Friedrich von Beck-Rzikowsky

A bearded man in a military uniform
Beck c. 1890
Birth nameFriedrich Beck
Nickname(s)"The Vice Emperor"
Born(1830-03-21)March 21, 1830
Freiburg im Breisgau, Grand Duchy of Baden
DiedFebruary 9, 1920(1920-02-09) (aged 89)
Vienna, Austria
Allegiance
Service / branch
Years of service1846–1907
RankGeneraloberst (colonel general)
Known forChief of the general staff, Imperial and Royal Army (1881–1906)
Battles / wars

Friedrich Graf[a] von Beck-Rzikowsky (21 March 1830 – 9 February 1920), sometimes Friedrich Beck, was an Austrian Generaloberst and Chief of the general staff of the Imperial and Royal Army of Austria-Hungary from 1881 to 1906.[1]

Biography

Early life

He was born Friedrich Beck at Freiburg im Breisgau in the Grand Duchy of Baden on 21 March 1830, the son of the military doctor Bernhard Oktav von Beck and his wife Anna Maria Rzikowsky von Dobrzicz.

Military career

Beck entered the Imperial Austrian Army in the service of the Austrian Empire in 1846 and served as a Leutnant (second lieutenant) and then as an Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) in the infantry, the pioneers, and then the quartermaster general's staff. In 1848 he took part in fighting in the Hungarian Revolution and in 1849 in the storming of Brescia during the First Italian War of Independence. duriing the Autumn Crisis of 1850, he was stationed in Bohemia during an Austrian mobilization to confront the Kingdom of Prussia over Prussia's proposed creation of the Erfurt Union, resulting in Prussia backing down and the reestablishment of the German Confederation. During the early 1850s, he was stationed in the Vienna garrison.

Beck was among the first students admitted to the Kriegsschule, the Austrian staff college, from which he graduated near the top of his class in 1854, and that year he received a promotion to Hauptmann (captain) and an appointment to the general staff. He then served on occupation duty in Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1857 he took part in a cartographic and geographic expedition in southern Hungary.

Beck distinguished himself as chief of staff of General Sigmund Freiherr von Reischach's division in Italy in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence. Finding that the Reischach Division had no maps of Piedmont, where the division fought forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia, he searched for maps in bookshops and stationery stores. Because of a breakdown in communications, the division was late to arrive on the scene of the Battle of Magenta, and he was seriously wounded, shot in the knee, while urging the division's troops forward on 4 June 1859. He was taken by train to Vienna to recover from his wound and missed the rest of the war, much to his dismay. However, in 1861 was both elevated to the Austrian knighthood as a Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown, Third Class, with war decoration for bravery in the face of the enemy and was promoted to major.

In 1862 Beck became adjutant to Baron Heinrich von Heß. In 1863 he became personal aide-de-camp to Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I. He held this position until 1881, winning the emperor's confidence and exercising the greatest influence on all military questions.

Beck was promoted to Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) in 1865. During the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 he acted as the emperor's confidential agent at the headquarters of Feldzeugmeister Ludwig von Benedek both before and after the Battle of Königgrätz, and his advice was of great importance, though it was not always followed. In carrying out special missions for the emperor in the theater of war, he became known in wilder circles in the Austrian military.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 transformed the Austrian Empire into Austria-Hungary, and that year Beck was promoted to Oberst and became head of the military chancellery. In 1874, he also became a privy councilor and the emperor's adjutant general. He simultaneously held the posts of personal aide-de-camp, chancellery head, and adjutant general until 1881.

In 1878 Beck was promoted to Feldmarschalleutnant (lieutenant field marshal) and dispatched on a secret mission to represent the emperor at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian troops operating in Bosnia. He then was made a baron.

Beck (second from right) with Emperor Franz Josef I (right) in 1897.

In 1881 Beck became chief of the general staff of the Imperial and Royal Army of Austria-Hungary, a position he held for 25 years and in which, as a confidant of the Emperor, he exercised great influence. He sought to mediate the many internal conflicts within the Austro-Hungarian Army. Calm and cautious, he took a middle position on military issues between progressive-liberal modernizers and the reactionary camp centered around Archduke Albrecht. Under his leadership, the General Staff became the actual supreme command of the armed forces, whose subordination to the Reich War Ministry became almost nominal. He gained a reputation for clear judgment and practical common sense that enabled him to see and judge men and things from a purely objective standpoint. Not only was his advice listened to in military affairs, but he frequently exercised great influence on important political and personal questions, gaining a great reputation throughout the monarchy as one of its most influential men, so much so that he sometimes was referred to informally as the "vice emperor."

In 1882, Beck received the honorary title of Inhaber (proprietor) of the 47th Infantry Regiment. He was appointed to the House of Lords of the Imperial Council in 1885, and in that year he initiated the creation of a general map of Central Europe, which was later produced at a scale of 1:200,000. He also initiated the introduction of photogrammetry as a recording method for topographic maps. In 1888 he was promoted to Kaiserlicher und königlicher Feldmarschall (Hungarian: Császári és királyi tábornagy, English: "imperial and royal field marshal"), and in 1893 he became a knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. During the Hungarian Crisis of 1905, Beck developed Fall U ("Case U"), a plan to suppress a possible uprising in the Kingdom of Hungary by force.[2]

In 1906, at the insistence of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Emperor Franz Josef I reluctantly replaced the 76-year-old Beck as chief of the general staff with Feldmarschallleutnant (Lieutenant Field Marshal) Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. In recognition of his many years of service, Beck was elevated to the rank of count and subsequently appointed captain of the Arcièren-Leibgarde (Lifeguard of Halberdiers). He retired in 1907 at the age of 77.

Later life

In 1913, Beck received imperial approval to be unite his name with that of the family name of his wife, Baroness Rzikowsky von Dobrschitz, whose male line had died out. Thereafter he was known as Friedrich von Beck-Rzikowsky.

In retirement, Beck-Rzikowsky was promoted to the newly created rank of Generaloberst (colonel general) in 1916. He died in Vienna, Austria, on 9 February 1920.[1]

Personal life

On 5 October 1905, Beck married Baroness Bianca Sylvia von Lazarini (1882–1949), Baroness Rzikowsky von Dobrschitz, the daughter of Baron Oskar Hippolyt von Lazarini and the noblewoman Helene von Rotarest. The couple's eldest daughter, Alice (born 1906), married Alfred Schwinner, the legation secretary of the Austrian embassy in Vienna, in September 1929.[3]

Orders and decorations

Notes

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as 'Count', not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "General Friedrich Graf Beck-Rzikowsky". Hmdb.org. The Historical Marker Database. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  2. ^ Deák, p. 70.
  3. ^ Welland, p. 266.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Hofstaat Seiner Kaiserlichen und Königlichen Apostolischen Majestät", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (in German), Vienna: Druck und Verlag der K.K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1916, p. 16 – via alex.onb.ac.at
  5. ^ a b c d "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1916, pp. 66, 85
  6. ^ "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1916, pp. 47, 51, 69
  7. ^ "Großherzogliche Orden", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (in German), Karlsruhe, 1910, pp. 42, 46, 272{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ "Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (supp.)", Preussische Ordens-Liste (in German), 1, Berlin: 5, 7, 1886 – via hathitrust.org
  9. ^ Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden". Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 208 – via hathitrust.org.

Bibliography

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Moritz Auffenberg-Komarow (1922). "Beck, Friedrich, Count". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  • "Beck-Rzikowsky Friedrich Graf" in Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 ("Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950"), Volume 1. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ("Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences"), Vienna, 1957, pp. 61 ff.
  • István Deák. Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848–1918. Oxford University Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-19-504505-X.
  • Peter Frank-Döfering (Hrsg). Adelslexikon des Österreichischen Kaisertums 1804-1918 ("Nobility Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire 1804-1918"). 1989 (in German).
  • Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. Franz Josephs Weggefährte. Das Leben des Generalstabschefs Graf Beck ("Francis Joseph's Companion. The Life of the Chief of General Staff Count Beck"). 1930 (in German)
  • Hellmuth Rößler: "Beck-Rzikowsky, Friedrich Graf von," in Neue Deutsche Biographie ("New German Biography"), Volume 1. Duncker & Humblot. Berlin: 1953. ISBN 3-428-00182-6, pp. 696 ff. (Digitalisat) (in German).
  • Albrecht Weiland: Der Campo Santo Teutonico in Rom und seine Grabdenkmäler ("The Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome and Its Grave Monuments."), Volume I. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1988, ISBN 3451208822 (in German).

Further reading

  • Scott W. Lackey. The Rebirth of the Habsburg Army: Friedrich Beck and the Rise of the General Staff. Greenwood, 1995.

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