In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

2 Admission Standards and Education aristocratic redoubt Admission Standards and Education Whatever their advantages, noble birth and upbringing often provided acceptable substitutes for educational and professional preparation in the view of the Ballhausplatz. The majority of diplomats on the eve of the war had entered the foreign of¤ce during the long tenures of Foreign Ministers Kálnoky (1881–95) and Go|uchowski (1895–1906), when partiality for the well-born reached its peak. In that entire quarter century, the admissions standards for aspiring diplomats underwent neither reform nor revision, despite the changing parameters of international relations. Kinship networks among the aristocracy and the pervasiveness of Viennese Protektion frequently reduced troublesome admissions requirements to farcical proportions . The reputations and credibility of the two examinations required of applicants consequently declined. As in Great Britain, the existence of tests and minimal professional prerequisites played only a subordinate role in foreign of¤ce recruitment, while tact, re¤ned manners, a private income, and good looks remained the paramount considerations.1 Many individual decisions, based upon a wide variety of factors, led young candidates for admission to present themselves at the baroque palace on the Ballhausplatz. Nevertheless, background and upbringing closely conditioned career choice. For the great nobility, job possibilities remained limited down to the fall of the monarchy. Very few occupations were considered suitable to a nobleman’s social rank.2 The military and service in the more prestigious branches of the bureaucracy provided the most frequent avenues of advancement. Younger sons could also ¤nd places in the hierarchy of the church. But careers in business and trade continued to be deprecated.3 Given such restrictions, some noblemen, little enticed by life as an army of¤cer or as a celibate clergyman, no doubt chose the foreign of¤ce almost by default. One such was Count Karl 33 Almeida, whose tepid enthusiasm for diplomacy re¶ected his greater distaste for the other professions open to him. Finding existence in a remote garrison town or behind the walls of a monastery equally unappealing, Almeida concluded that diplomacy furnished the only vocation compatible with his station.4 His tours of duty as an attaché in two of Europe’s most alluring capitals, St. Petersburg and Rome, may have convinced him that he had selected the best course. Considerations of propriety in the choice of a career occasionally combined with other determinants to make the diplomatic service appear desirable. Around 1901, Prince Vincenz Windisch-Grätz, son of the president of the Austrian House of Lords, became involved in an affair with Lona Kussinger, an adventuress whose preference seems to have been for “young, inexperienced cavaliers.” According to one report, Kussinger used blackmail to entrap her victims, and rumors also circulated that she was infected with syphilis. In June 1906, one of the prince’s creditors apparently informed his father of the liaison. Fearing for his son’s health and reputation, as well as horri¤ed by the debts totaling 200,000 Kronen incurred in pursuit of this passion, Prince Alfred considered having his son placed under guardianship. Although receiving regular reports from the Viennese police detailing his son’s continuing contact with the seductress , he at ¤rst proved unable to force a break between the pair. But threats to reduce his inheritance, as well as pressure from his mother,¤nally brought young Windisch-Grätz to capitulate.5 In order to forestall any possible renewal of the relationship, Prince Alfred decided to send his son overseas. Perhaps mobilizing contacts cultivated as president of the House of Lords, Alfred Windisch-Grätz arranged for Vincenz to serve as a provisional attaché at the embassy in Washington. Within a few months of taking up his new post, though, the younger Windisch-Grätz’s outlook had improved so much that he expressed a desire to remain in the diplomatic service. The following year he passed the entrance examination at the Ballhausplatz and received his ¤rst de¤nitive assignment. In other words, “what had begun as merely the solution to an interfamilial con-¶ict, [had] now developed, on the basis of a personal decision, into a long-range career-plan [Lebensplanung].” 6 Family tradition undoubtedly motivated some to enter the foreign service. Of his many ancestors, Count Rudolf Khevenhüller-Metsch, ambassador in Paris, especially admired Hans Khevenhüller, who had served as the envoy of Maximilian II and Rudolf II at the Spanish court.7 Count Alfons Clary planned to enter the diplomatic corps in the footsteps...

Share