Markus Reisner (born March 10, 1978, in

Bucklige Welt The Bucklige Welt is a region in southeast Lower Austria. It is also known as the "land of a thousand hills" (''Land der 1000 Hügel''). Geography The ''Bucklige Welt'' is a hill country area on the eastern edge of the Alps. Its height varies ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

) is an Austrian historian, military expert, and officer of the Austrian Armed Forces serving as commander of the

Gardebataillon The Gardebataillon ("Guard Battalion") is a ceremonial unit in the Austrian Armed Forces. The Gardebataillon is one of the most important military units in the Austrian Armed Forces as its main task is to represent Austria at home and abroad. It i ...

Professional life

Training and first assignments

Markus Reisner joined the

Austrian Armed Forces The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria. The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of natio ...

in 1997 as a one-year volunteer and subsequently completed a preparatory semester for the Military Academy in

Allentsteig Allentsteig is a municipality in the district of Zwettl, in Lower Austria, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a ...

. From 1998 to 2002, he attended the

Theresian Military Academy The Theresian Military Academy (german: Theresianische Militärakademie, TherMilAk) is a military academy in Austria, where the Austrian Armed Forces train their officers. Founded in 1751, the academy is located in the castle of Wiener Neustadt ...

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

where he trained as an officer. He then served in the Reconnaissance Battalion 2 in Salzburg until 2004, where he was assigned as a platoon commander, deputy company commander, and training officer of an armored reconnaissance company. After that, he served with the

Jagdkommando The Jagdkommando (German for ''Hunting Commando'') is the Austrian Armed Forces' Special Operations group. Role The duties of this elite unit, like its counterparts such as the United States Army Special Forces, are chiefly counter-terrorism an ...

in Wiener Neustadt until 2013.

Studies and doctorate

Reisner studied law and history at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

. From 2010 to 2013, he completed doctoral studies in history at the University of Vienna (dissertation on the

aerial warfare Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare. Aerial warfare includes bombers attacking enemy installations or a concentration of enemy troops or strategic targets; fighter aircraft battling for control o ...

over Austria from 1943 to 1945, supervisor

Lothar Höbelt Lothar Höbelt (born 30 June 1956 in Vienna) is an Austrian historian and adjunct professor of Modern History at the University of Vienna, known for his right-wing and nationalist viewpoints. His research areas are political and constitutional hist ...

). In 2017, he completed his Ph.D. studies at the Faculty of Law at the

Service as a staff officer

From 2014 to 2016, he completed the 20th General Staff Course at the National Defense Academy in Vienna. In June 2020, he was appointed head of the Development Department of the Theresian Military Academy, and led it with the rank of

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

of the General Staff. Since September 1, 2022, Reisner is commander of the

, one of the most elite and traditional units of the Austrian Armed Forces, in Vienna.

Academic career

Markus Reisner currently is a member of the ''Military History Advisory Board of the Scientific Commission'' at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defense (since 2017), and holds a position as lecturer at the

University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt The University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt (german: Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt, FHWN for short) is an Austrian Fachhochschule founded in 1994. It has eight areas of specialization. The main campus is in Wiener Neustadt and two small ...

(since 2011). Before, he advised the Austrian

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

(2017-2018), as well as the Austrian

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(2018). He has gained public recognition as head of the ''Development Department of the Theresian Military Academy'', where he delivered battlefield analyses in the form of YouTube videos on the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. These videos had mainly been watched in the German

sprachraum In linguistics, a sprachraum (; , "language area", plural sprachräume) is a geographical region where a common first language (mother tongue), with dialect varieties, or group of languages is spoken. Characteristics Many sprachräume are separ ...

at first, but started to gather an international audience since being made available in English. Reisner is a speaker at the

Candid Foundation Candid Foundation is a private non-for-profit organisation working in the fields of intercultural dialogue, media, research and development. It was founded in 2014 in Berlin. The organization focuses on the countries of the Southern Mediterrane ...

, the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, and the ''Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy''. Since 2000, Reisner has regularly published books and articles for German and English journals. In 2023, he was appointed to the board of the Clausewitz Network for Strategic Studies.

Foreign deployments

* 2004–2013 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Chad, and the Central African Republic * 2019 as Austrian contingent commander in Mali * 2021 as Austrian contingent commander in Kosovo

Works

Monographs

* ''Robotic Wars. Legitimatorische Grundlagen und Grenzen des Einsatzes von Military Unmanned Systems in modernen Konfliktszenarien''. Miles, Berlin 2018, . * ''Die taktische Drohne. Zivile Fluggeräte als militärische Mittel''. SPARTANAT, Klagenfurt 2022, .

Editorship

* ''Hans Hoeller – D-Day Tank Hunter. The World War II Memoirs of a Frontline Officer from North Africa to the bloody Soil of Normandy''. s.l. 2022, .

Articles

* ''Multinational Robotic Wars. The increasing Use of Unmanned Systems by State and Non-State-Actors in current and future Conflict Zones''. Institut für Friedenssicherung und Konfliktmanagement (IFK), contribution to 2018 IFK anthology, Wien 2018. * ''Current drone warfare in the light of the prohibition of interventions''. University of Vienna Law Review. 2 (1): 69–94. * ''Drones … the poor man´s Airforce''. Truppendienst. 4/2019: 310–317.

Videos

* ''Heavy Weapons to Ukraine: Heavy Metal & Rock 'n' Roll''. YouTube – Österreichs Bundesheer. * ''Cognitive Warfare – The Fight for your Heart and Mind''. YouTube – Österreichs Bundesheer. * ''War for Ukraine – First Conclusions from 2022 and New Challenges 2023''. YouTube – Österreichs Bundesheer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reisner, Markus 1978 births Living people Austrian historians People from Lower Austria