Supreme commanders of the Imperial and Royal Armed Forces This list of supreme commanders of the Imperial and Royal Armed Forces covers the commanders - in - chief of the common Imperial and Royal Army , the Royal Hungarian Landwehr " ( Honvéd ) " , the Imperial - Royal Landwehr and the Navy of Austria - Hungary . Supreme commanders and high commands of the Imperial and Royal Armed Forces . The commander - in - chief was the Emperor , the " Allerhöchste Oberbefehl " , who ran his armed power ( " bewaffnete Macht " ) through the Military Chancellery of His Majesty the Emperor and King ( " Militärkanzlei Seiner Majesty des Kaisers and Königs " ) that was established on 11 July 1867 . Amongst its heads , who usually bore the title Adjutant General ( " Generaladjutant " ) , were : In his old age Franz Joseph I only rarely exercised the function of supreme commander in person . Instead , in 1905 after the death of Field marshal Archduke Albert - who had taken over the post in 1866 from General Benedek and held in until his death in 1895 - he appointed Archduke Friedrich of Austria - Teschen as his representative using the style : " At the disposal of the Supreme Commander - His Imperial and Royal Highness General of Infantry and Inspector of the Army Archduke Friedrich " ( " Zur Disposition des Allerhöchsten Oberbefehls - se . k . u . k . Hoheit General der Infanterie und Armeeinspektor Erzherzog Friedrich " ) . Besides Friedrich , whose duties were mainly ceremonial , Archduke Heir Apparent Franz Ferdinand had a great influence on the armed forces in the last years of the monarchy , and worked hard to keep them united and to expand them . In 1898 , after a career as an officer , he was appointed " at the disposal of the Supreme Commander " ( " zur Disposition des Allerhöchsten Oberbefehles " ) , in order to oversee the army as a whole as well as the navy . To that end , from 1899 , he maintained his own military chancellery ( headed from Dec 1905 to autumn 1911 by Alexander Brosch von Aarenau and from autumn 1911 to June 1914 by Carl von Bardolff ) , at Belvedere Palace , which was successively expanded by Brosch into a secondary government ( " Nebenregierung " ) . In 1913 the heir to the Emperor was appointed as Inspector General of the Armed Forces ( " Generalinspektor der gesamten bewaffneten Macht " ) ; at his request Franz Joseph I appointed General Conrad as Chief of the General Staff ( 1906 – 1911 and 1912 – 1 Mar 1917 ) . The CGS , since the reform of 1895 called the CGS of the Armed Forces ( " Chef des Generalstabs für die gesamte bewaffnete Macht " ) , had the right to a personal audience with the monarch ( without the presence of the Minster of War ) , whereby the CGS was superior to the Defence Ministry as well as the Imperial Chancellery , and the Inspector General of Troops was subordinated to him - only the heir apparent outranked him . At the onset of the First World War , the Emperor appointed Friedrich as commander in chief , following the usual practice in times of crisis to appoint a serving officer to exercise high command of the army . Friedrich assumed this function until 2 Dec 1916 , when the new Emperor , Charles I , took over supreme command himself . Charles himself gave up the supreme command at the end of the war , in order not to have to sign the peace treaty and terms of surrender personally . List of commanders - in - chief . Their contemporary titles are given . Dates from 21 Dec 1867 to 11 Nov 1918 ( demobilisation )