Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen
Encyclopedia
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(1888) and Germany (1893).
Early life
He was the eldest son of Archduke Charles of AustriaArchduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
, who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
at Aspern
Aspern
Aspern is part of Donaustadt, the 22nd district of Vienna.In 1904, the formerly independent village was incorporated into Vienna as part of the 21st district, Floridsdorf. Only in 1946 did it become part of the newly created 22nd district, Donaustadt. The area is known because of the Battle of...
(1809), and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg
Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg
Henrietta Alexandrine Friederike Wilhelmine of Nassau-Weilburg, then of Nassau was the wife of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen...
. Born in Vienna, from an early age he had a military disposition, which his father encouraged. Albrecht was subject to a mild form of epilepsy, according to report, but this did not visibly interfere with his military career.
He entered the Austrian army in 1837 with Feldmarshal Joseph Radetzky
Joseph Radetzky von Radetz
Johann Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz was a Czech nobleman and Austrian general, immortalised by Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March...
as his military governor. Having received a thorough military education, Albrecht was named a Generalmajor in 1840 and promoted to Feldmarschall-Leutnant in 1843.
Military campaigns
Promoted to General der Kavallerie in 1845, Albert was given command of Upper AustriaUpper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, Lower Austria
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
, and Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
. Upon the death of his father in 1847, he inherited the Palais Weilburg in Baden bei Wien
Baden bei Wien
-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...
, which became the family's summer home. In the winter the family lived in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in the Palais Erzherzog Albrecht (the modern Albertina
Albertina
The Albertina is a museum in Vienna, Austria, containing the world's best collection of old master prints and drawings.Albertina, a feminine adjectival form of Albert , may also refer to:...
museum).
As the commandant of Vienna, Albrecht was wounded in the street fighting on 13 March 1848 at the start of the revolutionary disturbances
Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
. He issued live ammunition to his soldiers and secured the inner city, but was unable to suppress the disorder in the outlying districts. With the fall of Metternich and the formation of a city guard led by students, Albrecht pulled his troops into barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
. Radicals resented his attempt to quell the revolution while some fellow officers thought he showed a lack of resolve. Unsatisfactory to both factions and under pressure from city authorities, Albrecht was replaced by Count Auersperg.
Albrecht was sent south to command a division under Radetzky, who faced a coalition of states
First Italian War of Independence
The First Italian War of Independence was fought in 1848 between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. The war saw main battles at Custoza and Novara in which the Austrians under Radetzky managed to defeat the Piedmontese....
of the Italian peninsula led by King Charles Albert of Sardinia. Albrecht personally supervised the crossing of the Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
and by the handling of his division ensuring victory at Novara
Battle of Novara (1849)
The Battle of Novara or Battle of Bicocca was one of the battles fought between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia during the First Italian War of Independence, within the era of Italian unification...
on 23 March 1849.
He became civil and military governor of Hungary in 1851, serving until his recall in 1860. When Archduchess Hildegard went to Munich in March 1864 for the funeral of her brother, King Maximilian II, she became ill with a lung inflammation and pleurisy. She died in Vienna on 2 April 1864, two months short of her 38th birthday.
At the outbreak of the Seven Weeks' War
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
in June 1866, Albrecht was named commander of the southern army facing the Italian forces of King Victor Emmanuel II. Albrecht was decisively victorious in the battle of Custoza
Battle of Custoza (1866)
The Battle of Custoza took place on June 24, 1866 during the Third Italian Independence War in the Italian unification process.The Austrian Imperial army with the old Venetian Army, led by Archduke Albert of Habsburg, defeated the Italian army led by Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora and Enrico Cialdini,...
(24 June 1866), but failed to exploit his victory when he neglected to pursue the beaten Italian Army of the Mincio. Any advantages for the Austrians however were canceled out by the crushing defeat on 3 July at Königgrätz
Battle of Königgrätz
The Battle of Königgrätz , also known as the Battle of Sadowa, Sadová, or Hradec Králové, was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War, in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire...
, where Ludwig von Benedek was surprised by the speed of Helmuth von Moltke
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke was a German Field Marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as one of the great strategists of the latter 19th century, and the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field...
's concentric advance into Bohemia.
Albrecht was named Oberkommandeur (Commander-in-Chief) on 10 July 1866. Benedek's defeat made any further action against Prussia impossible, however, and peace was shortly concluded with both Prussia and Italy. Besides the loss of Holstein to Prussia and Venetia
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
to Italy in 1866, the war resulted in the transformation of the Austrian realm in 1867 as the Dual Monarchy
Dual monarchy
Dual monarchy occurs when two separate kingdoms are ruled by the same monarch, follow the same foreign policy, exist in a customs union with each other and have a combined military but are otherwise self-governing...
– the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Inspector General
Albrecht remained Oberkommandeur until 1869; when Kaiser Franz Josef I assumed the title that year, Albrecht became Generalinspekteur (Inspector General), the post he occupied until his death. In 1869 he published Über die Verantwortlichkeit im Kriege (On Responsibility in War). His reform of the Austro-Hungarian ArmyAustro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
was based on the Prussian model: development of railways and manufacturing, adoption of short-service conscription, procurement of modern weapons and reform of the General Staff. Albrecht's program gave Austria-Hungary the best army that a multinational empire could field at the time; his later clashes with liberals (including Crown Prince Rudolf) may have resulted at least in part from his ability to see all too clearly the limitations imposed by the empire's finite resources.
In public affairs, Albrecht opposed the ministry of Ferdinand Graf Beust at every point, expressing the most inexorably reactionary views. He was somewhat more courteous to Beust's successors, though he remained given to bombastic pronouncements that may not have reflected his actual sentiments. He was widely thought, for instance, to be antipathetic toward Prussia after 1866, yet he modeled his military reforms on those of Prussia and even attended a parade of the Prussian Royal Guard in Berlin at the invitation of Kaiser Wilhelm I
William I, German Emperor
William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...
. In December 1876 Albrecht advocated a preventive war against Italy on the grounds that of all Austria's neighbors, Italy was the most hostile, could be beaten most easily, and be forced to pay compensation to Austria-Hungary, whose victory would establish it as a Great Power
Great power
A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions...
.
At the Congress of Berlin
Congress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin was a meeting of the European Great Powers' and the Ottoman Empire's leading statesmen in Berlin in 1878. In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the meeting's aim was to reorganize the countries of the Balkans...
in 1878, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy
Gyula Andrássy
Gyula Count Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary and subsequently as Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary...
, in addition to the occupation and administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, also obtained the right to station garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar
Sanjak of Novi Pazar
The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was an Ottoman sanjak that existed until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 in the territory of present day Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.-History:It was part of the Bosnia Vilayet and later Kosovo Vilayet and included...
, which remained under Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
administration. The Sanjak preserved the separation of Serbia and Montenegro, and the Austro-Hungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to Salonika, supported by Albrecht, that "would bring the western half of the Balkans under permanent Austrian influence." "High [Austro-Hungarian] military authorities desired [an ...] immediate major expedition with Salonika as its objective."
On 28 September 1878 the Finance Minister, Koloman von Zell, threatened to resign if the army, behind which stood the Archduke Albert, were allowed to advance to Salonika. In the session of the Hungarian Parliament of 5 November 1878 the Opposition proposed that the Foreign Minister should be impeached for violating the constitution by his policy during the Near East Crisis and by the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The motion was lost by 179 to 95. By the Opposition rank and file the gravest accusations were raised against Andrassy.
Reputed to be the wealthiest of the Habsburgs, Albrecht owned some 300000 acres (1,214.1 km²) in Hungary. He also owned a fine collection of paintings and engravings, later the nucleus of the Albertina museum. His popularity was profound, for his generosity to the poor was genuine and unfeigned; he was widely known as Engelsherz (Angel's-heart).
When Albrecht was made a Feldmarschall in March 1888, Crown Prince Rudolf was appointed his subordinate as Generalinspekteur der Infanterie (Inspector General of Infantry). The new Inspector found any move toward liberal reform blocked by the War Minister, Feldzeugmeister Ferdinand Freiherr von Bauer, the Chief of the General Staff, Feldzeugmeister Friedrich Graf Beck-Rzikowsky – and by Albrecht himself. Senior officers deferred to Albrecht who, after all, had laboriously modernized the Army after the disaster of 1866. However, the anomalous situation in the military administration was undoubtedly only one of many factors that contributed to Rudolf's suicide at Mayerling
Mayerling
Mayerling is a small village in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat River, in the Wienerwald , 15 miles southwest of Vienna...
on 30 January 1889.
Later life
Archduke Albrecht continued to serve as Generalinspekteur even into advanced age - a situation not uncommon in Austria-Hungary where many commanders retained posts and commissions into old age. By 1895, though still holding his office, he was partially blind and his horse had to be led by an adjutant.
When he died in Arco on 18 February 1895, Archduke Albrecht received a state funeral and was buried in tomb 128 of the Imperial crypt in Vienna. His fortune and his title of Duke of Teschen were inherited by his nephew, Archduke Friedrich
Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen was a member of the House of Habsburg and the Supreme Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I.-Early life:...
, who served as Oberkommandeur in 1914–17.
Today, an equestrian statue of Archduke Albrecht stands near the entrance to the Albertina museum, his former city residence in Vienna.
Family and children
On 1 May 1844 Albrecht married in Munich Princess Hildegard of BavariaPrincess Hildegard of Bavaria
Princess Hildegard of Bavaria was the seventh child and fourth daughter of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen....
, daughter of King Louis I
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Therese Charlotte Luise of Saxony-Hildburghausen was a queen of Bavaria.She was a daughter of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, eldest daughter of Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.-Biography:In 1809, she was on the list of...
. Albrecht and Hildegard had 3 children:
- Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Teschen (15 July 1845, Vienna – 8 October 1927, Tübingen), married at Vienna on 18 January 1865 Duke Philipp of WürttembergDuke Philipp of WürttembergPhilipp of Württemberg was a duke of Württemberg. He was the son of Alexander of Württemberg and of Marie d'Orléans....
(1838, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 1917, Stuttgart) and had five children:- Albrecht, Duke of WürttembergAlbrecht, Duke of WürttembergAlbrecht, Duke of Württemberg or Albrecht Herzog von Württemberg was a German Generalfeldmarschall and head of the Royal House of Württemberg...
(1865-1939), commander on the Western Front of the German Fourth Army, 1914–17, and Army Group Duke Albrecht, 1917–18; like his grandfather, he was made a German Field MarshalField MarshalField Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
in 1916. - Marie Amelie of Württemberg (1865–1883)
- Isabelle of WürttembergDuchess Maria Isabella of WürttembergDuchess Maria Isabella Philippine Theresia Mathilde Josephine of Württemberg was a member of the House of Württemberg and a Duchess of Württemberg by birth and a member of the House of Wettin and a Princess of Saxony through her marriage to Prince Johann Georg of...
(1871–1904) - Robert of WürttembergDuke Robert of WürttembergDuke Robert Maria Klemens Philipp Joseph of Württemberg was a member of the House of Württemberg and a Duke of Württemberg....
(1873-1947) - Ulrich of Württemberg (1877–1944)
- Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg
- Archduke Karl of Austria-Teschen (3 January 1847, Vienna – 19 July 1848), died of smallpox and buried in tomb 131 of the Imperial Crypt.
- Archduchess Mathilde of Austria-Teschen (25 January 1849, Vienna – 6 June 1867, Schloss Hetzendorf, near Vienna), buried in tomb 130 of the Imperial Crypt.