Background
Arthur Baron von Bolfras was born in Sachsenhausen, near Frankfurt am Main, on April 16, 1838.
Arthur Baron von Bolfras was born in Sachsenhausen, near Frankfurt am Main, on April 16, 1838.
After graduating from the Theresa Military Academy, Bolfras took part in the campaigns of 1859 and 1866 against the Italians in South Tyrol. Thereafter he served with the General Staff, in the War Ministry (1871-1875), as chief of staff of the V Army Corps, and from 1889 to 1916, as adjutant general and head of Emperor Francis Joseph's military chancery.
Bolfras was becoming concerned by 1915 that the army supreme command under General Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of the General Staff, had assumed such far-reaching powers that the war was being conducted independently of the emperor: "We are being ruled by the A.O.K." In fact, military leaders assumed many political functions under the umbrella of national security, and front commanders held unlimited powers over territories behind the fighting lines. The septuagenarian Bolfras was promoted colonel general in 1916. He died at Baden, near Vienna, on December 19, 1922.