Aurél Emil Stromfeld (19 September 1878 – 10 October 1927) was a Hungarian general. He was the Colonel General of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff and Chief of the General Staff of the Hungarian Red Army during the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He graduated from the Ludovika Academy in 1896, then studied at the Vienna Military Academy until 1905. After serving as a troop officer in Igló, he became a lecturer at the Ludovika in 1907. In 1913, he was appointed the first professor of the Ludovika. In the First World War he served on the Serbian front, where he led the evacuation of Belgrade, and was then posted to the Eastern Front. After the Russian surrender he was sent to the Italian front. There he was caught up in the military collapse of 1918, after which he returned home with the troops he could keep together.
He was an exceptional military talent. He took command of the army of the Soviet Republic. He played a major role in stopping the advance of Czech and Romanian troops. He resigned after the adoption of the Clemenceau note.
Youth Aurél Stromfeld was born on 19 September 1878 in Újpest, Hungary, as the third child of a German-origin, Evangelical intellectual family. His mother was Johanna Táborszky, and his father, János Stromfeld, was an engineer at the Schlick-Nicholson factory. His maternal grandfather was a railway engineer, his uncle was a mechanical engineer, and his mother's uncle was an architect. His brother, János Somfai, was a socialist journalist, and his great-nephew, Dávid Somfai Kara, was a turcologist and mongolologist.
Aurél's father died when he was six years old, and his mother lived with her family, mostly women, in Újpest, where they had bought a house with the severance pay from his father's workplace. After completing four years of elementary school, Aurél attended the Markó Street High School, where he also spent only four years. Despite coming from a family of engineers, his family wanted him to become a doctor. However, the family's finances were depleted, and they could not afford to educate Aurél, even though he was a good student and enjoyed free tuition.
In 1892, Aurél decided to attend the Ludovika Academy, which was a military academy that trained officers for the Hungarian Army. He applied for a private foundation scholarship, established by János Buttler, with the help of his high school principal. His mother initially opposed his decision, but since the only alternative was to become an apprentice, she eventually accepted that he would become a soldier. Aurél began his studies at the academy on 4 October 1892, with full support, free clothing, and an allowance from the foundation. A friend he met at the academy, Zoltán Mátyássy, waived his orphan's support in favor of Aurél, as he came from a wealthy family, which helped to solve the financial problems of Aurél's family.
As a second-year student, Aurél traveled to Recsk with his fellow cadets for a three-week field exercise, where he met a young girl at a ball on the last day and fell in love. However, after returning, they could not maintain their relationship, and Aurél's despair caused him to neglect his studies, damaging his previously excellent grades. His teacher, Captain Imre Hadfy, warned him, and Aurél began to study hard again, but he could not achieve excellent results in several subjects. As a result, he finished fourth in his class and did not become a lieutenant, as the top students did, but instead started his service as a cadet officer, and was sworn in on 18 August1896. He was assigned to the 18th Honvéd Infantry Regiment in Sopron.
Before World War I In 1897, Stromfeld was promoted to lieutenant and trained new recruits, worked in the regimental office, and served as a battalion adjutant first in Sopron and then in Munkács. In 1899, he returned to the Ludovika Academy to attend a one-year course before taking the entrance exam for the War Academy in Vienna. That year, he lived with Mátyássy in an apartment on Üllői Avenue. He completed the course as the top student in his class, and in October 1900, he began his studies at the War Academy in Vienna as a senior lieutenant. Out of 110 students, 10 were from the Hungarian Army, and Stromfeld's academic performance was the best among them. He met his future wife, Adrienne Urbányi, the daughter of retired General Edmund Urbányi, in Vienna. After his sister Margit died of tuberculosis on Christmas 1900, Stromfeld's mother moved to Vienna to live with him.
Stromfeld and Adrienne grew closer, and they got engaged in 1902. However, due to the high officer's bond, they were unable to get married. In 1905, Stromfeld graduated from the War Academy in ninth place, received a staff appointment, and served in Vienna for a year. His mother tried to help the young couple by using her bank deposit, but the bank went bankrupt during Stromfeld's service in Vienna, and his mother became mentally unhinged and soon died. After his mother's funeral, Stromfeld submitted a request to reduce the marriage bond, but it was rejected. His fellow officers in Pozsony were outraged by the decision, and the army leadership, fearing a national scandal, accepted his second request. As a result, Stromfeld and Adrienne got married on 15 April 1905, and he was promoted to captain on 1 May. He had to serve as a company officer in Igló for a year, and his wife was able to join him.
After completing his company service, Stromfeld was sent to the officer school in Kassa (Košice), and in 1907, he returned to the Ludovika Academy as an instructor. There, he promoted a modern view of warfare based on the results of the Russo-Japanese War and wrote a study on the important role of non-commissioned officers in the army. In it, he argued that officer ranks should be based on merit rather than high school performance, and that people from poorer backgrounds should be able to join the officer corps. In 1908, after his Balkan vacation, the deputy military attaché in Sofia asked him to write about his military observations during his trip. Weeks later, in Budapest, he realized that they were interested in his opinion on the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had created tension in the region. In preparation for a potential military conflict, Stromfeld wrote a book called "Hadseregszervezés" (Army Organization), in which he discussed new lessons and which became a new textbook at the Ludovika Academy. As a result, the Hungarian Ministry of Defense asked for his help in developing a modern combat regulations manual. In 1912, he passed his staff officer exam and was promoted to major.
In 1913, Stromfeld was appointed as a professor at the War Academy in Vienna, the first among those serving in the Hungarian Army, and was tasked with teaching tactics. He became popular quickly and befriended Theodor Körner, another popular professor at the academy, who invited him to his social circle, where they engaged in uninhibited conversations. Among Stromfeld's students were Gyula Gömbös, future prime minister, and Archduke Károly Albert.
During World War I After the Sarajevo assassination, he was sent to the Balkans with Captain Wachtel to study the sites of the Second Balkan War. On 23 July, after the Monarchy's unacceptable ultimatum, they were received in Bulgaria by the same military attaché who had received Stromfeld six years earlier, and they inquired about Bulgaria's military preparedness. The attaché then transmitted the order to return home by the shortest route, which would have meant traveling through Serbia, but they did not dare to take this risk and instead returned through Romania, arriving a day late.
Stromfeld was assigned to the XIII Corps in Zagreb, where he was responsible for organizing logistics. He performed this task excellently, and supplies never faltered despite the poor road conditions in Serbia. At great cost, they managed to capture the transportation hub of Valjevo and Belgrade, but the Serbian counterattack forced them back behind the Sava River, and Stromfeld was tasked with evacuating the Serbian capital. He succeeded in this, and in addition to the orderly withdrawal, he also saved a significant amount of war material, earning him a reputation as a withdrawal expert in the army leadership.
During the 1916 Brusilov Offensive, he again applied the tactic of slow withdrawal, preserving the combat capability of his troops instead of resorting to desperate resistance. After this, his corps was redirected to the Eastern Front, but its staff was left behind during the rail transport, so he had to command the corps alone for two weeks, during which time the corps achieved significant results in the subsequent offensive. The leadership of the unit was taken over by Imre Hadfy, who requested Stromfeld as his chief of staff. With this appointment, he was also promoted to lieutenant colonel.
The corps' crossing of the Dniester River was led by Stromfeld, but due to the delay of other units, they had to retreat behind the river. Despite this, Stromfeld was able to maintain a bridgehead on the other side of the river, where the Battle of Uscieczko began. However, months later, it became clear that there would be no further advance on this sector of the front, so he requested a withdrawal, but the high command refused, citing the need to maintain the appearance of success.
In January 1918, he was transferred to the Italian Front with the XXVI Corps, where he served as chief of staff under the command of Ernst Horsetzky von Hornthal. During this time, he had a brief stay in a Vienna hospital due to tonsillitis, but after his recovery, he continued to serve. He had tunnels dug into the hillside and tried to solve the problem of supplies using cable cars, as the Italian artillery had a clear view of their positions. His troops were able to hold their positions until the collapse. After Emperor Charles' manifesto on October 16, the troops became increasingly discontent, and on the 22nd, two Croatian infantry regiments refused to obey orders. This discontent spread to Stromfeld's sector, and the 29th and 105th Hungarian infantry regiments mutinied. The 26th Croatian infantry regiment soon abandoned the front, and Horsetzky could only send its officers after them, as suggested by Stromfeld.
During the armistice negotiations, the army began to withdraw, and Stromfeld was tasked with organizing this withdrawal. The armistice was signed on November 4, but it only took effect at 3 pm, so several units that had begun to rest were captured by the Italians. He remained in place until November 15, when he led an organized regiment back to the newly independent Hungary.
During the Hungarian People's Republic On November 19, he arrived in the country. Upon reaching the border, he was asked to disband the regiment that arrived with him. Although he initially resisted and managed to negotiate further travel, he eventually gave in to the request at the next junction. When he arrived in Budapest, he went to the Ministry of War, where he was appointed commander of the Ludovika Academy. Since his service was not due to start for four days, he first traveled to Vienna and brought his wife back to the country.
In December 1918, he was elected chairman of the control committee of the officers' trade union that was established. However, at the end of the year, the government ordered the retirement of officers with a rank higher than lieutenant colonel, which prompted Stromfeld to protest to the Minister of War. Instead of the minister, he only found Vilmos Böhm, the social democratic state secretary, who, due to the petitions submitted by the officers of the Academy, allowed Stromfeld to remain in service. In January 1919, Stromfeld also joined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary.