After graduating from the local gymnasium (a high school that serves as preparation for university in German-speaking countries), Morgenstern-Podjazd studied the law at the University of Lemberg in Lemberg (modern Lviv, Ukraine) in what was then the Austrian province of Galicia. He graduated from the University of Krakow and studied for two semesters at University of Vienna in 1913. He joined the Imperial Austrian Navy and was trained at the Austrian naval base at Fiume (modern Rijeka, Croatia) on the Adriatic Sea. He graduated from the Marine Midshipmen College in Fiume. He reached the rank of lieutenant and served on the cruiser Hegoland and the battleship Habsburg in World War I against the Regia Marina in the Adriatic. In October 1917, he completed an underwater diving course. After the dissolution of the Austrian empire in 1918, he joined the newly founded Polish Army, serving in the Naval Section of the Polish general staff.
