He studied at Vienna's Technical Military Academy and subsequently (1895–1906) served with the Austrian Army, resigning after reaching the rank of captain.

In 1916, during the First World War, he became commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, in particular the units which fought against Russia on the Eastern Front.

Haller was born 13 August 1873 in a small village called Jurczyce near Kraków (Skawina Municipal), in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Józef was the third child of a szlachta (Polish nobility) Henryk Haller von Hallenburg and Olga Treter.

Like other family members, he belonged to the Catholic organizations such as Sodality of Our Lady (Sodalicja Mariańska), which popularized the veneration of the Virgin Mary, and the Third Secular Franciscan Order.

In 1882 the Haller family moved to the city of Lemberg (Lwów) where Józef attended a local German gymnasium.

When Józef Haller graduated from the university he was designated the rank of Second Lieutenant and then started his 15-year-long service with the Austro-Hungarian Army.

[citation needed] When the Great War broke out it was a sign to mobilize Polish patriotic paramilitary organizations.

Due to a collapse of morale among soldiers and resistance against swearing loyalty to the Austrian emperor, the legion was disbanded.

On 30 September 1914, Haller and the military unit under his surveillance left Kraków, and set off to the front line in Eastern Carpathians.

Despite bad climatic and topographic conditions, the brigade supported the defence of the Carpathians and hindered Russian access to Hungary.

On October 12 the 3rd Legions' Infantry Regiment troops under the command of Haller surmounted the Rafajlowa village in Galicia.

On 15 February 1918, Haller questioned the agreements of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which reduced the chances for the creation of an independent Poland,.

In July 1918, after a long journey through East Karelia and Kola Peninsula to Murmansk, General Haller arrived in France.

In 1918 Polish troops commanded by Joseph Haller struggled with German soldiers on the western front line in the Vosges mountain region and Champagne.

In the course of victorious battles against the Ukrainian army, Haller's forces reached the Zbruch River, passing Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

However, in June the General himself was dispatched to the Polish-German borderline in order to take command of the army on the South-Western front.

As Venice so symbolized its marriage with the Adriatic so we Poles symbolize our marriage with our dear Baltic Sea.In October 1919, Haller was entrusted with the command of the Pomeranian Front, created in order to claim the territory of Pomerania, in peaceful and planned way, as the territory was granted to Poland according to the Treaty of Versailles.

As planned, the taking over of Pomerania began on 18 January 1920, starting with Toruń, which was taken over by squadrons of the 16th Pomeranian Infantry Division.

On 10 February 1920, General Haller together with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Stanisław Wojciechowski, and the new administration of the Pomeranian Province came to Puck, where he performed a "symbolic wedding ceremony" of Poland and the Baltic Sea.

After the war, Józef Haller had inter alia function of the Inspector General of Artillery (in the years 1920–26), and the president of the Supreme Military Evaluation Commission.

He was also a member of the War Council, lead the Hallerczyks’ Union, and from 3 July 1920 until 4 February 1923, was President of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association.

Because of his nationalist views, he was considered, among others, one of those who were responsible for the anti-Semitic riots in Częstochowa in 1919 in which soldiers of the Blue Army took part.

In 1923 and again in 1933, the General traveled to the United States with a mission of support for veterans and disabled members of the Blue Army.

After World War II broke out, Haller managed to make his way through Romania, to France, where he offered himself to serve General Władysław Sikorski's government, which was about to be formed.

At the turn of the years 1939–1940, he travelled again to the US, but this time to encourage American Polonia to join the Polish Army, which was being formed in France.

After the war Józef Haller decided to remain abroad and settled in London for good, where, steeped in the legend of the "Blue General", he died on 4 June 1960 at the age of 86.

Thanks to the initiative of the Polish Scouts from "Whites" team, his ashes were returned to Poland on 23 April 1993 and are now kept in a crypt in St. Agnes’ garrison church in Kraków.

After World War I, the Warsaw chapter of the Order of Haller's Swords was formed to commemorate the wartime service of individuals who aided in the Polish independence movement.