Seite - 592 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

592 The Nameless his talks with the German Imperial Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, Burián advocated an independent peace move by the Central Powers without the mediation of the Amer- icans. Burián argued that reasonable conditions would be bound to have the desired effect on the neutral states, above all the USA, and nourish the eagerness for peace in the enemy states. At the same time, such a step would also be welcomed by the peoples of the Central Powers and, in the event of a rejection, increase their determination to see the war through to the end.1365 The Foreign Minister’s arguments were, so to speak, the preamble to what followed, which is not mentioned in Burián’s memoirs. The Imperial and Royal Foreign Minister handed the Imperial Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg a list of peace conditions, which the former had endeavoured to formulate not only for Austria-Hungary but for all the Central Powers.1366 But could Burián’s list even be described as peace conditions ? The things he cited were war aims, since the Minister had succumbed to the vision of peace with victory just as much as the Chief of the Imperial and Royal General Staff. The German historian Wolfgang Steglich also stated, therefore : ‘The first step in the matter of a peace offer approximated very closely the conclusion of the agreement on war aims.’1367 Burián wanted to swear Bethmann Hollweg and, ultimately, all four of the Central Powers to joint war aims. In his list, he named first of all the territorial integrity of the alliance states. This did not perhaps so much mean that Austria-Hungary and Turkey should have those terri- tories that were occupied by the enemy returned, since in the case of Austria-Hungary the territory still occupied by Russia in Bukovina and East Galicia could be swapped for the Russian territory held by Austria-Hungary. It was more a question of estab- lishing that Austria should not lose South Tyrol to Italy or Transylvania to Roma- nia. Germany should also not have to relinquish Alsace-Lorraine. The next thing that Burián made the case for was the return of the German colonies occupied above all by the British ; in this way he made a demand that in fact far exceeded German wishes and also the German assessment of the situation. He furthermore wanted to secure the Congo for the German Empire. Added to the integrity of the alliance states were aims directed at the Entente and the states allied with it. Belgium was to be re-established as a sovereign state, but brought into a particu- larly close relationship with the German Empire, whereby a personal union with Aus- tria-Hungary appeared to Burián to be desirable. Albania should be independent, or rather become independent once more ; it had been a neutral country whose neutrality had been guaranteed in 1913 by six great powers, including Austria-Hungary. If pos- sible, Albania should benefit from a territorial expansion into Montenegro. Montene- gro, for its part, continued to be theoretically dismembered and, according to Burián’s concepts, would have lost Mount Lovćen and the coastal strip south of Krivošije, and thus been de facto cut off from the sea. Bulgaria was to recoup itself at the expense of