Archduke Eugen of Austria - Military Career

Military Career

In 1885, Eugen was assigned to the General Staff and rapidly rose through the ranks. He commanded a battalion of Infantry Regiment 13 as a lieutenant colonel before assuming command of the entire regiment as a colonel. Following a further regimental assignment as commanding officer of Hussar regiment 13, he assumed command of an infantry brigade in Olmütz and then a division in Vienna. In 1900 he was appointed to the command of XIV Army Corps in Innsbruck and promoted to General der Kavallerie on 27 April 1901. This command simultaneously also made him the commanding general in Innsbruck and the defence commander for the Tyrol. He was appointed eight years later as an army inspector and senior defence commander for the Tyrol. When in 1909 the possibility of a war against Serbia was in the air he alongside Archduke Franz Ferdinand and General Albori was named as a presumptive army commander.

Eugen also had exercised his influence in the field of personnel. He had urgently recommended Feldmarschall-Leutnant Conrad von Hötzendorf, his divisional commander at Innsbruck as the successor to the retiring chief of the general staff — General Beck-Rzikowsky. In 1911, the Archduke retired from active military service ostensibly for health reasons. Conrad von Hötzendorf however suggested in his memoirs that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had become increasingly jealous of the importance of Eugen.

In addition to his military career above all else, Eugen was called upon to perform his duty as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. On 11 January 1887, Eugen entered the Teutonic Knights as a professed knight. At the same time he was chosen to be the coadjutor of his uncle, Archduke Wilhelm, the then Hoch- und Deutschmeister.

When Archduke Wilhelm suddenly died, Eugen was enthroned as the new Hoch- und Deutschmeister on 19 November 1894 and in this office he also proved himself very effective. He further developed the institution of the volunteer nursing care (Marianer), founded new hospitals and improved the training of the sisters. Finally he had the central archives of the order in Vienna sorted out and extended.