Background
Viktor Dankl von Krasnik was born at Udine, Venetia, on September 18, 1854, the son of an army captain.
Viktor Dankl von Krasnik was born at Udine, Venetia, on September 18, 1854, the son of an army captain.
His secondary education would first take place in Gorizia, where his family relocated after his father's retirement, and then in Trieste. Both schools were German language Gymnasiums. In 1869, at the age of fourteen, he moved on to the Cadet Institute at St. Pölten, Lower Austria. From 1870 until 1874 he attended the Theresian Military Academy at Wiener-Neustadt, also in Lower Austria.
Thereafter he toured various posts in the far-flung empire (Vienna, Rodymno, Agram, Komorn, Trient, Innsbruck) and rose from major general in 1903 to general of cavalry in 1912 as commandant of the XIV Army Corps in Innsbruck.
At the outbreak of the Great War, Dankl commanded the First Army, composed of the I, V, and X Corps, and in August defeated the Russian Fourth Army during a three-day battle near Krasnik. His pursuit of the enemy as far as Lublin was short-lived, however, as the First Army in September became part of the general rout of Austro-Hungarian forces at Lemberg. Dankl was forced to spend the winter months in defensive positions along the Nida River, north of Cracow.
On May 23, 1915, Dankl was appointed defender of Tyrol, and, in March 1916, given command of the Eleventh Army. In May of that year General Conrad von Hotzendorf ordered Dankl s forces to sweep out of the high plains of Lavarone-Folgaria and to take Padua. Dankl's army managed to advance as far as the Arsiero, but a stiff Italian defense, the difficulty of terrain, and confusion at the higher-command level negated the initial gains. Moreover, a simultaneous offensive in the east by General Aleksei Brusilov forced the Austro-Hungarians to close down the Tyrolean theater of operations for the time being. Conrad attempted to shift the blame for the Italian disaster to Dankl, who on June 17, 1916, asked for and received his release from command of the Eleventh Army.
Emperor Charles in 1917 assigned Dankl the largely honorific posts of captain of the First Arcieren Leibgarde and later colonel of all Leibgarden. In December 1917, Dankl voted against a proposal to divide the common army into separate Austrian and Hungarian contingents. The general was rewarded for his services by being raised into the baronage in August 1917, in recognition of his victory at Krasnik in 1914, and by being granted an earldom in the fall of 1918. Dankl died in Innsbruck on January 8, 1941.
Throughout his mostly distinguished career, Dankl was the recipient of a large amount of military and non-military awards. Despite his reputation as being somewhat short tempered, he was noted as one of Austria-Hungary's finer generals of World War I by Conrad.
On August 17, 1917 Dankl was decorated with the Commander's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order in recognition of his services during the battle of Kraśnik. In accordance with the statutes of this order, Dankl became a baron in his country's nobility and was since styled "Freiherr von Dankl". In 1918, Emperor Charles I further advanced him to the degree of count and granted him the territorial title of "Kraśnik", after which he was styled "Graf Dankl von Krasnik". This makes Dankl a rare example of a person in Austria who was born a commoner but rose to the title of count. In 1925, he was appointed as Chancellor of the Military Order of Maria Theresa as a successor to Conrad.
