Austria Formally Declares War on Servia; Russia Moving Troops; Peace of Europe In Kaiser's Hands

NewYorkTimes ^ | July 28, 1914 | Special Cable

[Smile-n-Win]

Es lebe das Haus Hohenzollern!
Hoch, Habsburg!

Boooooo from Hungary! ;-)

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

". . . 3 fronts . . ."

At the end of the Seven Years War, one of Frederic's advisors was discussing the proposed peace terms with Sweden, at which the king quipped, "We were at war with Sweden ?"

[aristeides]

If my suspicions are correct, and there was a conspiracy, I wonder who was at the center of it. It seems unlikely to have been Berchtold, who was initially restrained in his reaction after the assassination (although maybe he was just acting.) Could it have been Conrad?

[weikel]

Sweden was huge in the time of Fredrick's father( who though perhaps more principled kidnapped all the really tall people in Europe and shanghaied them into his regiment of tall soldiers LOL) but was left with the small sliver of territory after falling to a coalition of Denmark, Prussia, and Russia.

[weikel]

There were 3 fronts right? They were facing Russia to the East, Austria to the South, and France to the West right?

[swarthyguy]

Frederic Morton's Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914,

Thanks.

[aristeides]

By the way, speaking of Count Berchtold, an anecdote from the memoirs of Harry Graf Kessler speaks volumes about the frivolity of people in the government in Vienna at the outbreak of the Great War:

Paris, 11. Juni 1933, Sonntag. Georg Bernhards, Valeriu Marcu und Anton Kuh frühstückten bei mir im Hotel. Kuh liess ein Brillant-Feuerwerk von Witzen und Anekdoten los. Eine Geschichte, die er erzählte, war fast shakespearisch. Am 31. Juli 1914, in Wien, als alles auf die serbische Antwort auf das österreichische Ultimatum wartete, hat er Berchtold im Wurstl-Prater gesehen an einem Karussell, das als Treffplatz für Strichjungen bekannt war. Ein bildhübscher Junge in weissen Hosen und weissem Pullover fuhr auf dem Karussell und zwinkerte mit einem Auge einem eleganten Herrn zu, der ihn immerfort anschaute. Als das Karussell Pause machte, stieg der Junge ab und ging auf den Herrn zu, der ihn begrüsste und mitnahm. Der Herr war Berchtold. Im Augenblick, wo die beiden zusammen fortgingen, kamen unter grossem Geschrei die Zeitungsjungen mit Extrablättern gelaufen: "Serbische Antwort auf das Ultimatum. Krieg mit Serbien, österreichischer Einmarsch in Serbien!" Der Beginn des Weltdrieges, den Berchtold herbeigeführt hatte.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

In The SYW, it seems inadequate to speak of quantities of fronts, since Prussia was literally surrounded by enemies at all compass points.

Affairs in the west were made easier, however, by the Duke of Brunswick's army of Hannoverians, Hessians, Brunswickers and British, which pretty much kept the French and Imperials at bay. The Prussians put in a cameo appearance at Rossbach, and then went back to dealing with the real war.

[aristeides]

Weltkrieges, not Weltdrieges.

[aristeides]

It was also the anniversary of his wedding, and his morganatic wife could be honored in a way that was not possible in Vienna. So it was easy to persuade him to have the ceremonial visit on that day.

[weikel]

The "Imperial" forces were actually Austrian forces and vassals of the Austrian Hapsburgs though right.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

Actually, no -- they were the army of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. This was the penultimate instance of a mobilisation of the Imperial estates. The last time was in 1795 against the Jacobins. There were echt Austrians present with the Imperial army, sent either as part of Austria's Matrikul for the Bohemian, Burgundian, and Austrian Circles, or as "stiffening" (Dragoon regiments v.Trautmasdorf & v.Pretlach), but in this instance "Austrian" and "Imperial" are not synonymous.

Each of the Creyse ("circles" according to archaic imperial orthography) was responsible for contributing its share of manpower in horse, foot, and guns. While some regiments were on a par with the best of Prussian regiments (notably the Hessen-Darmstadt Leibregiment) most of them would make modern re-enactors look like Green Berets in comparison.

Their first embarassment was at Rossbach, when, in a curious (but not entirely untrue) reversal of national roles, the French commander blamed his German troops for the defeat.

After the amateurs had fled to their respective villages, the remainder comported themselves reasonably well -- or certainly no worse than the French -- for the duration of hostilities

[getoffmylawn]

Gavrilo Princip bump.

[wimpycat]

Why isn't this in Breaking News?

[weikel]

I was under the impression that the last real Imperial army was during the reign of Barbarossa.

[Consort]

Servia

[DestroyEraseImprove]

Czar Nicholas was responsible for WWI the Serbs then were like the Palestinians now. If Russia hadn't interfered Austria would have moved in and killed a bunch of terrorist then left.

What a load of BS....

[weikel]

The comparison to Pallies is a bit extreme but there were a lot of terrorist in Serbia.