Anton Haus

Haus entered the Navy in 1869. He distinguished himself as an instructor at the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy in Fiume (now Rijeka); a product of his academic study was Oceanography and Maritime Meteorology (1891). Returning to a seagoing command, Haus was commander of a corvette during the multinational intervention in the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900/01. After the suppression of the insurrection Haus remained in Peking (now Beijing) until 1902.

Promoted to Vizeadmiral in 1907, Haus was Austro-Hungarian envoy to the second Hague Peace Conference from May to October of that year. Appointed Flotteninspekteur (Fleet Inspector) in 1912, Haus succeeded Rudolf Montecuccoli as Marinekommandant (Navy Commander) and Chef der Marinesektion (Chief of the Naval Section of the War Ministry) on 24 February 1913.

In 1916 Haus became the only active-duty Austro-Hungarian naval officer (aside from members of the Imperial house) to be promoted to Grossadmiral (Grand Admiral). (His immediate successor, Maximilian Njegovan, was named a Grossadmiral in 1918, but on the retired list.)

Haus died of pneumonia in Pola (now Pula) on 2 February 1917 and was buried at the naval military cemetery (k.u.k. Marinefriedhof). Emperor Karl I attended the funeral and later conferred upon him the posthumous honour of Commander of the Military Order of Maria Theresa. With Pula under Italian sovereignty postwar, Haus's remains were transferred to Vienna in 1925.

Haus was succeeded as Marinekommandant and Flottenkommandant by Maximilian Njegovan and as Chef der Marinesektion by Karl Kailer von Kaltenfels; Njegovan was appointed to the latter post in April 1917 after the death of Kaltenfels. The fleet that Haus had so scrupulously maintained as a 'fleet in being' was parcelled out among the victorious powers after 1918.