Background
As military adviser and protégéprotege of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Conrad became chief of staff of the Austrian army in 1906 and was charged with the modernization of the Austro-Hungarian army. Under his predecessor, Count Beck, the army had steadily deteriorated. Conrad had strong political opinions; he considered Serbia the enemy of Austria and urged a preventive war in 1908-1909. He advised the same course against Italy in 1911. Neither Francis Ferdinand nor Aehrenthal, the foreign minister, shared his views, and Conrad was forced into retirement in 1912. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he was again made chief of staff, a post which he held until dismissed by Emperor Charles I in March 1917. Conrad's conduct of wartime military operations was skillful, but the limitations of the Austro-Hungarian army denied him any spectacular triumphs. He died at Mergentheim, Aug. 26, 1925.