“…It is with this elevated spirit that I place myself on the Grand Cross,
expressing my gratitude and greetings to you.”
One of the most prestigious decorations of the Austrian Empire, and later of the Monarchy, and perhaps of the world, awarded primarily in war, was the Military Order of Maria Theresa, preceded in rank only by the Order of the Golden Fleece. The value of this rare and unique object is only increased by the fact that the cross and star, which became part of the collection of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation, had once belonged to Charles I (IV), and after his death in 1922 was only available to the family, never having been exhibited or used at any other event. Among Hungarian personalities, only the legendary Count András Hadik, President of the Court Military Council and Field Marshal (for the capture of Berlin), Count Ferenc Nádasdy, General of Maria Theresa, commander of the Battle of Kolín (1757) and Baron József Alvinczi, hero of Charleroi (1793), were honoured with this significant and historic decoration.
The order was founded by Maria Theresa on 22 June 1757, following the Austrian victory at the Battle of Kolín, and was endowed until 1918. After the First World War, the Order Chapter continued to work with the tacit consent of the Austrian government – and the approval of Charles I – processing pending applications from the war. After the Emperor relinquished his right to exercise his power (1919), the Chancellor of the Order became first Field Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorf, and then, with his death in 1925, General Viktor Dankl.[1] From 20 November 1930, when Otto von Habsburg came of age, most of the owners of the Order regarded the young Crown Prince as Grand Master. The period of Otto’s “grandmastership”, however, ended on 3 October 1931, after the last promotion, when the Chapter ceased its activities.[2] The last recipients were Field Marshal Svetozar Boroević von Bojna, Captain Péter Roósz, First Lieutenant Karl Rucziczka and Reservist Lieutenant Peter Scheider. In 1939 the order was transformed into the Maria Theresien-Ordensstiftung.[3]
Keeping in contact with the Order and its members was always an important part of Charles and Otto’s life. Otto was in correspondence with the recipients or their descendants for longer or shorter periods: such as the ‘Eagle of Trieste’, Gottfried von Banfield,[4] a World War I naval aeroplane pilot (he was also the last living member of the Order, passing away in 1986), Major Oskar Hofmann[5], a Knight’s Cross honoree who, together with Gustav Hubka, published a book in 1943 with biographies of the recipients of the Order’s decorations during and after the First World War, and the son of General Josef Roth von Limanowa-Łapanów, Josef Roth-Limanowa.[6] Gottfried von Banfield exchanged letters with Otto between 1970 and 1984, Oskar Hofmann between 1958 and 1959, and Josef Roth-Limanowa between 1962 and 1964.
The correspondence with Banfield began in 1970, when the former heir to the throne greeted the Knight on his 80th birthday. In 1977 they met in person and visited Monte San Gabriele along the Isonzo together. In 1958, Oskar Hofmann sent New Year’s greetings on behalf of the Order. The letters reveal that the 14 Austrian members of the Order who were still alive were also greeted by Empress Zita. During this period, Oskar Hofmann held the office of Chancellor of the Order. In December 1962, Josef Roth-Limanowa, a member of the Franz Joseph Memorial Committee, approached Otto for help in creating a statue depicting the Emperor. The statue was the work of Professor Hans Andre – who had also designed the portrait of Archduke Eugene – and was to be installed in the Votivkirche in Vienna. The committee asked Otto to recommend the patron of the statue. Otto proposed Count Hans Hoyos and Prince Heinrich Schwarzenberg.
The Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa in the collection of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation
The order itself had three ranks: the Grand Cross, the Commander’s Cross and the Knight’s Cross. Only those who, in a commanding capacity, positively influenced the outcome of a battle, were eligible to be decorated. Admission to the Order was requested by a candidate who considered himself worthy, and a lengthy examination followed. Obtaining the decoration was more difficult than, for example, the Prussian Pour le Mérite (founded in 1740), or the Imperial Russian Order of the White Eagle (1831). Only three heads of state or monarchs are currently active in bestowing decorations of comparable prestige and distinction: the President of the United States of America the Medal of Honour (founded in 1862), the Head of State of France the National Order of the Legion of Honour (1802) – perhaps also the Croix de guerre, established in 1915 – and the Monarch of Great Britain the Victoria Cross (1856).
Between 1757 and 1931, some 4,392 applications were submitted, of which 1,240 were awarded one of the degrees of the Order.[7] The Grand Cross was only conferred on members of the decisive high command (commanders of the armies).[8] The Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa is made of gold-plated silver with a millesimal fineness of 800. By decision of the Grand Master and the Chapter, having held only 50 Chapter meetings in 174 years, it was awarded to 61 persons, 11 of whom for their services in the First World War. Emperor Charles I received this high honour on 17 January 1917,[9] with the 174th promotion (in total there were 195 promotion ceremonies). Due to the lengthy nature of the judging process, only four of the 131 awards of all ranks awarded in the First World War were granted before Charles ascended the throne (30 December 1916). Only 22% of the medals given during the Great War were made before 1918, 78% between 1920 and 1931. Initially, recipients only received a declaration of dignity, and then had to obtain the pieces themselves. From the mid-1920s onwards, the Museum of Military History in Vienna (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum) gave away old medals, mainly from the Napoleonic Wars – making it less expensive than acquiring new ones.
The jeweller of the Order was the firm C. F. Rothe und Neffe, who operated their jewellery company at Kohlmarkt 7 in the centre of Vienna, in the 1st district. The company took the name in 1850 after the founder, Christian Friedrich Rothe, had been joined by his nephew Anton Otto Gerbitz. In 1855, they were appointed court goldsmiths to the Austrian Empire by Emperor Franz Joseph I and in 1868 they were promoted to the rank of Imperial Chamber Jeweller (kaiserliche Kammerjuwelier). In addition to the Order’s crosses, they also made the medals of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of Leopold, as well as Elizabeth’s diamond crown at the coronation of the Emperor.
Emperor and King Charles in Constantinople, among his decorations with the Grand Cross (1918)
After the war, the Hungarian government would have liked Austria to return the crosses of the Hungarians. It should be noted that after the death of the honoured person, the crosses had to be returned to the Chapter of the Order, and the heirs were obliged to follow this rule. By a decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I of 11 February 1886, on the proposal of Crown Prince Rudolf, it was declared that the returned medals should be given to the Military History Museum in Vienna for perpetuity. The exception to this rule is the Emperor, as Grand Master of the Order. The obligation to return the medals was abolished in 1940. Up to 1928, Hungary deemed 75 persons to have proven Hungarian ties, and thus applied for the return of their decorations. As a result of the negotiations in Baden in 1926, the Military History Museum in Vienna had promised to hand over 39 medals, but in 1931 only 26 were transferred through the Viennese Embassy, because in June 1930 unauthorised persons had broken into the museum and had stolen 13 of the medals. Among the received crosses, there was no Grand Cross, as none of the last Hungarian owners of the crosses preserved at the time of the negotiations had a Grand Cross. Although the Hungarian side asked for one, they received only a copy in October.[10] According to Ágnes Makai’s research, most of them were destroyed at the end of World War II, leaving only four Knight’s Crosses in the collection of the Budapest Military History Museum, and not a single Grand Cross.[11] In the exhibition “Fortitudini – To Valour”, held in 1997 to commemorate the 240th anniversary of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, only one Grand Cross was on display, and it was in private ownership.
But how did Charles earn the Grand Cross? Like all male members of the royal family, Charles had military training. His career began in 1903 when, at the age of 16, he became a lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of the Imperial and Royal Uhlans, from where he was transferred to the 7th Regiment of the Imperial and Royal Dragoons in 1905. He quickly moved up the ladder. In 1906 he became a First Lieutenant and in 1909, a Captain. Shortly before Otto’s birth, he reaches the rank of major and is assigned to the Imperial and Royal 39th Infantry Regiment as Commander of the 1st Battalion. Before the outbreak of the First World War, having received general staff training, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became a staff officer in the Imperial and Royal 1st Hussars Regiment. After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, he becomes heir to the throne, and at the start of military operations he is already a Colonel at the headquarters of the Armeeoberkommando (“Army Higher Command”) in Przemyśl.[12]
He was considered to be extremely disciplined and a good horseman, always addressing his soldiers with empathy and directness during his visits to the front. In 1915 he was already Major-General. At the start of the following Austro-Hungarian offensive in South Tyrol in 1916, he was Lieutenant General in the post of corps commander, which he had requested himself. He was concerned with the sparing of military manpower and emphasised the rapid and professional care of soldiers and the wounded. In the offensive launched on 15 May 1916 in the Asiago and Arsiero area against the 1st Italian Army, he achieves significant successes. Later, the Brusilov offensive and the invasion of Romania in Transylvania put Charles first in the position of army commander and then in the position of army group commander.[13] As a result of the successes, he was promoted to Cavalry General in August, and a few days before the death of Franz Joseph, the old Emperor promoted him to General-Colonel.
Charles I at the conferment of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, among his officers
17 August 1917 in front of Wartholz Castle in Reichenau
It was primarily his Commanding Officer post on the Italian front that earned him the Grand Cross. The surviving sources of the Chapter of the Military Order of Maria Theresa contain only the fact of the conferment and Charles’s letter of acceptance, which he wrote in Trento on 17 January 1917. Along with the introductory praise, he pays tribute to the soldiers of the Edelweiss (XX Corps[14]), and concludes his short letter with the following lines: “If, as Grand Master, I have the right to pin this highest military decoration on my chest, it is only the plea of well-deserved leaders and loyal, battle-hardened troops that makes me feel proud to wear the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa in the face of the enemy. It is with this elevated spirit that I place myself on the Grand Cross, expressing my gratitude and greetings to you.”[15] The letter was filed at the Chapter of the Order on 24 January and was handed over by Colonel Egon Zeidler-Daublebsky von Sterneck, who later became one of the Emperor’s chief advisers. During this period, he was working in His Majesty’s Military Office, and from became Head of the Office on 18 May 1918.
The Grand Cross continued to play an important role in the life of Charles I. He wore it often during his reign, and it is clearly visible in several surviving contemporary photographs. During his first attempt to return to the Hungarian throne in 1921, he offered it, along with the ducal title, to Regent Miklós Horthy, on 27 March 1921, when he met him at Buda Castle, in order for him to hand over power.[16]
Following the death of the Emperor, the Grand Cross was kept by Empress Zita and was later passed on to Otto in Pöcking. After his death, now in 2024, it became part of the collection of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation.
Ádám Suslik
[1] Makai Ágnes – Sallay Gergely Pál: A Mária Terézia Katonai Rend történetének utolsó fejezete. Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, 2005, 4, 1053–1054.
[2] Today, the Military Order of Maria Theresa is a central symbol of the Austrian Bundesheer’s Theresianische Militärakademie in Wiener Neustadt.
[3] The headquarters of the Order stood on Minoritenplatz in Vienna until 1922. The documents were later transferred to the Kriegsarchiv in two parts. The director of the archives was also deputy director of the foundation from 1949.
[4] Otto von Habsburg Foundation. Correspondence with individuals and organisations (hereinafter HOAL I-2-b.) Gottfried von Banfield.
[5] HOAL I-2-b. Oskar Hofmann.
[6] HOAL I-2-b. Josef Roth-Limanowa.
[7] Makai Ágnes: A Katonai Mária Terézia Rend emlékei múzeumunkban. A Hadtörténeti Múzeum Értesítője 2. 1987, 196. See also: Schwartz, Walter A.: „Vergänglicher Glanz… Altösterreichs Orden”. Wien, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, 2005, 20–23.
[8] ,,A nagykereszttel ellenben igen takarékosan kell bánni, ez csakis abban az esetben hozható javaslatba, ha ugyanabban a tettben a vitézséghez rendkívül eszes magatartás is járul.” In: A rendjelek és kitüntetések történelmünkben. Szerk. Felszeghy Ferenc et al. Budapest, Társadalmi Könyv- és Lapkiadó Vállalat, [1943], 124.
[9] ÖStA. KA BA MMThO Karton 299. Fasc. V. Nr. 174. Special thanks go to Major Dr. Attila Süli, staff member of the HM HIM Vienna Branch, for his help in tracing the records of the Military Order of Maria Theresa of King Charles IV of Hungary.
[10] Makai 1987, 203–207.
[11] Dr. Gergely Sallay kindly informed us that in 2018 we had managed to purchase a Grand Cross star, but the second part of the medal, the Grand Cross, is missing.
[12] ÖStA, Qualifi kationsliste Erzherzoge. Available online.
[13] Ligeti Dávid: Hadtestparancsnokból legfelsőbb hadúr: IV. Károly katonai pályafutása 1916-ban. Veritas Évkönyv, 2019, 130–140.
[14] The corps was set up in March 1916. Its first commander was Charles. From January 1917 it was renumbered XIV Corps.
[15] ÖStA. KA BA MMThO Karton 299. Fasc. V. Nr. 174. and Hofmann, Oskar – Hubka, Gustav: Der Militär-Maria Theresien-Orden. Die Auszeichnungen im Weltkrieg 1914–1918. Wien, Verl. Militärwiss. Mitteilungen, 1944, 15.
[16] Makai Ágnes: A Katonai Mária Terézia Rend újabb emlékei. In: Numizmatika és társtudományok III. [A Nyíregyházán 1997. október 17–19. között tartott konferencia előadásai.] Főszerk. Németh Péter. Nyíregyháza, Jósa András Múzeum, 1999. Available online.
