In February 1917, after repeated failed attempts at peace negotiations, the German Empire embarked on unlimited submarine war, claimed to be the cause for the United States to later enter the war on the Entente side, in April. However, it was only at the beginning of 1918, that American troops were deployed on a large scale in France. The hope that England would give in within a few months as a result of the submarine warfare, remained unfulfilled. The war continued to be a standoff.
In the spring of 1917, the Austrian leadership feared that the Danube Monarchy would not be able to continue the war beyond the coming winter. Emperor Karl I. and the new Foreign Secretary Czernin, thus urged Berlin for new peace talks to be held. Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, confirmed his preparedness for talks, but he also said that at that point, the war could only be ended by the Central Powers submitting to the will of the Allies in entirety, but they would have to wait and see how the ‘Revolution in Russia’ (Jewish overthrow) would progress. There had been “workers’ unrests” in March, the Czar had been forced to abdicate, his brother had renounced his right for succession to the throne and the new Republican government had continued the war… quite a timely progression for the Bolsheviks.
In mid-April, the ‘Russian Council of People’s Commissioners’ offered a general peace, without annexations and compensations. In Germany, the Social Democrats immediately supported this offer. Even Matthias Erzberger of the Centre Party, who occasionally traveled abroad on behalf of the German government, supported it too. He was the main initiator of the resolution adopted by the Reichstag, on 19 July. With a clear majority, the Parliament expressed itself in favour of a peace of understanding, a lasting reconciliation of the peoples, against forced cessions of territory and, economic and financial rape… only an economic peace would enable a friendly coexistence of the peoples. The Reichstag also advocated the creation of international rights organisations, but the Supreme Army Command was against this resolution. Bethmann-Hollweg thought it inappropriate at that moment in time and thus lost the confidence of the parties advocating the resolution. On 13 July, he stepped down from office.
His successor, Georg Michaelis, avowed himself at the beginning of the debate about the resolution to the lasting reconciliation of the peoples and to a peace of understanding, but one which would have to safeguard Germany’s interests in Europe and overseas. Lloyd George, by then the British Prime Minister, called this speech “a sign of commitment to war and to achieving a false peace.”
On 1 August, Pope Benedict XV. called upon the warring parties to enter into peace talks. He advocated an obligatory arbitral jurisdiction for all international issues, the settlement of all territorial disputes in a spirit of conciliation, the mutual waiving of war reparations, disarmament and the freedom of the seas. This appeal had been agreed upon by ‘Nuncio Pacelli’ with the leadership of the Reich in late June. An official German comment was published only in mid-September, expressing the spirited hope that the Papal initiative be successful. This declaration was immediately handed over to the press. In doing so, the Reich government once again, like so many times before, made a public commitment to reconciliation. The Allies rejected the Papal proposition right away, Wilson did also – very decisively. On 1 November, Michaelis stepped down from office. The new Chancellor Georg Graf von Hertling, held no different attitude towards peace than its two predecessors.
In Russia, the Bolsheviks came to power following an uprising on 7 November. Vladimir Lenin (aka: Nikolai Lenin, Jacob Richter, Ilyin, Starik, Frei, Maier, Iordanov, Karpov, Mueller, Tulin etc.) the chairman of the now ruling Council of the People’s Commissioners, declared on 9 November in front of the Council Congress, that his government would offer peace to all warring nations on the basis of Soviet conditions, i.e. no annexations and contributions, and the right of self-determination to the peoples. This was also written in his decree for peace. The Central Powers agreed to his request for an armistice. On 4 December, a cease-fire went into effect to bring on a long-term and honourable peace for all parties and, the negotiations started on 22 December in Brest-Litowsk. During the session on 25 December, Czernin called the Russian principles a basis worth discussing. Should that happen, the governments of all warring nations would have to commit themselves to respecting them.
It was decided to ask the Allies for a statement in this sense within ten days. There was no response. The Western powers equally disregarded an invitation by the Russian Foreign Commissar to take part in the peace negotiations. A conversation initiated by Czernin, between an Austrian diplomat and the South-African politician, Jan Smuts, a member of the British Imperial War Cabinet, which took place in Bern in late December, also brought no results.
The Central Powers’ draft for a peace treaty with Russia was very succinct. It demanded that the Russian government take notice of the will of the people, to give full sovereignty to Poland, Lithuania, Courland, and parts of Estonia and Livonia (formally called the Riga Governorate before ceded to Russia and then prior to WWI, it had been administered independently by the local Baltic German nobility, through a Regional Council – now divided between the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Estonia).. Further articles regulated to reinforce once again, the treaties that were in effect before the war, the mutual renunciation of the replacement of war losses and the restitution of war expenses. The Soviet leadership was not united in their stance on this treaty. Lenin was expecting a World Revolution anyway, so he thought that the treaty would not be valid for too long, so he might as well just sign it. Foreign Commissar, Leon Trotsky (aka Leiba Bronstein), proposed to simply abandon the war and a majority was in favour of this. After returning to Brest-Litovsk, he first tried to delay the negotiations and on 18 February 1918, he declared in the political commission that Russia would not sign the treaty, but rather leave the war and hope that other peoples would do the same, without any official agreement in place – thus no ‘Official Peace’ to be obliged to adhere to. The Central Powers correctly judged this as a cancellation of the armistice, according to international law – and restarted their military advance. Soon afterwards, the Central Committee gave in and signed the treaty, which included some new amendments regarding Central Asia and Armenia. Peace was concluded on 3 March.
From June to August, supplementary German-Russian agreements were negotiated in Berlin. There it was agreed that the Central Powers were to withdraw their troops from the Russian areas they had occupied. Ending the combat operations in the East, enabled the Supreme Army Command to deploy troops to the Western front. The German offensive which started there in late March, was particularly intended to hit British troops in order to make London more willing to talk. At first, the German army was very successful, but in early June, they came to a halt. Starting in July, the Allied forces successively pushed back the German troops. Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers in 1915 but in mid-September 1918, the Allied forces broke through the front there. By the end of the same month, the country had to surrender unconditionally. Now Hindenburg, the Head of the Supreme Army Command, demanded that the German government ask President Wilson to mediate an armistice. For this opportunity again, there was agreement in Berlin. The crown council decided on 29 September to introduce the parliamentary system in order to improve the odds for a beneficial peace.
Hertling was against this and stepped down… Prince Max von Baden then became the new Reich Chancellor. Thanks to his long-standing activities in caring for prisoners of war, he was well-regarded, even abroad. He had spoken publicly in favour of a League of Nations and in interior politics, he was ready to conduct reforms. On the very same day he was appointed, the evening of 3 October, he asked President Wilson, via Switzerland, for a peace treaty on the basis of the “Fourteen Points” of 8 January 1918; and in order to prevent further bloodshed, for the immediate conclusion of an armistice. The Danube Monarchy followed suit one day later, the Ottoman Empire soon after. However, Wilson delayed fulfilling this plea for an immediate armistice by five weeks, because the Allies first wanted to improve their military position.
On 5 November, U.S. Secretary of State, Lansing, declared that the Allies were now ready for an armistice which would secure them the absolute power to enforce the details of the peace, which had to be accepted by the German government. This five week delay, cost the lives of some 10,000 soldiers. During this period, the Danube monarchy collapsed and in Germany, a civil war broke out between National Germans and Alien Revolutionaries, in early November. A Council of the People’s Deputies took over government. The armistice signed in the early morning of 11 November stipulated that battles should end at noon, 11 am British time.
Appreciation to Hans Fenske, Professor of Contemporary History, at Freiburg University (1977-2001) for all his scholarly compiled research.
Author of:
Der Anfang vom Ende des alten Europa (The Beginning of the End of Old Europe; The Allied Refusal of Peace Talks 1914-1919.)
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N. Jones is a Writer, Researcher, Historian and Literary Critic.
For that first Christmas away from home, family and friends of the soldiers wanted to make their loved ones’ Christmas as special as could be, under the circumstances that is. They sent packages filled with letters, warm clothing, food, cigarettes, and medications. Yet what made Christmas at the front really seem like the traditional festival, was the arrival of so many small Christmas trees in the German trenches.
Another opportunity undertaken by the truce, was to bury the dead. There were corpses out in No Man’s Land that had been there for several months. Along with the revelry that celebrated Christmas, was the sad and sombre job of burying their fallen comrades. On Christmas Day, British and German soldiers appeared on No Man’s Land and sorted through the bodies. In a few instances, joint services were held together for both the British and German dead.
Many soldiers enjoyed meeting the un-seen enemy and were surprised to discover they were more alike than they had thought. They talked, shared Christmas trees and family pictures, and exchanged Christmas gifts, such as cigarettes, puddings, wine, regimental badges and brass buttons etc.
This impromptu, unsanctioned Christmas Truce of 1914, came shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe – much to the anger of the ‘Chain of Command’ who, in many instances, threatened repercussions for lack of discipline. Numerous Officers ordered their artillery to open fire on their fraternising troops in no-mans-land. On none of these occasions did the artillery obey orders. There are numerous complaints on record by officers shocked at the total breakdown of discipline as men point blank refused orders to open fire on their own soldiers, who were mingling with the enemy in no-mans-land – on Christmas Day. The reinstatement of combat was ordered and in various areas of the front, recommenced the day after Christmas, others after New Year and on the Eastern front a week later again. It was the last example of the supposedly outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated. An Easter Sunday Truce was attempted by German units in 1915, but they were suppressed by British artillery fire. Future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by Officers, with threats of disciplinary action, court martial, Treason, the death penalty and so, became somewhat of a legend…
But it served as heartening proof and showed, however brief, that even in the most hell-like of conditions, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, soldiers’ essential goodness and humanity prevails… and with the spirit of Christmas and what it represents, can overcome the enmity and bring people together.
Right away, the war was ideologically charged by the Allies. During a tour of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Asquith (in Edinburgh, in September) called the war a crusade against the arrogance of a single power trying to dominate the development of Europe. In Dublin, he declared the need to prevent small nations being annihilated by an overbearing power and claimed that the war was about the final abolition of militarism as the ruling factor in the relationships between states. In London, on 9 November, he spoke on the necessary abolition of Prussian militarism, and his fellow party member Lloyd George wanted to see the German people liberated from the hell of the military caste. The speech from the throne of 11 November, held that England would continue for as long as it could dictate the peace. All this was accompanied by sharp anti-German propaganda in the media. This even went so far that Germany was frequently called “Barbaria.” The British government was later not to leave their position, briefly detailed below.
In France too, there were demands to break up Prussian militarism. In October 1944, Foreign Minister Delcassé, told the Russian ambassador that the aim of France was to annihilate the German Reich and to weaken Prussia’s military and political power as much as possible. In a similar vein, in a September memorandum for the French government, Sazonov spoke about the destruction of German power and the German arrogance to be predominant in Europe.
On 5 September, the three Entente nations contractually committed themselves not to agree on a separate peace and to talk about their war goals in public only after having consulted each other. Several treaties were entered into regarding these goals, even with countries like Italy, which only joined the Allies later in the course of the war. The plans were about weakening Germany, destroying the Danube Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, the latter which had joined the war in the autumn of 1914, on the side of the Central Powers.
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