I am looking for an officer (period 1820–1868)

“Conduitelisten” were introduced in 1761 to describe and assess the qualities and conduct of officers from captain down to lieutenant and, at times, to cadet. They are extant from the 1820s onwards and are arranged by regiments and subdivided not alphabetically but by rank and seniority.

The “Conduitelisten” are available online. For some categories of officers and other personnel there are indices in loose alphabetical order which are also available online.

For staff officers (colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major) there are separate Individualbeschreibungen (1854–1868, online here) which are enclosed with the “Conduitelisten” of the respective regiment. General officers were reviewed in the so-called Hauptberichte (1832–1882).

The “Militärschematismus” is the ideal starting point for any research on officers and other senior military personnel (for instance if you want to ascertain the unit in which the officer concerned served or the year of his discharge or retirement). It was published on an annual basis.

The Pensionsprotokolle (New Series, online here) provide data such as years of service, the date of discharge or retirement, the date of death and also major transfers.

Individual links to the digitised indices and registers are provided by our “Archival Information System”.

The registers (not digitised for the period after 1768) and extant files of the Hofkriegsrat (up until 1848) and of the Kriegsministerium (from 1848) contain a wealth of personal data on officers. However, these archival sources are complicated and time-consuming to search through.

There is a valuable history of the branches and regiments of the Imperial-Royal and Imperial and Royal (Austro-Hungarian) army from 1618 onwards by Alphons Freiherr von Wrede, Geschichte der k. u. k. Wehrmacht, 5 vols. (Vienna 1898–1905, incomplete). For a separate index of the regimental proprietors, regimental commanders and senior officers killed in combat see here (PDF, 317 KB).