[6] He and his brother Eugene (Evgenije) graduated from the royal Prussian military academy in Breslau (Wrocław), and participated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.

[7] They later resigned their commissions and moved to the Principality of Serbia,[2] prior to the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78), in order to lecture at the Serbian Military Academy in Belgrade.

In early 1917, he returned via Japan to Thessaloniki, where he was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Crown, a job he held until the end of the war.

[citation needed] After years of peace that followed, Šturm stayed in Serbia and remained in its army with the rank of general.

Possibly the most valuable was the Order of Paulovnia Flowers on the Great Cross,[further explanation needed] personally decorated by Japanese Emperor.