Viktor Dankl Von Krasnik - Early Life & Career

Early Life & Career

Viktor Dankl was born in the then Imperial Austrian province of Venetia (in present day Italy). His father was a Captain in the army from nearby Venice. 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.

Upon completion of the academy, Dankl was assigned to the Third Dragoon Regiment as a second Lieutenant. After completion of the War School in Vienna, he became a general staff officer in 1880. For the next two decades he rose through the officer ranks, becoming the head of the central office of the Austro-Hungarian general staff in 1899. In 1903 he was promoted to the rank of major general and given command of the Sixty-sixth Infantry Brigade in Trieste. From 1905 until 1907 he would head up the Sixteenth Infantry Brigade, also in Trieste. After being promoted to a lieutenant Field Marshal (Feldmarschalleutnant), Dankl would receive command of the Thirty-sixth Division in Zagreb until 1912, at which point he was moved to Innsbruck to command the Fourteenth Corps. Later that same year, on October 29, Dankl was elevated to the rank of General of Cavalry.