Franz von Weyrother

Franz von Weyrother (1755 – 16 February 1806) was an Austrian staff officer and Generalmajor who fought during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He drew up the plans for the disastrous defeats at the Battle of Rivoli (1797), Battle of Hohenlinden (1800) and the Battle of Austerlitz, (1805) in which the Austrian Army was defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte twice and Jean Moreau once.

He was "the most striking example of the pedantry of the Hofkriegsrat school. Weyrother was cut from the same cloth as Mack and Schmitt: an out-of-touch and a pedant." Russo-French Count Louis de Langeron wrote of Weyrother that he had "all the faults of an upstart." Nevertheless, Weyrother managed to win the favor of Russian Emperor Alexander and his young favorites at Austerlitz, as Alexander shared Weyrother's idea of attacking Napoleon's weakened right flank. This is precisely why the blame for the disaster does not lie primarily with Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuzov.

At Rivoli, nonetheless, the poor health of the Austrian commander József Alvinczi intervened as well, and at Hohenlinden, the character of the 18-year-old Austrian commander Archduke John. Weyrother also took part in the successful for Napoleon Battle of Bassano (1796) under the command of Dagobert von Wurmser. The staff officer Weyrother, however, was involved in the rest of Alvinczi's campaign—besides Rivoli—which he helped plan and where Austrian victories over Napoleon were won at the Second Battle of Bassano and the Battle of Caldiero, and also where Napoleon won the hard-fought and costly victory at the Battle of Arcole (all three 1796). Weyrother also was the chief of staff of Paul Kray, when the Austrian victories at the Combat of Legnano and the Battle of Magnano were achieved (both 1799). In addition to the previous, he served as Alexander Suvorov's liaison officer in 1799 during his victories at the Battle of Novi and the Battle of the Gotthard Pass,—the pass that Weyrother had planned Suvorov's march through.