In the contribution, the author analyses suicides in the Austrian Army from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of World War I. Unlike Prussia, which started publishing data on military suicides already at the end of the 18th century, the first available analytical data for Austria dates back to as late as the middle of the 19th century. By the turn of the century, several authors analysed suicide rates in the Austrian Army, and they all agreed that Austria had the highest number of suicides in Europe. Gradually, the main reason for suicides was also becoming apparent: the brutal treatment of recruits by their superiors. Meanwhile, the Army attempted to portray suicides as pathological and demonstrate, by carrying out numerous autopsies, that many suicides were caused by the soldier’s physical abnormalities (in addition to their psychological instability).