Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen

Erzherzog Albrecht Friedrich Rudolf Dominik, Herzog von Teschen (Duke of Teschen) (b. Vienna, 3 August 1817 - d. Arco, Tyrol (in the region of Trentino), 18 February 1895) was an Austrian Habsburg general. Inspector General for 36 years, he was honored with the rank of Field Marshal in the armies of Austria-Hungary (1888) and Germany (1893).

Early life

He was the eldest son of Erzherzog Karl (Archduke Charles of Austria) (1771-1847), who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Aspern (1809), and Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg (1797-1829). 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 "Feldmarschall" Joseph Graf Radetzky as his military governor. Having received a thorough military education, Albrecht was named a "Generalmajor" in 1840 and promoted to "Feldmarschall-leutnant" in 1843.

Family and children

On 1 May 1844 Albrecht married in Munich Princess Hildegard of Bavaria (b. Würzburg, 10 June 1825 - d. Vienna, 2 April 1864), daughter of King Ludwig I (1786-1868) and Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen (1792-1854). Albrecht and Hildegard had 3 children:
*Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Teschen (b. Vienna 15 July 1845 - d. Tübingen, 8 October 1927), married at Vienna on 18 January 1865 Duke Philipp of Württemberg (b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1838 - d. Stuttgart, 1917) and had five children:
***Albrecht, Duke 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 Marshal in 1916.
***Marie Amelie of Württemberg (1865-1883)
***Isabelle of Württemberg (1871-1904)
***Robert of Württemberg (1873-1947)
***Ulrich of Württemberg (1877-1944)
*Archduke Karl of Austria-Teschen (b. Vienna, 3 January 1847 - d. 19 July 1848), died of smallpox and buried in tomb 131 of the Imperial Crypt.
*Archduchess Mathilde of Austria-Teschen (b. Vienna, 25 January 1849 - d. Schloss Hetzendorf, near Vienna, 6 June 1867), buried in tomb 130 of the Imperial Crypt.

Archduchess Mathilde died under horrific circumstances at Schloss Hetzendorf, the home of Kaiserin Elisabeth. Before leaving for the theatre on 6 June 1867 Mathilde wanted to smoke a cigarette, but when her father, who forbade smoking, approached her, she hid the cigarette behind her back, setting afire the high inflammable gauze fabric. Her death from second and third degree burns was witnessed by her entire family.

Military campaigns

Promoted to "General der Kavallerie" in 1845, Albrecht was given command of Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Salzburg. Upon the death of his father in 1847, he inherited the Palais Weilburg in Baden bei Wien, which became the family's summer home. In the winter the family lived in Vienna in the Palais Erzherzog Albrecht, today the Albertina Museum.

Wounded in the street fighting in Vienna on 13 March 1848 at the start of the revolutionary disturbances, Albrecht was sent south to command a division under Radetzky, who faced an opportunistic invasion of Lombardy by King Charles Albert of Sardinia. Albrecht performed admirably, personally supervising the crossing of the Ticino and by the handling of his division ensuring victory at Novara 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 in June 1866, Albrecht was named commander of the southern army facing the Italian forces of King Victor Emmanuele II. Albrecht won a great victory in the battle of Custozza, 24 June 1866, but any advantages were canceled out by by the crushing defeat on 3 July at Königgrätz, where Ludwig von Benedek was surprised by the speed of Helmuth von Moltke's concentric advance into Bohemia.

Albrecht was named "Oberkommandier" (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 to Italy in 1866, the war resulted in the transformation of the Austrian realm in 1867 as the Dual Monarchy - the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Inspector General

Albrecht remained "Oberkommandier" 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 Army 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 obstinately opposed the ministry of Ferdinand Graf Beust at every point, expressing the most enexorably 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.

Reputed to be the wealthiest of the Habsburgs, Albrecht owned some convert|300000|acre|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 anomolous situation in the military administration was undoubtedly only one of many factors that contributed to Rudolf's suicide at Mayerling on 30 January 1889.

Later life

Having been made a "Feldmarschall" in his own army in 1888, Albrecht was the recipient of theequivalent rank of "Generalfeldmarschall" in the German Army in 1893, Kaiser Wilhelm IIsending General Walther von Loë to deliver the baton to Albrecht.

Archduke Albrecht continued to serve as "Generalinspekteur" until his death in Arco on 18 February 1895. Receiving a state funeral, he 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, who served as "Oberkommandier" in 1914-17.

Today, an equestrian statue of Archduke Albrecht stands near the entrance to the Albertina museum, his former city residence in Vienna.

Namesake

Albrecht's name was given to a "Panzerschiff" (armorclad - later battleship) launched in 1872 as "Erzherzog Albrecht". Renamed "Feuerspeier" in 1908, she was ceded to Italy in 1920 and renamed "Buttafuoco". The old ironclad survived as a hulk until she was scrapped in 1947.

Ancestry

ahnentafel-compact5
style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%;
border=1
boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0;
boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
1= 1. Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen
2= 2. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
3= 3. Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg
4= 4. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
5= 5. Maria Louisa of Spain
6= 6. Frederick William, Duke of Nassau
7= 7. Louise Isabelle of Kirchberg
8= 8. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
9= 9. Maria Theresa of Austria
10= 10. Charles III of Spain
11= 11. Maria Amalia of Saxony
12= 12. Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
13= 13. Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau
14= 14. Georg, Landgrave of Kirchberg, Count of Sayn-Hachenburg
15= 15. Countess Elisabeth Augusta Reuss of Greiz
16= 16. Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
17= 17. Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans
18= 18. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
19= 19. Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
20= 20. Philip V of Spain
21= 21. Elisabeth of Parma
22= 22. Augustus III of Poland
23= 23. Maria Josepha of Austria
24= 24. Charles Augustus, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
25= 25. Princess Auguste Friederike of Nassau-Idstein
26= 26. William IV, Prince of Orange
27= 27. Anne, Princess Royal
28= 28. Wilhelm Ludwig, Landgrave of Kirchberg
29= 29. Countess Luise of Dhaun
30= 30. Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss of Greiz
31= 31. Konradine Eleonore, Princess Reuss of Köstritzahnentafel bottom

References

* "Death of Archduke Albrecht", The New York Times, 19 February 1895
* Robert Gardiner (editorial director), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1985. ISBN 0-85177-245-5
* Robert A. Kann, A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
* George R. Marek, The Eagles Die. Franz Joseph, Elisabeth, and their Austria. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.
* Frederic Morton, A Nervous Splendour. Vienna 1888-1889. London: The Folio Society, 2006 (first published in 1979).
* Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs. The life and times of the Emperor Francis Joseph. New York: Grove Press, 1994.