A military man, he was born in Peuzig in 1852. He gained the rank of major general in 1899 and lieutenant-field marshal in 1903. In the years 1906-1911 and 1912-1917 he was the Chief of Staff of the Austrian Army, and made a field marshal in 1916. From March 1917 he commanded troops in South Tyrol, and in 1918 he resigned his commission. He died in 1925.
       At the meeting of 13 January 1916 the Cieszyn Town Council expressed their debt to all the armed forces in action at that time, particularly the 31st infantry regiment and the 100th territorial defence regiment, who were stationed in Cieszyn. On that occasion they conferred the title of honorary citizen of Cieszyn on the “brilliant” Chief of General Staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, and in addition, as an “eternal memorial”, they named the square in front of the German Gymnasium Plac Conrada von Hötzendorfa. The general thanked the Council for his honour in a letter read out at their next meeting on 10 March 1916. During the meeting of 21 April 1917 the Council ratified the proposal of the Executive Board to order a portrait of the field marshal for the gallery of Cieszyn’s honorary citizens.