Page - 855 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Poland Again 855 in Galicia were also pushing for unification with the other Poles. This would in itself have remained within the framework of foreign policy manoeuvrings, since in August 1917, Czernin had renewed an offer by Emperor Karl that had already been made four months previously at the meeting of the monarchs in Bad Homburg, and offered Germany Galicia if Berlin were to relinquish Alsace-Lorraine. However, as was known, this cession had not come about and, as a result, Czernin had withdrawn his offer again. However, the affinity felt by the Austrian Poles towards a Polish kingdom could not be overlooked. In order to avoid losing Galicia entirely, ideas suddenly again took hold according to which a united Poland could be incorporated into an Austrian federation. There were also German voices that supported this solution. The proposal made by the German ambassador in Vienna, Count Botho von Wedel, that Berlin return to consideration of the Austro-Polish solution, was aimed at reducing the anti-German trend in Austria.2025 However, the conditions in Poland were in no way made easier. Austrians and Germans attempted to gain influence, and inevitably got in each other’s way. Areas of dispute were the position of the Polish State Council, the troops of the Polish Legions, among whom 700 Imperial and Royal soldiers were already serving, the question of the oath and, naturally, the future of Poland. Even so, plans by Archduke Karl Stephan to take on the regency in Poland were certainly obsolete from the start.2026 However, there had been one further development. Kaiser Wilhelm had discovered his love for Romania, although in a very different way than in the sense of the former alliance. The German Kaiser had visited the Romanian front in September, and had been so impressed by the natural riches of this country that he had telegraphed to the German Imperial Chancellor on 23 September 1917 that the German Empire should abandon the German-Polish solution and instead make efforts to attain domination in Romania. The German imperial government would have agreed to this solution, but the Supreme Army Command raised objections. Poland was significantly closer to its own sphere of influence, and should not simply be left to Austria-Hungary. The condition for any other arrangement should be the unification of the German and Aus- tro-Hungarian economic area, in order to economically merge the two empires. Poland and Central Europe again became two facets of one and the same problem. However, Austria-Hungary was only willing to grant Germany preferential customs duties, and avoided all further considerations regarding an economic union.2027 None- theless, at several conferences in Vienna on 22 October and then in Berlin on 5 and 6 November 1917, a breakthrough was achieved in that the war aims that had been agreed at Bad Kreuznach on 23 April 1917 were revised. Then, the Austro-Polish solu- tion was approached under somewhat altered conditions : the conclusion of a 20-year protection and defence alliance, as well as a military convention between the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, close economic association between the two powers, the economic annexation of Romania to Germany, which would have ended in a type of