Franz-Stefan Gady
Security,
General Franz Conrad von Hoetzendorf’s romantic obsessions may have fueled the flames of war.
After the first five months of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian forces, under the leadership, if that is the right word, of General Conrad von Hoetzendorf, suffered stupefying losses–189,000 dead, 490,000 wounded, and 278,000 missing and prisoners of war. Among those who fell was Hoetzendorf’s favorite son, Herbert, who was killed near Lviv in modern-day Ukraine in a botched battle planned by his father. A year later, in a letter to Virginia von Reininghaus, Conrad is still overcome by grief: “Erwin (his other son) …read more
Source: The National Interest
