Page 282 - Il 1919. Un’Italia vittoriosa e provata in un’Europa in trasformazione. Problematiche e prospettive - Atti 11-12 novembre 2019

280 Il 1919. Un’Italia vittoriosa e provata in un’Europa in trasformazione

main emphasis was on the factors of rapid availability of troops to defend areas
of German settlement and of aligning the defence system with the other federal
states of the German Empire, a country they considered themselves to be a part
of.
Besides the already mentioned purely political and fundamental assessments,
understandably enough there also were very concrete military considerations,
compiled by the military personnel of the State Military Office. In this respect
several individuals need to be mentioned: the former head of Fachgruppe (specialist
group) IV “Liaison” and future presidential director of the State office, Colonel
Theodor Körner, as well as three former members of the department of organ-
ization of the Imperial and Royal War Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel Josef Rettl,
Major Robert R. von Srbik, and Captain Karl Bornemann, and also Major Johann
25
Friedländer of the “Volkswehr group.” Körner’s approach was that of a former
member of the Imperial and Royal general staff. Besides inviting consultation by
military experts about forms of organization such as militia army, enlisted cadre
army or cadre army, there also were queries about the political ideas mentioned
above. Afterwards, based on the assessments, such documents were to be com-
piled after Deutsch’s approval that was supposed to be handed over to Colonel
26
Karl Schneller (head of the “state treaty group” in Department 1/N (Intelli-
gence) of the State Military Office), assigned to the German-Austrian delegation
as an expert for military matters, as guidelines for the peace talks in Paris.

In the spring of 1919, it was the “intelligence department” which also served
as an informal point of contact for the foreign-political goal of an approximation
or integration of the German-Austrian military with a German army. Major Gen-
eral August von Cramon, the former German authorized representative in the
Imperial and Royal Army High Command, and his assistant at the time, Major
Paul Fleck, played an important role in this matter. Especially the latter, member
of the department “Foreign Armies” in the German General Staff, was con-
cerned with the “Anschluss problem” as well as the possibilities of a military con-
vention. Cramon and Fleck were staying in Vienna in late February 1919 and
were already negotiating about an intensive cooperation in the field of intelli-

Museum 1968, Vienna 1968, p. 201-228, p.213
25 Broucek, Militärische Vorbereitungen, p. 206
26 ÖSTA/KA/B/509 Estate Schneller Nr. 2/1295