Ein gescheitertes Experiment? Die Allgemeine Wehrpflicht in der multiethnischen Armee der Habsburgermonarchie

Abstract

A Failed Experiment? Conscription in the Multi-Ethnic Army of the Habsburg Monarchy

The article first looks at public military debates around 1900 which focused on the implementation of universal conscription in Austria-Hungary and concentrated on ethnic tensions within the empire. Ethnic conflicts were increasingly made responsible for the erosion of the Habsburg dual monarchy's foundations and its joint military. Against this background, the introduction and organisation of universal conscription since 1868 are analysed with a particular focus on the regulations set up to respond to the multi-ethnic structure of the Austrian-Hungarian army. The analysis continues with some aspects that reveal the social acceptance of the new recruiting system and led to very different reactions in the various regions of the monarchy. As a result the factors behind the problems and limits in implementing universal conscription transcended the multi-ethnic structures of Austria-Hungary. Thus multi-ethnicity was by no means the only cause of the problems. Only in combination with other categories such as religion, class, gender or social inequality, ethnicity could develop a disintegrative effect. However, this disintegrative impact remained limited in most territories of the Habsburg monarchy and could not challenge the general acceptance of universal conscription during the First World War.