TRAUN, OTTO FERDINAND, COUNT VON ABENSPERG UND (1677-1748), Austrian field marshal, was born at Oldenburg on Aug. 27, 1677, of a noble family. In 1693 he left the Univer sity of Halle to serve with the Prussian forces in the Low Coun tries. After seeing much service in the War of the Grand Alli ance, he entered the imperial army.
In the War of the Spanish Succession, Traun served with dis tinction in Italy and on the Inine till 1709, when he became lieutenant-colonel and aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Count Guido Starhemberg in Spain. A year later, he was made colonel, and in 1712 chief of a regiment of foot. At Francavilla in Sicily (June 20, 1719) he received a severe wound. He was promoted General-Feldwachtmeister in 1723. In 1727 he became governor of Messina, and in 1733 lieutenant field marshal.
In 1734 he won a European reputation by his defence first of the pass of S. Germano and then of the half-ruined fortress of Capua. He was promoted Feldzeugmeister and employed in a
semi-political command in Hungary, then as commander-in-chief in north Italy and interim governor-general of the Milanese. In 1741 he was made a field-marshal. In the War of the Austrian Succession (q.v.) he commanded in Italy till 1743, when, on the death of Field Marshal Count Khevenhiiller (q.v.), he was made the principal military adviser of Prince Charles of Lorraine (q.v.), commanding the Austrians in Bohemia and on the Danube, whose successful operating he inspired. Traun's last active service was the command of an army sent to Frankfurt to influence the elec tion of a successor to Charles VII. He died at Sibiu (Hermann stadt), Feb. 18, 1748.
See Biographien k. k. Heerfiihrer, herausgegeben v. d. Direktion des k. and k. Kriegsarchiv; Thiirheim, F. M. Otto Ferdinand, Graf v. Abensperg and Traun.