Transformations of the officer corps in Hungary (1900-1940)

Abstract

'After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) a new national - Honved - army was set up, but four fifth of the conscripts from Hungary as well as half of the Hungarian officers were actually drafted in the k.u.k (royal and imperial) 'common Army' of the Habsburg Monarchy. There remained only 6%; - later 8%; - Hungarians in the 'common' k.u.k. officer corps. In the 1870 half of these Hungarian officers and even in the 1900s some 40%; were still noblemen. The Honved officer corps of the 1870s was a strange mixture. The elderly veterans of the 1848 revolution and war of independence were mostly noblemen. On the contrary, there was a number of peasant boys and others of humble social background among the younger subalterns, since the Honved army did not appear as distinguished enough socially for the 'better families'. Later these differences tended to disappear and by the early 20th century the Honved officer corps was considered of quite similar social and military standing as its k.u.k equivalent. Following the collapse of the Monarchy in 1918, the earlier members of the Honved prevailed in the new army of the rump state, because the royalist officers of the Habsburg Empire refused to serve under admiral Horthy considered as a 'traitor'. The new officer corps had thus much less noblemen and only a few real aristocrats, but - besides officers' sons - there were more and more sons of civil servants, railway and post officials as well as other members of the 'non economic' lower middle classes.' (author's abstract)|