Rudolf

Graf (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as " count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is " ...

Montecuccoli degli Erri (22 February 1843-16 May 1922) was chief of the

Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (german: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', hu, Császári és Királyi Haditengerészet) was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the A ...

from 1904 to 1913 and largely responsible for the modernization of the fleet before the First World War.

Overview

Montecuccoli was born in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and '' comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. A town, and seat o ...

in 1843, a descendant of the famous imperial ''Feldmarschall'',

Raimondo Montecuccoli Raimondo Montecuccoli (; 21 February 1609 – 16 October 1680) was an Italian-born professional soldier, military theorist, and diplomat, who served the Habsburg monarchy. Experiencing the Thirty Years' War from scratch as a simple footsoldier ...

(1609–1680). Raimondo Montecuccoli's only son died in 1698, but the title of count descended through his daughters to two lines, Austrian and Modenese. When Rudolf Montecuccoli was born, Modena was still an Austrian Habsburg possession, ruled by the house of Austria-Este. During the 1859 Italian campaign, however, the last Habsburg Duke of Modena, Francesco V, fled to Austria following the Austrian defeat at

Magenta Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish-crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and blu ...

(4 June). Italian patriots seized control, demanding union with the Kingdom of Sardinia. This was confirmed by plebiscite in March 1860, and at the age of 17 Montecuccoli saw his birthplace and ancestral home pass under what he considered a foreign sovereignty. (A year later, Modena became part of the Kingdom of Italy.) Educated as a naval officer, Montecuccoli was little known outside the Austro-Hungarian naval establishment before his appointment as ''Marinekommandant'' (Navy Commander) and ''Chef der Marinesektion'' (Chief of the Naval Section) of the War Ministry in October 1904, upon the resignation of Hermann von Spaun. Montecuccoli found his efforts to modernize the fleet impeded by chronic domestic political friction in the annual budget debate of the Reichsrat, which was composed of 60-member delegations from the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments. Faced with Italian plans to build a

dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

battleship, Montecuccoli on 20 February 1908 announced Austria-Hungary's intention to build such vessels. The design was accepted on 27 April 1909; Montecuccoli thought the necessary funds could be obtained in the 1910 budget, to be debated in October 1909. He suggested that

Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) ("Technical Establishment of Trieste") was a private shipbuilding company based in Trieste from the mid-19th to early 20th century, and the most important naval shipbuilding firm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. ...

(STT) and Škoda should begin construction of the ships and guns on their own account until the naval budget was adopted. When the time came, the Reichsrat denied the funds for domestic political reasons. Montecuccoli was compelled to resort to an intricate web of propaganda and deception to camouflage the fact that the new ships did not have Reichsrat approval. He asserted that industry was financing the construction of two dreadnoughts on speculation; this was completely untrue, and both STT and Skoda were extremely nervous about the subterfuge. In the event, and could not be laid down until after Montecuccoli took an expensive 32 million crown credit in 1910 upon his own responsibility. By that time Italy had launched and laid down three more dreadnoughts, and France had laid down , her first. Winter landscape with elegant figures on the ice before a town

Winter landscape with elegant figures on the ice before a town

The first Austro-Hungarian dreadnoughts were thus already under construction when the Reichsrat delegations met in March 1911 to consider the 1911 budget. ''Viribus Unitis'' and ''Tegetthoff'' were authorized retroactively by the deputies, who also sanctioned construction of and . Approval of these two later ships was calculated to keep the balance between the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the Dual Monarchy. Only one went to the Austrian-owned STT at Trieste, the other going to the Danubius Yard at the Hungarian port of

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...

, and the two ships' names carefully chosen to reflect, respectively, Austrian and Hungarian national pride. Montecuccoli retired as head of the naval administration on his 70th birthday, 22 February 1913, and was succeeded by

Anton Haus Anton Johann Haus (13 June 1851 – 8 February 1917) was an Austrian naval officer. Despite his German surname, he was born to a Slovenian-speaking family in Tolmein (now Tolmin, Slovenia). Haus was fleet commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy ...

. The Austro-Hungarian fleet, so arduously modernized by Montecuccoli and maintained in wartime by Haus as a '

fleet in being In naval warfare, a "fleet in being" is a naval force that extends a controlling influence without ever leaving port. Were the fleet to leave port and face the enemy, it might lose in battle and no longer influence the enemy's actions, but while ...

', was parceled out among the victorious powers after 1918. Montecuccoli died in Baden-bei-Wien in 1922, at the age of 79.

Honours

He received the following orders and decorations:

Literature

* Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. * Jane's Fighting Ships 1914.

Overview

Honours

Literature

References

Notes

See also