Hello r/AskHistorians! I am a big fan of this subreddit and I am excited to have finally found a question that is---I hope---worth asking!
I am currently translating a set of old family letters for a friend. These letters were sent to or from different parts of Austria-Hungary around 1900. The authors were from the Serbo-Croatian minority. One of the most interesting little tidbits from the letters are the authors complaining about military service. Indeed, one letter contains the complaint
"Einmal kommen wir doch an das Ziel, daß wir von den fesseln los sind, und ein freies Leben führen dürfen."
Someday we will reach our goal, that we are free of our bonds and can lead a free life.
This particular letter contains a passage where the author switches to Serbian from German in order to talk a little bit about his experience in the military. I find this choice to change language extremely suggestive.
All this makes me wonder: generally, what was it like for the Serbo-Croatian minority in the Austro-Hungarian empire? In particular, what was their experience of the military like? Military service appears to have been mandatory and universal, but in reality did it apply more so to some people than to others?
I eagerly await your responses!
The Croats in particular were very highly regarded by the Hapsburg Army, and were considered to be particularly loyal to the Hapsburg family. Croatia had an established tradition of military service as well, with the "Military Grenz" institution being historically very important; the Croats being regarded as a "Martial" race. Language in the Hapsburg Army was partly dependent upon the region from which the regiment was drawn, but the "standard" language, the nearest thing to universal language of command in the Army was "Army German", although Magyar (especially), Croat, Czech etc. would be used within a unit informally.