Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces

Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces
Bewaffnete Macht
Standard of the Supreme Commander in Chief, the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary
Founded5 March 1867
Disbanded3 December 1918
Service branches Austro-Hungarian Army

Austro-Hungarian Navy

Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops
HeadquartersVienna
Leadership
Supreme CommanderHermann Kövess von Kövessháza (last)
Minister of WarRudolf Stöger-Steiner von Steinstätten (last)
Chief of the General StaffArthur Arz von Straußenburg (last)
Personnel
Military age17 years of age
Available for
military service
13,402,788, age 15–49 (1914 est.)
Fit for
military service
9,031,046, age 15–49 (1914 est.)
Reaching military
age annually
423,809 (1914 est.)
Active personnel2,500,000 (1914)
Deployed personnel7,800,000 (1914–1918)
Industry
Domestic suppliersAustria-Hungary Skoda
Austria-Hungary Steyr Mannlicher
Related articles
HistoryAustrian Empire
Austrian Army
Military history of Austria
Imperial and Royal Army during the Napoleonic Wars
RanksArmy ranks
Navy ranks
The Corps of Austria-Hungary in 1894 (in German)
The 16 Military Districts of Austria-Hungary in 1898 (in German)
Arms of the Habsburg Dynasty
The Cross Pattee
Merchant and naval ensign: 1786 (1869)–1918

The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces (German: Bewaffnete Macht or Wehrmacht; Hungarian: Fegyveres Erő) or Imperial and Royal Armed Forces were the military forces of Austria-Hungary. It comprised two main branches: The Army (Landstreitkräfte) and the Navy (Kriegsmarine). Both of them organised their own aviation branches – the Army's Aviation Troops (K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen) and the Navy's Naval Aviation (K.u.K. Seefliegerkorps). The Army in turn consisted of its own three branches: The Common Army (Gemeinsame Armee), the Imperial-Royal Landwehr (kaiserlich-königliche Landwehr) and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd (königlich ungarische Landwehr).

Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces was the Emperor-King, the professional leader was the Chief of the General Staff and the head of the joint Ministry for military affairs was the Minister of War.

The Armed Forces served as one of the Empire's core unifying institutions and the principal instrument for the national defense as well as external power projection. The history of the Austro-Hungarian military begins when the Habsburgs established hereditary rule over Austrian lands in the 13th century and stretches until the fall of the Habsburgs, at the end of World War I, during which time their armies were among the largest and most significant in Europe. Though not as powerful as some of its contemporaries, the military of Austria-Hungary's scale, resources, organization, technology and training were one of the central factors determining conferral of 'great power' status on the empire for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries.