Page - 75 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Military Accords 75 even be argued that Germany in no way dominated. On the contrary : Berlin became politically dependent on its main ally, a circumstance that the German Imperial Chan- cellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg also noted, though without being able to do anything about it or even wanting to try. The German Empire did not want to risk losing its only real ally and in this way end up completely isolated. Thus, Germany also wanted to interpret the Dual Alliance treaty generously, even if it hid the danger that both states would be pulled into a major war. Admittedly, doubts could often be heard in Germany as to whether the alliance with Austria-Hungary was prudent. Austrian capital competed with that of Germany in the Balkans and in the Near East. Was it wise to chain oneself to an empire that evidently had serious domestic conflicts to overcome and that was in essence a Slav-Magyar em- pire, whose German population only constituted a quarter of the overall total ? Was it sensible to chain oneself to a stagnant and, perhaps, dying great power ? In some respects, the dilemma of the German Empire was no less great than that of Austria-Hungary. It was the German historian Fritz Fischer who drew our attention to the considerable German ambitions vis-à-vis the Orient, for the realisation of which German capital travelled across the Balkans and Turkey to the Near East and beyond.155 It was not exactly a ‘grab for global power’, in the words of Fischer, but it was a pro- nounced imperial tendency, which was then subsumed under the catchphrase ‘global politics’. These German global politics intersected with Austrian policy in the Balkans, the only area of foreign policy in which the Danube Monarchy became active.156 Added to these imperial interests were dynastic interests, which cannot be separated from the former and which repeatedly persuaded Germany to bind Romania more closely to the Triple Alliance. In this respect, Germany attempted to exert influence over the Ball- hausplatz (Austro-Hungarian Imperial Chancellery). Likewise, Kaiser Wilhelm was interested in a stronger bond with Greece and argued the case for this, as his sister was married to the Greek king, Constantine I. Yet,by and large,it would prove to be the case that the Dual Alliance, in its more dynamic and not just defensive moments, did not function in this way, and that Berlin set the agenda. The German imperial government confirmed, supported and executed. And the German Empire recognised more or less silently that Austria-Hungary  – itself a Balkan power  – understood more about events in south-eastern Europe than the German Empire, or at least claimed to. One of the most important observations here is that with the decline of the prestige of the German Empire  – with respect to its role compared to that of France and Great Britain  – the decisive voice in the Triple Alliance was transferred to Vienna. For the Austrian historian Fritz Fellner, this was the cause of the gradual disintegration of the alliance, for Vienna had always regarded the Triple Alliance as little more than a necessary evil. Austria-Hungary nevertheless relied on its old Dual Alliance partner and entangled it ever more in the Balkans.157