page_title: Alexander von Krobatin
section_title: Imperial War Minister
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander von Krobatin / Imperial War Minister
caption_attribution_description: Exzellenz Feldmarschall Krobatin
context_page_description: Alexander Freiherr von Krobatin was an Austrian field marshal and Imperial Minister for War between 1912 and 1917.
context_section_description: A close associate of the army chief of staff Conrad von Hötzendorf, Krobatin was appointed Imperial Minister for War on 12 December 1912 and as an integral member of the "war party" gave his full backing to the hawkish element in the military in their calls for an immediate attack on Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the July Ultimatum. With the outbreak of war, Krobatin was responsible for the task of harnessing the economies of industrial Austria and agrarian Hungary to ensure the now mobilised military was supplied with vital arms and munitions as well as increasing industrial efficiency to meet the needs of a state with a large cohort of its industrial population no longer available for industrial and food production given their enlistment for war. According to a number of sources, Krobatin struggled in his task for the first two years of the war, and although he never really threatened to harness the economy efficiently, he succeeded in tripling the level of artillery available at divisional level.
  One of the first commanders to be raised to the newly created rank of Generaloberst in February 1916, Krobatin was responsible for dealing with the crisis caused by Romania's entry into the war on the side of the Entente and the sudden cutting off of resources (particularly grain and petroleum) that Romania's declaration of war brought. In Crown council on September 9, 1916, Krobatin sought backing for a proposal which would have allowed the army unrestricted powers to seize foodstuffs and punish hoarders, but this was vetoed by Chancellor Karl Stürgkh and Premier Istvan Tisza. Though occupied Serbia was eventually to produce more grain than Romania, food supplies to soldiers in the field remained a persistent and crucial worry to those at the higher echelons of the War Ministry.
caption: Krobatin during the First World War
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