Teodora Shek Brnardić, Croatian Institute of History

The Everyday Life of Cadets at the Wiener

Neustadt Military Academy as Represented on
the Paintings by Bernhard Albrecht (1785-1793)

Zagreb, 19th May 2017

 Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt – a place of
education of Austrian officers
1752 – Maria Theresia establishes the „Noble Military
Academy” (adelige Militär-Akademie) and the „Military
Preparatory School”
1768 – earthquake
1769 – establishment of „Imperial and Royal Military
Academy”” (k.u.k. Theresianische Militär-Akademie)
1771 – reorganisation
1775 – Reglement of Count Antun Colloredo
1779 - supervision taken by Franz Joseph Kinsky
Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739-1805) – Czech
pedagogue, vulcanologist and Austrian general

Count FRANZ JOSEPH KINSKY (1739-1805)

 The Contexts of Kinsky’s works
The context of treatises on military education
1779 – appointed as the Localdirektor of the Theresian Military
Academy in Wiener Neustadt
1785 – appointed as the Oberdirektor of the Theresian Military
Academy (till the death in 1805)

THE THERESIAN MILITARY ACADEMY TODAY THE STATUE OF COUNT KINSKY

Major pedagogical and military works
1773 – Erinnerung über einen wichtigen
Gegenstand von einem Böhmen (Prague)
1776 – Über die Hofmeister (Prague)
1781 – Für Weltrekruten (Vienna)
1785-88 – Des Grafen Franz Kinsky
gesamlete Scriften (6 volumes) (Vienna)
-reviews in Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek,
Der Teutsche Merkur, Litteratur des
katholischen Deutschland, Ephemeriden der
Menschheit, Neues militärisches Journal,
Braunschweigisches Journal, Berlinische
Sammlungen
-translations in Italian, Polish
 The Education of Man

MAN

SOUL BODY

NATURAL (PHYSICAL)
MORAL EDUCATION
EDUCATION

INSTRUCTION IN INSTRUCTION IN
MORALITY THE ARTS AND SCIENCES

RELIGION „All true morality is

grounded in RELIGION
and flows from its
DUTIES
TOWARDS OURSELVES principles“. (Erinnerung,
1773)
SOCIAL DUTIES
(TOWARDS OUR NEIGHBOURS)
 The Education of the Heart and the
Primacy of Sentiments
• the education of the heart,
that is, moral education is
more important than learning

• the importance of fostering

love, compassion and
CHARLES BONNET –
gratitude in social relations
recommended for
reading by Kinsky
The promotion of Austrian (imperial)
patriotism– the main goal of education
The promotion of Austrian (imperial)
patriotism– the main goal of education
 Physical Training - Muscular Bonding

SOURCES
• Allgemeine Prinzipen zur öffentlichen und
besonders Militär-Erziehung
• Mijat Sabljar, Autobiography (1861)
• Johan Mayer von Heldensfeld, Records
• Friedrich Hochenegg, Memoirs 1770-1793
(written between 1840 and 1845)
• Hrabovszky z Hrabova, applications for
the Academy
• Bernhard Albrecht, 13 paintings
representing duty and leisure of cadets at
the academy (1788-1790)

MIJAT SABLJAR (1790-1865)