Joseph Radetzky von Radetz
Johann Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz (en:
Count John Joseph Wenceslaus Radetzky von Radetz, in
Czech:
Jan Josef Václav hrabě Radecký z Radče) (
November 2,
1766 –
January 5,
1858) was a
Bohemian nobleman and
Austrian general, immortalised by
Johann Strauss I's
Radetzky March.
He was born to a noble family at
Třebnice (Trebnitz) in
Bohemia. Orphaned at an early age, he was educated by his grandfather, and after the old count's death, at the Theresa academy at
Vienna. The academy was dissolved during his first year's residence, and he joined the army as a cadet in the
Austrian army in
1785. Next year he became an officer, and in
1787 a first lieutenant in a
cuirassier regiment. He served as a galloper on
Count von Lacy's staff in the Turkish War, and in the
Low Countries during the
American Revolution.
In
1795 he fought on the
Rhine. Next year he served with
Beaulieu against
Napoleon in Italy, but disliked the indecisive "cordon" system of warfare which
Count von Lacy had instituted and other Austrian generals had imitated. His personal courage was conspicuous. At
Fleurus he led a party of cavalry through the French lines to discover the fate of
Charleroi, and at
Valeggio sul Mincio, with a few hussars, he rescued Beaulieu from the enemy. Promoted to major, he took part in
Wurmser's
Mantua campaign, which ended in the fall of Mantua. As lieutenant-colonel and colonel he displayed bravery and skill in the battles of
Trebbia and
Novi (1799). At the
Battle of Marengo, as colonel on the staff of
Melas, he was hit by five bullets, after endeavouring on the previous evening to bring about modifications in the plan suggested by the "scientific"
Zach. In 1801 Radetzky was created a Knight of the
Order of Maria Theresa.
In
1805, on the march to
Ulm, he received news of his promotion to major-general and his assignment to a command in
Italy under the
Archduke Charles of Austria, and thus took part in the successful
campaign of Caldiero. Peace again afforded him a short leisure, which he used in studying and teaching the art of war. In 1809, now a lieutenant field marshal, he fought at the
Battle of Wagram, and in 1810 he was created a Commander of the Order of Maria Theresa and was awarded the colonelcy of the 5th
Radetzky Hussars. From 1809 to 1812, as chief of the general staff, he was active in the reorganization of the army and its tactical system, but, unable to carry out the reforms he desired owing to the opposition of the Treasury, he resigned the post. In 1813 he was
Schwarzenberg's chief of staff, and as such had considerable influence on the councils of the Allied sovereigns and generals.
Langenau, the quartermaster-general of the Grand Army, found him an indispensable assistant, and he had a considerable share in planning the
Leipzig campaign and as a tactician won great praises in the battles of
Brienne and
Arcis sur Aube. He entered
Paris with the allied sovereigns in March 1814, and returned with them to the
Congress of Vienna, where he appears to have acted as an intermediary between
Metternich and Tsar
Alexander I of Russia, when the two were not on speaking terms.
During the succeeding years of peace he disappeared from public view. He resumed his functions as chief of staff, but his ardent ideas for reforming the army came to nothing in the face of the general war-weariness and desire to "let well alone." His zeal added to the number of his enemies, and in
1829, after he had been for twenty years a lieutenant field marshal, it was proposed to place him on the retired list. The emperor, unwilling to go so far as this, promoted him general of cavalry and shelved him by making him governor of a fortress. But very soon afterwards the Restoration settlement of Europe was shaken by fresh upheavals, and Radetzky was brought into the field of war again. He took part under
Frimont in the campaign against the Papal States insurgents, and succeeded that general in the chief command of the Austrian army in Italy in 1834.
In
1836 he became a field marshal. He was now seventy, but still displayed the activity of youth in training and disciplining the army he commanded. But here too he was in advance of his time, and the government not only disregarded his suggestions and warnings but also refused the money that would have enabled the finest army it possessed to take the field at a moment's notice. Thus the events of 1848 in Italy, which gave the old field marshal his place in history among the great commanders, found him, in the beginning, not indeed unprepared but seriously handicapped in the struggle with
Charles Albert's army and the insurgents. By falling back to the
Quadrilateral and there, checking one opponent after another, he was able to spin out time until reinforcements arrived, and thenceforward up to the final triumph of
Novara on
March 23,
1849, he and his army carried all before them. His well-disciplined sense of duty to the superior officer which had become more intense in the long years of peace, and after keeping his army loyal in the midst of the confusion of 1848, he made no attempt to play the part of
Wallenstein or even to assume
Wellington's role of family adviser to the nation. While as a patriot he dreamed a little of a united Germany, he remained to the end simply the commander of one of the emperor's armies. He died in harness, though in poor health.
In military history Radetzky's fame rests on one great achievement, but in the history of the Austrian army he is the frank and kindly "Vater Radetzky" whom the soldiers idolized. In the year following his death, another and greater Italian war broke out, and his beloved army disintegrated and was defeated in every encounter.
*
Radetzky in history
*Alan Sked:
The survival of the Habsburg Empire : Radetzky, the Imperial Army, and the Class War, 1848. London ; New York : Longman, 1979 ISBN 0-582-50711-1
*Oskar Regele:
Feldmarschall Radetzky: Leben, Leistung, Erbe. Wien: Herald, [1957]
Works by Radetzky
*Joseph Radetzky von Radetz:
Denkschriften militärisch-politischen Inhalts aus dem handschriftlichen Nachlass des k.k. österreichischen Feldmarschalls Grafen Radetzky. Stuttgart : J.G. Cotta, 1858
Correspondence
*Joseph Radetzky von Radetz:
Briefe des Feldmarschalls Radetzky an seine Tochter Friederike 1847-1857; aus dem Archiv der freiherrlichen Familie Walterskirchen hrsg. von Bernhard Duhr : Festschrift der Leo-Gesellschaft zur feierlichen Enthüllung des Radetzsky-Denkmals in Wien. Wien : J. Roller, 1892.These are Radetzky's letters to his daughter Friederike Radetzky von Radetz, Gräfin Wenckheim, published to celebrate the unveiling of the Radetzky monument in Vienna.
Biographies
(There has been no full-length biography of Radetzky in English).
*Franz Herre:
Radetzky: eine Biographie. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, c1981. ISBN 3-462-01486-2
*Franz Ferdinand Hoettinger:
Radetzky : ein Stück Österreich. Leipzig ; Wien : Höger, 1934.
*Joseph Radetzky von Radetz:
Radetzky: sein Leben und sein Wirken; nach Briefen, Berichten und autobiographischen Skizzen zusammengestellt von Ernst Molden. Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, [1915] (Österreichische Bibliothek; Nr. 10)
*Alessandro Luzio:
Radetzky. Bergamo: Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche, 1901
Military career
*Petr Havel and Andrej Romanák:
Maršál Radecký: vojevůdce pěti císarů. Praha: Paseka, 2000. ISBN 80-7185-297-X
*Viktor Bibl:
Radetzky: Soldat und Feldherr. Wien: J. Günther, [c1955]
*Hugo Kerchnawe:
Radetzky: eine militär-biographische Studie. Prag: Volk und Reich Verlag, [1944]
*Oskar Freiherr Wolf-Schneider von Arno:
Der Feldherr Radetzky. [Wien: Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, 1934] (Reprinted from the second ed. of 'Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen', No. 3)
*Hermann Kunz:
Die Feldzüge des Feldmarschalls Radetzky in Oberitalien 1848 und 1849. Berlin : R. Wilhelmi, 1890
*A. B. Gavenda and Franz de Vuko et Branko(eds.):
Feldmarschall Graf Radetzky, sein Leben und seine Taten. Prag: Rohlicek, 1858
*Franz Schneidawind:
Feldmarschall Graf Radetzky: sein kriegerisches Leben und seine Feldzüge vom Jahre 1784-1850. Augsburg: Schmid, 1851
*Johann Sporschil:
Der Feldzug der Oesterreicher in der Lombardei unter dem General-Feldmarschall Grafen Radetzky in den Jahren 1848 und 1849. 2. Ausg. Stuttgart: Köhler, 1850
*P. S. Lebedev:
Graf Radetskii i ego pokhody v Italii. [n.p.], 1850.
Anedoctal Histories
*Anni Stern-Braunberg:
In deinem Lager ist Österreich!: Geschichte und Anekdoten um Feldmarschall Radetzky. Graz : Stocker, 2000 ISBN 3-7020-0898-5
*Otto Stradal:
Der andere Radetzky: Tatsachen und Gedanken um ein Phänomen. Wien : Österreichischer Bundesverlag, c1981 ISBN 3-215044-38-2
*Franz Grobauer (ed.):
In seinem Lager war Österreich: Feldmarschall Radetzky in Geschichte und Anekdote. [Wien], 1957
Radetzky in drama and music
*Alexander Lernet-Holenia:
Radetzky: Schauspiel in drei Akten. [Frankfurt am Main]: S. Fischer, 1956.
*Johann Strauss:
Radetzky march [Opus 228]; arranged by Carlo Martelli [for string quartet]. London : Broadbent & Dunn, c1994
