- Stellungsliste is a book, for each birth year and for each political district one book. The information contained:

• - Name

• - year of birth

• - Losnummer

• - Heimatzustaendigkeit

• - where born

• - name of father, from around 1900 also name of mother

• - education

• - occupation

• - physical condition

Stellung was always [conducted] in [the] Spring. Sometimes there is also a remark, to which Regiment he was assigned. Stellungslisten were introduced in 1869.Then, soldiers were drafted with 20 years age. If the man was not fit for the army in 1st Stellung, then he went again one year later to the 2nd Stellung and if still not fir a year later to the 3rd Stellung, and if still not fit he was declared as unfit ( Untauglich) This means, that in the year of introduction in 1869, there were still cases of men, who came to the 2nd Stellung and 3rd Stellung, thus being born in 1848 or 1847. ( together with those who were born in 1849 and came to their 1st Stellung. In Autumn then the soldiers had to join the Army. So, for the search , what is needed is the Name, Year of birth and Heimatszustaendigkeit ( Home jurisdiction). It is very possible, that some men were drafted not in places where they were born, which makes it impossible to find them in the Stellungslisten, since there are too many to check. Availability Austrian Stellungslisten are available in Vienna. No Restrictions. Vorarlberg, Salzburg and Tyrol are in respective Landesarchives and not in Vienna. Regarding other successor countries of the AH empire, the fate of the Stellungslisten is the same as the one of the Grundbuchblaetter. They were given to the successor states and Vienna does not know the status there. Only some Stellungslisten by mistake remained in Vienna. Very few and I do not know which and if complete. According to Vienna, the Stellungslisten have not been filmed

 All in all, one has to know all basic data of the soldier in order to be able to look for him in the Stellungslisten. What can be learned there varies, but apparently does not have much of a genealogical or military record value. Also from the early Austrian Stellungslisten, some are missing. Next time in Vienna War archive I will copy a listing of Stellungslisten, which are available there.

Source: Vladimir Bohinc, 2005

Categories of individual soldiers for records before 1820

There are three categories of individual soldiers records depending on the time period.

Before 1820 there are Musterlisten and Standestabellen.

Some of the Musterlisten are only a list of names of soldiers in given companies of a certain regiment.

Other Musterlisten include details on Assentlisten (in the same films) that are much the same as the data on a grundbuch -- date and place of birth, marital status, religion, profession and sometimes some other details.

There are also Transfirunglisten included in films of Musterlisten that may have the same data plus some comment about the status of the soldier in the last column -- i.e., he has been transferred to another unit, is in hospital, in prison, has desserted, or has been discharged. That last column can include a sort of list of all his activity during his enlistment.

The Musterlisten are harder to use than Grundbuchblatter because the writing is quite small and difficult to read. About all you can do at first is scan for surname on each list and copy that page from the film. Then study all of the copied pages enlarged on your home computer to see if you can match any of the details given to known ancestors who were between 17 and 31 before 1820.

Standestabellen are much easier to use. They also include all of the data about each soldier present for duty in each company of each battalion of each regiment.

I emphasize "present for duty". These lists do not include all men in that company at any one time.

At the end of each Standestabellen (monthly report) there are summary musterlists. One is an alphabetical list of all men present for duty. Another is a list of men in hospital. There may also be lists for men in prison or on detached duty somewhere. Finally there is a list of deserters. After that page there may be a form that shows what happened to one or more deserters.

The "alphabetical" lists of names near the end of each Standestabellen are alphabetical on the first letter only. Surnames beginning with Ba may be at the bottom of the list while those beginning with Bo may be at the top. Always read the whole list to be sure you have not missed anything. Also check the other lists of hospital patients, prisoners, detached special duty soldiers and deserters to be certain your ancestor is not among them.

I have worked with Standestabellen dated from 1811-1819-20 and found that the later dates are more apt to have the most information. But it is well worthwhile to search these records for ancestors of ancestors who may have served in the army -- in particular during the Napoleonic wars when Austria had a field army of 500,000 that included married men, master craftsmen and a lot of others who were supposedly exempt from the draft.

A bit of history:

During the last six years of war ending in 1815 there had been increasingly poor harvests because of particularly bad weather (some scientists believe it was because of a massive volcanic eruption in the Pacific). By the time the war was over there were no food surpluses left in the Habsburg Lands..

At the same time the end of the war brought the end of the British blockade of Europe and cheap imports of some foodstuffs (sugar) and cheap cotton and wool manufactured textiles from the UK poured into the European markets causing the failure of the budding textile and sugar beet industries there.

The Austrian army released over 250,000 soldiers who returned home to find there was no work and no food for the table. There was a famine that took almost 100,000 lives between Austria-Hungary, Germany and Switzerland during the next 2 1/2 to 3 years.

By 1819 the famine was easing and so was the economic depression but it took almost 2 generations before the population numbers began to recover to pre-war levels.

During the famiine there was surplus food in eastern Russia but no means to transport it. The Habsburg bureacracy was so slow-moving that they did not get organzied to bring it in until 1819. By then a lot of farmers had taken what money they had to increase their land holdings in order to produce more wheat which had become very profitable during the famine. The glut of wheat that occurred when the Russian supplies finally arrived caused many of them to lose everything.

Many people tried to emigrate to the US during those awful years. They sold everything they had and went to Netherlands ports seeking ships to America. There were not enough ships and some of them spent all their money and sold what few possessions they had to stay in port in hopes of getting a berth. There were so many that the Dutch stopped admitting anyone who attempted to cross the border if they did not have proof that they already had a ship's berth. In the end only 20,000 of the 50,000 who made it to a port were able to sail. The others had to return home penniless and put themselves at the mercy of the charitable organizations in their original home village under their "Heimat" rights. Some arrived barefoot and virtually naked with children described as "waling skeltons" because there was nothing to eat along the way.

Some others who had planned to emigrate to the US and saw what became of the ones who tried ended up going to Russia instead. That is why there was a bit of a "bubble" of emigration to Russia from Habsburg lands between 1815 and 1820.

Source: Karen Hobb (2005)

VIENNA WAR ARCHIVE - How to Use, What to Expect

When you will come to the archive, you will first have to purchase an Entrance ID on the first floor at the "KASSA". Weekly I think is the shortest one.

Then you will be admitted to the archive study room, which is on the left on the ground floor. There you should ask for an officer, who speaks English ( or you have an interpreter with you). The best would be to ask for the same officer that signed their report, which you already have. Talk to him about your concerns and he will tell you what is feasible and what not.

In case there will be materials, which you will be advised to study, you will probably have to wait one day till they prepare that for you. What you can study straight [away] is the Military schematismus, some Regimental books and alike, which can be found in the library on the first floor. Library is open only in the morning. Maybe one day in a week also in afternoon.

In the library, no copies or photos are allowed.

In the reading room, the rules are different, depending on age of the

material etc. You must consult the rules.

I disregarded them some times and was warned.

For the locker you need a 2EUR coin.

You are allowed to have a laptop, but are not allowed to have a ballpoint

pen. Just ordinary pencil.

Library is always almost empty, so no problem with reserving a table. There

are also plenty of tables in the reading room downstairs. However, first and foremost, make sure you will have any material to study

at all. In the reading room, there is nothing you could just take. If you know what you want, you fill in the request form ( after you have

filled your personal file) and deposit it. In a day or two your materials

will be waiting for you in another adjacent room, which has a clerk, who is

making a note, who is taking what and taking care that you also return the

materials. Only one book or box at a time is allowed. This clerk will also

give you a date stamp on your ticket/badge, which will prove, that you have

consumed one day from it.

So the plan would be:

- be there first in the morning and make the consultations and arrangements

- then go to the library till it closes

- then go to Heurigen

- then come next or whichever day they will tell you.

Source: Vladimir Bohinc, 2005