Hermann Kovess von Kovesshaˇza

Hermann Kovess von Kovesshaza

Place of birth: Temesvxˇr, Austria-Hungary
Place of death: Vienna, Austria
Allegiance: Austro-Hungarian Army
Years of service: 1872-1918
Rank: Generalfeldmarschall

Hermann Kovess von Kovesshxˇza (March 30, 1854 - September 22, 1924) was the final, and completely ceremonial, Commander-in-Chief of Austria-Hungary. He served as a generally competent and unremarkable commander in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was close to retirement in 1914 when The First World War broke out and he was given a command post.

Personal life

Kovess' father was a senior military officer living in Temesvxˇr, Austria-Hungary (now part of Romania). His family belonged to the small German-speaking Transylvanian Saxon minority known as the SiebenbxĽrger-Sachsen. He married the Baroness Eugenie Hye von Glunek in 1892 and they had 3 sons; Adalbert, who was killed in action in 1914 and Géza and JenĹ‘ who served as artillery officers.

Military career

He enrolled into a cadet institute at Hainburg in 1865 and after spending some time there and at the academy in Znaim he moved to a military academy in Vienna. He passed the courses at the academy with fair success and received an accelerated promotion to captain.

He led his first military expedition in 1882 on a mission to suppress a mutiny in Dalmatia and was commended by the Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria with a Merit Medal and also received a Knights Cross of the Order of the Italian Crown that same year. After the campaign he failed his next examination and was transferred into the infantry. His good performance during his service with the infantry provided him with quick promotions to Major and in 1890 and then to Lieutenant Colonel in 1894 and soon-after to Colonel.

He had become one of the youngest Colonels in the Austro-Hungarian Army and one of the most powerful Protestants serving in a generally Roman Catholic officer corps. His Protestantism caused a scandal when he was involved in an event where 400 Roman Catholics converted to Protestantism after a dispute. The scandal was generally ignored by the military, but condemned by the Catholic Church. The condemnation led him to believe he would be prematurely retired, however this turned out to be false due to the onset of World War I.

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Source: WikiPedia