Family research – Kriegsarchiv

Central military authorities (Hofkriegsrat, Kriegsministerium) – Second-instance authorities –Territorial commands – Military court archives – Military Educational Institutions – Navy – Collection of pictures.

Archive materials directly related to persons,  e.g. "Musterlisten" – muster rolls according to bodies of the armed forces (1740–1820); "Grundbuchblätter" – registration sheets according to bodies to the armed forces (1820–1868); "Grundbuchblätter" – registration sheets according to territorial recruiting districts or countries (1868–1918); military parish records; casualty lists of World War I (Totenkartei/register of deaths, phonetischer Kataster/phonetic cadastre); lists of prisoners of war of World War I; register of war graves from World War I; "Stellungslisten", "Assentprotokolle" – draftee lists and assent records; "Conduitelisten" – conduct records of officers (starting around 1820); qualification lists of officers (1869–1918); rank and assignment lists 1914–1918, staff and pension records; "Versorgungsakten" (provision files) from 1919 onwards; "Belohnungsakten" (reward files), which included badges of courage etc. ("old" and "new" files); Archive of the "Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden" (Military Order of Maria Theresa); Judicium delegatum of the Vienna General Command; military legacies.

The Kriegsarchiv by no means holds all military personnel records from the period before 1918. The keeping of records had been decentralized since 1868, so that when the monarchy collapsed the relevant records remained in the provinces or in the successor states:

Salzburg: Draftee lists and assent records, casualty list of Infantry Regiment 59, registration sheets for men born from 1865-1900, Wehrevidenzstelle Salzburg (Salzburger Landesarchiv, Michael-Pacher-Strasse 40, A-5010 Salzburg)

Tyrol: Records of the Kaiserjäger regiments, registration sheets of the Kaiserjäger 1816–1884, registration sheets for North, East, South and Welschtirol (Trentino) from around 1850–1900, draftee lists and assent records, "Wehrstammbücher" (personnel files in book form) and "Gebührniskarten" (pay books) etc. 1938–1945 (Tiroler Landesarchiv, Michael-Gaismair-Strasse 1, A-6010 Innsbruck)

Vorarlberg: Records of army and "Landwehr" 1872–1915, "Landsturm" (last reserve) rolls 1862–1898, registration sheets for men born 1865–1898, "Wehrstammbücher" and "Wehrstammblätter" (personnel files in book and sheet form) 1938–1945, "Heimkehrerstelle" (veteran centre) from 1945 onwards etc. (Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, Kirchstrasse 28, A-6900 Bregenz)

South Tyrol: Registration sheets and personnel sheets for men born 1876–1924 (later Italian forms), matriculation books for men born from 1877 onwards, draftee lists and reserve rolls 1859–1885 (Archivio di Stato di Bolzano, Armando-Diaz-Strasse 8, I-39100 Bozen)

Trieste-Coastal area (parts of Carinthia): Registration sheets and hospital pre-registration for men born 1860–1900, draftee lists and assent records for men born 1856–1897, reserve rolls for men born 1862–1900 (Archivio di Stato di Trieste, Via Lamarmora 17, I-34139 Trieste)

Hungary: Military parish records (military parish of Ofen/Budapest 1762–1922 and of various institutions and regiments). Based on the Baden Agreement on Archives of 1926 person-related documents such as qualification lists, registration sheets (destroyed in World War II) and applications for rewards were transferred to the Hungarian War Archive (Hadtörténelmi Levéltár, Kapisztrán tér 2-4, H-1014 Budapest).

Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia: Registration sheets of men born 1865–1886 (incomplete until 1864, 1887–1898 largely destroyed!), Military Invalids Home of Prague, military parish records (Vojenský Ustředni Archiv v Praze/Vojenský Historický Archiv, Sokolovská 136, CR-18600 Praha 8)

Slovakia: Military Invalids Home of Tyrnau/Trnava 1793–1921, war graves and military cemeteries 1914–1919, military parish records 1621–1950 (Vojenský Historický Archiv v Trnave, Univerzitné námestie 1, SK-91700 Trnava)

Galicia: Registration sheets of officers who joined the Polish army in 1918. Most of the registration sheets of draftees from Galicia (Southern Poland, Western Ukraine) have been destroyed (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe, PL-00910 Warszawa-Rembertów).

Further reading:
Rainer Egger, Das Kriegsarchiv und seine genealogischen Quellen, in: Scrinium 5/1971, S. 20-32; Christoph Tepperberg, The Austrian War Archives in Vienna (Kriegsarchiv Wien) and its Records Pertaining to Personnel, in: East European Genealogical Society 8 (2000), S. 9-24; Renate Domnanich, Die Militärmatriken und andere Bestände des Kriegsarchivs als Quellen der genealogischen Forschung, in: Quellen zur Militärgeschichte. 200 Jahre Kriegsarchiv (= Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 49), Wien 2001, S. 97-107.