Archduke Eugen Ferdinand Pius Bernhard Felix Maria of Austria-Teschen was an Archduke of Austria and a Prince of Hungary and Bohemia. He was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from the Habsburg dynasty.
Background
Eugen was the son of Karl Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (son of Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen) and of his wife Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria. He was born at the castle of Gross Seelowitz (Židlochovice), near Brünn (Brno) in Moravia. At his baptism he was given the names Eugen Ferdinand Pius Bernhard Felix Maria. His education was Spartan in character. His country living at Gross Seelowitz and holidays at Gmund alternated with a sound education and strict instruction.
Education
At the Albrechtspalais in Vienna, Eugen received instruction in all the military subjects in addition to languages, music and the history of art. At the age of 14 in keeping with the family tradition and like his elder brother Friedrich, he also began his military career with the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger Regiment and was commissioned as a Leutnant on the 27 October 1877. Shortly thereafter he was transferred as an Oberleutnant to a hussar regiment and in the following years participated in many lengthy manoeuvres.
Career
A passionate soldier throughout his life, Eugene, at the young age of thirty-seven was general of cavalry, commander of the XIV Army Corps, and the commanding general of Innsbruck and Vorarlberg. In 1908 he became inspector of the army and commander of Tyrol. Eugene was the only archduke to have received formal General Staff training; from 1894 to 1923 he was Hochmeister of the Deutsche Ritterorden. Needless to stress, his career was greatly enhanced by imperial favor.
Archduke Eugene was appointed nominal head of numerous Austro-Hungarian armies throughout the Great War, though actual strategic command rested in the hands of professional soldiers, most notably General Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of the General Staff. In December 1914, Eugene was entrusted with command of all forces in the Balkan theater, and after the Italian declaration of war against the Dual Monarchy on May 23, 1915, the archduke was made commander in chief of the new southwestern front. There he was given the able General Alfred Krauss as his chief of staff; under him were the forces in Tyrol (Dankl), Carinthia (Rohr), and the Isonzo (Boroevic). In May 1916, Eugene was to be in charge of a grandiose attack against the Italians, but the actual dispositions were once again made by Conrad von Hötzendorf, who did not even bother to consult with Krauss. The attack by the Eleventh (Dankl) and the Third Army (Kövess) from the plains of Lavarone-Folgaria was halted by the Italians and especially by General Aleksei Brusilov's rapid advance in the east.
Archduke Eugene was promoted field marshal in November 1916 in the wave of promotions and awards that accompanied Emperor Charles' coronation. As commander of the Italian front he was nominally in charge of the German-Austro-Hungarian breakthrough at Caporetto in October 1917, but planning and command had rested with two German generals, Otto von Below and Krafft von Dellmensingen. Thereafter it was possible to reduce the length of the Austro-Hungarian front with Italy, and in January 1918, Eugene's post as commander of the southwestern front was abolished and the venerable soldier retired from the army.
After the war, Eugene was forced to live abroad until 1934 when Chancellor Dollfuss retired the so-called Habsburg Laws, which had banished members of that house from the Austrian republic. The archduke was the center of speculation concerning a possible restoration of the monarchy for the next four years, but both his disinterest and Adolf Hitler's annexation of his homeland in 1938 put an abrupt end to such speculation. Archduke Eugene died in Meran on December 30, 1954.