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876 The Inner Front
of belonging to Russia and sought separate peace talks. The right to self-determination
proved to be a huge stumbling block. Russia demanded the consultation of represent-
atives from Courland and Lithuania, if Germany claimed that these provinces on the
periphery wanted to free themselves from Russia. The Chief of the General Staff of the
German Supreme Army Command and ‘host’ of the negotiations, General Hoffmann,
whose role was to take the radical view of the Army Command within the German
delegation, put on the airs and graces of a victor. It was not the Russians who should
be setting conditions : ‘The victorious German Army is on your territory’, as he pointed
out to Trotsky.2084 But Trotsky attempted repeatedly to avoid adopting a clear position
with dialectical manoeuvres and was already prepared to break off the negotiations. But
Lenin wanted them to be continued.
Czernin’s position at the talks was markedly complicated by the January strikes and
the looming famine catastrophe. His repeated declarations that he would rather con-
clude a separate peace than see peace founder on German demands, no longer had
any effect. Emperor Karl had now resorted to only making appeals. Growing aversion
towards the Germans and the widespread belief that Austria-Hungary was now only
fighting for German conquests, but was for its part to be fobbed off with mere crumbs,
and that Germany would ultimately conclude peace on the back of Austria, made his
decisions conceivably difficult. The conflict could hardly be greater : Czernin openly
threated with a ‘reorientation in alliance policy’ after the war. Germany returned the
aversion. ‘The wider public here naturally does not speak well of Austria-Hungary’,
wrote the German diplomat Albert Bernstorff in January 1918 to the editor of the Ös-
terreichischer Volkswirt, Gustav Stolper. He even had to cancel a planned presentation in
Dresden, since the mood had turned so much against the Habsburg Monarchy.2085 The
Central Powers, however, were evidently condemned to unity. It was Austria-Hungary
that had to come begging. Since Czernin was assailed by the Austrian government, the
head of the Joint Food Committee and, ultimately, the Emperor to obtain deliveries of
cereal crops from Germany and Bulgaria, he could not do anything other than act ac-
commodatingly. The German Empire granted a loan of 45,000 tons of wheat flour, and
eventually there was also a veritable accord on additional German deliveries. Czernin’s
room for manoeuvre, however, had again been constricted.2086 The Minister reproached
Seidler for not having suppressed the press reports. Czernin criticised the Hungarian
Prime Minister Wekerle strongly and openly advocated the establishment of a military
dictatorship.2087 But this could not give him back his scope of action. Czernin became
increasingly bound to German policies. First of all, he had to indulge Ukraine, which
claimed the Chełm Governorate from the Russian part of Poland for its emerging
state.2088 Czernin had to concede, even if unforeseeable difficulties were to result with
the Poles, who regarded Chełm as an integral part of Poland. The Ukrainians further-
more succeeded with the demand for the creation of Ruthenia as a separate crown land
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155