Talk:Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli

Untitled
There are two copies of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_von_B%C3%B6hm-Ermolli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Freiherr_von_B%C3%B6hm-Ermolli —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.132.27.108 (talk) 10:07, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Assessing someone's allegience after the event is bound to be contentious, but this entry is surely 'unproven'... Up to 1919, there can be no doubt that he was Austro-Hungarian, and from the German side of the Empire, so no quibble with an Austrian flag. From 1938-41, he was apparently a 'Nazi-German'. His country was annexed by the Nazis: it happened without his say-so. He was an old man too old to relocate. However, he did accept the rank of Field Marshal, so one could argue that he did make a 'conscious' acceptance of Nazi allegience, to justify that flag.

Fine, so on that basis why did he have no allegience to Czechoslovakia, from 1919-38? It even states expressly '[Austria]to 1938'. Really?

Could he not still have had an allegience to Austria from 1938-1941 too? His allegience (officer's oath)was to the k.u.k. monarch, not the Republic of Austria; if he was loyal to a defunct state 1919-38, why not also also 1938-41? It was no less defunct, nor any more defunct. Herr Hitler's desire to revive the Habsburgs has been a very well-kept secret to date...

a. Gen. von B-E could have settled in Vienna or any one of 9 Austrian provinces, even after 1919. However, he consciously and expressly moved to the existing Rep. of Czechoslovakia. He did not move, say, to Berlin or Munich either; neither in 1919 nor 1933.

b. Having arrived in the country, he accepted a Czech Army rank. He accepted the rank, but still denied that state any allegience: how did he reconcile that?

c. The Czechs paid his pension for two decades but at no stage during that period did he think he had made the 'right' decision to immigrate and to accept honours and money and therefore to owe them any allegience? It makes a General of the k.u.k. Armee sound a grasping, low, immoral opportunist, outclassed in ethics by, say, a Stuermer of the Nazi SA... Really? This may indeed be true, but for his own reputation, if not to give proper credit to the Czechoslovak Republic, the evidence needs to be better displayed. Or drop the flags after the end of his active service, as being largely irrelevant?Protozoon (talk) 16:09, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Baton in photograph
It is noteworthy that in the photograph dated 16 March 1941 in which Bohm-Ermolli appears with Raeder, von Brauchitsch, Keitel, Milch, Hess and Himmler, Bohm-Ermolli is in fact also holding a Field Marshal's baton. It is the Austro-Hungarian Field Marshal's baton he was awarded in 1918. This style of baton awarded to k.u.k. officers at that time was not the same as German, French, or British marshal's batons; they were longer, and had an ivory head with a wooden (typically an exotic wood) shaft, brass hardware, and tassels. I think it would be pertinent and useful information to note that fact in the caption for the photograph. I do not claim it is informative as to discussions elsewhere on this page speaking to his loyalties. 104.3.33.218 (talk) 22:58, 26 April 2023 (UTC)