Conrad von Hötzendorf, Franz (Baron, from 1918 Count), b. Penzing near Vienna, Nov. 11, 1852, d. Bad Mergentheim (Germany), Aug. 25, 1925, important general and army commander of Austria-Hungary in World War I. Chief of staff of the Imperial Army 1906-1911 and 1912-1917, army group commander in 1917 and field marshal. Reformed the tactical training and esp. the officer's training of officers in the Imperial Army and prepared it for war. After battles involving heavy losses in the summer and winter of 1914 in Galicia, C. played a major role in the success of the battle at Tarnów-Gorlice and the stabilisation of the Eastern front, but he was also at least partly responsible for setbacks such as the South Tyrolean offensive in 1916 and the Russian breakthrough at Luck. He was opposed to increasing German dominance in all theatres of war of the European Central Powers. 1917 dismissed as chief of staff by Emperor Karl, but until July 1918 as field marshal remained in command of an army group in Italy named after him. Later Colonel of all Guards. Wrote several books on military tactics, a fragment of an autobiography "Mein Anfang" (1925) and together with civil servants from the war archives his major works, the large-scale, partly autobiographical book "Aus meiner Dienstzeit 1906-1918" (5 vols., 1921-1925).∼Franz Xaver Josef Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf was an Austrian general who played a central role in World War I. He served as Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the military of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Navy from 1906 to 1917. He was in charge during the July Crisis of 1914 that caused World War I. For years he had repeatedly called for preemptive war against Serbia to rescue the multiethnic Habsburg Empire, which was, he believed, nearing disintegration. Later on, he came to believe that the Dual Monarchy had taken action at the eleventh hour. The Army was also unprepared and he had resorted to politics to further his goals. He was unaware that Germany would relocate the majority of his forces to the East, rather than in the Balkans. Conrad was anxious about invading Russia and when the Tsar's armies had captured the Carpathian mountain passes and were on the verge of invading Hungary, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies. Nevertheless, the Austro-Germans cleared Galicia and Poland during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive in the summer of 1915 and later conquered Serbia in October. From 1915 his troops were increasingly reliant on German support and command. Without support from his Germanic allies the Austro-Hungarian Army was an exhausted force. In March 1917, Charles I of Austria dismissed him as Chief of Staff after Emperor Franz Joseph died and Conrad's Trentino Offensive had failed to achieve its objective; he then commanded an army group on the Italian Front until he retired in the summer of 1918. He died in 1925. For decades he was celebrated as a great strategist, albeit one who was defeated in all his major campaigns. Historians now rate him as a failure whose grandiose plans were unrealistic. During his tenure, repeated military catastrophe brought the Austrian army to its near destruction.