Karl Křitek

Karl Křitek was born on 28 October 1854 in Split as son of Johann Victor Křitek (1830–1904), a military commissioner. He went to a military school in Mährisch-Weisskirchen before entering the Theresian Military Academy in Vienna in 1876. He graduated three years later and was commissioned into the 52nd Infantry Regiment. Late he went to war school and in 1888 was permanently transferred to the general staff.[1] In 1894 he was made Chief of Staff of the 8th Infantry Division.[2] After the turn of the century he was assigned to head the general staff's Landesbeschreibungsbüro (Area Studies Divsion). He expanded and improved the bureau until returning to command duty as a general, first as Generalmajor and commander of the 20th Infanty Brigade in 1906, then as Feldmarschallleutnant leading the 49th Infantry Division in 1910.[3]

When World War I began in 1914 he commanded the 26th Landwehr Infantry Division. In the same year he was promoted to General of the Infantry and succeeded Karl Georg Huyn in command of the XVII Corps; leading it at the Eastern, Carpathian and Italian fronts until early 1917.[3] Throughout this time he had a mixed record. His commanding officer General Svetozar Boroević, who had rated him as not suitable for a higher command back in the Carpathians, totally changed his assessment of him in Italy.[4] Initially given command of the X Corps, back in the east, half a year later Křitek succeeded Karl Tersztyánszky von Nádas as commander of the 3rd Army.[3] Meanwhile he had been promoted to Generaloberst on 1 May 1917.[5] In early 1918 his army was absorbed into the 7th Army. He accordingly received command of the latter and fought in Operation Faustschlag.[3] The 1918 offensive forced the fledgling Russian Soviet Republic back on the table for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and thus out of the war. He commanded the 7th Army until it was disbanded in April. Křitek officially retired on 1 December 1918.[5]

He eventually died in Vienna on 3 September 1928.[3]

Among his decorations and recognitions were:[6]

• 1908 Jubilee Cross
• Bronze Jubilee Medal for the Armed Forces
• Long Service Cross for Officers 2nd Class
• Decoration for Services to the Red Cross 1st Class (with War Decoration)
• Bronze Military Merit Medal
• Order of the Iron Crown 1st Class (with Swords and War Decoration)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold (with Swords and War Decoration)
• Military Merit Cross 1st Class (with Swords and War Decoration)
• Geheimrat

• Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd Classes (Prussia)

• List of Austro-Hungarian colonel generals

• Svoboda, Johann (1894). Die Theresianische Militär-Akademie zu Wiener-Neustadt und ihre Zöglinge von der Gründung der Anstalt bis auf unsere Tage, Band II (in German). Vienna: Court and State Print.
• Svoboda, Johann (1894). Die Theresianische Militär-Akademie zu Wiener-Neustadt und ihre Zöglinge von der Gründung der Anstalt bis auf unsere Tage, Band III (in German). Vienna: Court and State Print.
• Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950, Band 14 (in German). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. 2015. ISBN 978-3-7001-7794-4.
• Buttar, Prit (2015). Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472813541.
• Schmidt-Brentano, Antonio (2007). Die k. k. bzw. k. u. k. Generalität 1816-1918 (in German). National Archives of Austria. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013.
• Ranglisten des kaiserlichen und königlichen Heeres 1918 (in German). Vienna: Court and State Print. 1918.