922, p. 97, for the disapproval of one military attaché at the emphasis placed by the Austro-Hungarian diplomats in Bucharest on maintaining the most distinguished and exclusive social position in the Rumanian capital.

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