Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza

Hermann Albin Josef Freiherr Kövess von Kövessháza (; 30 March 1854 – 22 September 1924) was the final, and completely ceremonial, Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungarian Army. He served as a generally competent and unremarkable commander in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was close to retirement in 1914. It was during this time when the First World War broke out and he was given a command post.

Personal life Kövess' father was a senior military officer living in Temesvár, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (now Timișoara, Romania). His mother came from Fogaras (now Făgăraș, Romania), where her Thuringian father worked as a pharmacist; her mother was a Transylvanian Saxon from Hermannstadt (now Sibiu, Romania). He married the Baroness Eugenie Hye von Glunek in 1892 and they had 3 sons; Adalbert, who was killed in action in 1914 and Géza and Jenő who served as artillery officers.

He led his first military expedition in 1882 on a mission to suppress a mutiny in Dalmatia and was commended by the Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria with a Merit Medal and also received a Knights Cross of the Order of the Italian Crown that same year. He died in Vienna in 1924.

Awards Order of the Cross of Takovo 2nd class, 1900