After attending the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in Saint-Cyr-l'École, Count Gondrecourt entered the service of the Austrian army.

On 3 February 1864, together with the Prussian brigade "Canstein", Gondrecourt's unit stormed the area in front of the Danewerk during the Battle for Königshügel near Selk.

For his services in the war,[1] the Prussian commander Friedrich Graf von Wrangel suggested to the Prussian King Wilhelm I that Gondrecourt be awarded the order Pour le Mérite 'for his praiseworthy behavior in the battle near Oberselk and the storming of the Königsberg, as already mentioned in my earlier proposal, but also for his excellent bravura in Veile on the 8th of the month'.

For this purpose Gondrecourt used harsh military educational methods, such as water treatment, waking up with pistol shots, nocturnal exposure in the zoo, as well as hours of exercise.

Eventually one of his subordinates, Josef Latour, informed the archduke's stay abroad mother, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, about the negative effects of these methods on her son.