Page - 669 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Steps towards Peace 669 The Russians, however, were forced to extend their front further southwards, and use 40 divisions for the purpose. In so doing, they forfeited any capability of taking offensive action along other sections of their front. In Austria, special editions of the newspapers were again printed, and once more, the emotional upswell could be felt, in Hungary even more so than in Austria, after an enemy that had once been an ally, which had played so many tactical games and which now, hoping to exploit the weakness of the Central Powers, had appeared on the scene, could now so clearly be defeated after just three months. Redlich wrote : ‘I am certain : in centuries to come, there will still be admiration for what Mackensen, Falk- enhayn and their chiefs of staff under the command of Hindenburg and Ludendorff have achieved in terms of mental and moral strength ; they with their soldiers, who in a campaign of scarcely 25 days have conquered Romania. These are feats that will be comparable to Caesar’s campaigns or Napoleon’s achievements at most  – and even these are of lesser merit !’1522 There was no mention of Conrad, Fischer, Arz, Archduke Joseph, Goiginger or other Austro-Hungarian commanders on the eastern front or in Romania. This entry is extremely telling. The victory over Romania was regarded by those who had achieved it as a useful prerequisite for starting the peace initiative that had been the subject of discussion for some time. Emperor Karl placed a great deal of hope in it, since his goal, after all, was to be a prince of peace. This was something that Conrad von Hötzendorf was unable to understand. And he characterised Karl’s efforts as a sybaritic impulse : ‘Emperor Karl was no fighting spirit. He dreamed of the gentle pleasures of a peaceful reign, and for this reason was keen to see the war ended as soon as possible.’1523 Naturally, this was far from being the case. Even so, the fact that despite all the signs of exhaustion the nationalist circles did not hold the ‘prince of peace’ in much esteem was due to the fact that a peace with the continued existence of the state structures was not in their interest. And a sacrificial peace even less so. Steps towards Peace In principle, Karl’s first steps towards peace came about by chance. It was only due to the fact that a delay occurred in the discussion with the German Empire on a peace initiative by the Central Powers that resulted in the fact that the message of 12 De- cember 1916 was in fact the first step taken in this direction by the new Emperor, and not perhaps the last act by Emperor Franz Joseph. After the list of war aims had been drawn up by Count Burián in mid-October, during the second half of October, nego- tiations had taken place regarding the content and timing of a peace initiative. Leading the initiative  – and it could not be expected otherwise  – was Germany. Here, all pos-