Hofkriegsrat

The Hofkriegsrat was the Court Council of War of the Habsburg Monarchy. Founded in 1556 as a council of men with military experience who could take charge of the army and its needs, in both war and peacetime, it was centralized by Joseph II and placed in command of all branches of the military. When the reforming Archduke Charles became president of the Hofkriegsrat, he divided it into three departments, dealing with military, judicial, and administrative matters. In 1848 it became part of the Ministry of War.

Trivia

In Tolstoy's "War and Peace," a retired Russian officer, Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonski, calls it the "Hof-kriegs-wurst-schnapps-rat," mocking it by adding the well-known German words "Wurst" (sausage) and "Schnapps" (booze).

Presidents

# Ritter Ehrenreich von Königsberg 1556–1560
# Gebhard Freiherr von Welzer 1560–1566
# Georg Teufel, Freiherr von Guntersdorf 1566–1578
# Wilhelm Freiherr von Hofkirchen 1578–1584
# David Ungnad, Freiherr von Weißenwolf 1584–1599
# Melchior Freiherr von Redern 1599–1600
# Count Karl Ludwig Sulz 1600–1610
# Hans Freiherr von Mollard 1610–1619
# Johann Kaspar von Stadion 1619–1624
# Ramboldo, Count of Collalto 1624–1630
# Hans Christoph Freiherr von Löbel 1630–1632
# Count Heinrich Schlick 1649–1665
# Wenzel Fürst Lobkowitz, Duke of Sagan 1649–1665
# Annibale (Hannibal), Prince Gonzaga 1665–1668
# Raimondo Montecuccoli 1668–1681
# Herrmann Markgraf von Baden 1681–1691
# Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg 1692–1701
# Count Heinrich Mansfeld, Prince of Fondi 1701–1703
# Prince Eugene of Savoy 1703–1736
# Dominik von Königsegg-Rothenfels 1736–1738
# Johann Philipp von Harrach 1738–1761
# Count Leopold Joseph von Daun 1762–1766
# Count Franz Moritz von Lacy 1766–1774
# Count Andreas Hadik von Futak 1774–1790
# Count Michael Joseph Wallis 1791–1796
# Count Friedrich Moritz Nostitz-Rieneck 1796
# Count Ferdinand Tige 1796–1801
# Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen 1801–1809
# Count Heinrich von Bellegarde 1809–1813
# Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg 1814–1820
# Count Heinrich von Bellegarde 1820–1825
# Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen 1825–1830
# Count Ignácz Gyulay 1830–1831
# Count Johann Frimont 1831
# Ignaz Graf Hardegg 1831–1848
# Count Karl Ludwig von Ficquelmont 1848

Bibliography

*Henry Frederick Schwarz and John Insley Coddington, "The Imperial Privy Council in the Seventeenth Century" (Oxford, 1943).
*Lee W. Eysturlid, "The Formative Influences, Theories, and Campaigns of the Archduke Carl of Austria" (Greenwood, 2000).
*Gunther E. Rothenberg, "The Army of Francis Joseph" (Purdue UP, 1999).