Page "Austro-Hungarian Army" Paragraph 13

From a religious standpoint, the Austro-Hungarian army officer corps was dominated by Catholics.

In 1896, out of 1000 officers, 791 were Catholics, 86 Protestants, 84 Jews, 39 Greek-Orthodox, and one Uniate.

Of the pre-World War military forces of the major European powers, the Austro-Hungarian army was almost alone in its regular promotion of Jews to positions of command.

While the Jewish population of the lands of the Dual Monarchy was about 5 %, Jews made up nearly 18 % of the reserve officer corps.

There were no official barriers to military service for Jews, but in later years this tolerance eroded to some extent, as important figures such as Conrad von Hotzendorf and Franz Ferdinand sometimes expressed anti-Jewish sentiments.

Franz Ferdinand was also accused ( by Conrad ) of discriminating against Protestant officers.