Seite - 991 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Emperor’s Manifesto 991 withdrawal of the troops of the Central Powers from the occupied foreign territories.2439 As the Austro-Hungarian liaison officer with the German Supreme Army Command, Major General Klepsch-Kloth von Roden, reported, the German Foreign Ministry wanted to meet this demand, since the situation on the western front was in any case exceedingly unstable. In Baden and Vienna, however, evidently no-one was concerned at this point in time about the fact that Wilson had sent the Germans an answer but not Austria-Hungary.2440 Only Burián could have become aware of this, since he noted on 10 October : ‘We must strive for an armistice for Germany on the condition that we also obtain one.’2441 He reminded the Imperial and Royal ambassador in Berlin that the German Empire would be obliged to come to Austria-Hungary’s defence against attempts to dissolve it.2442 The German course gave a final flicker. As far as the demanded withdrawal of the fronts was concerned, Austria-Hungary saw no difficulty in evacuating Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Ukraine. The first of these had already been de facto evacuated. The Dual Monarchy wanted first to negoti- ate with the German Empire regarding the evacuation of Romania and Poland.2443 In the case of Italy, the deliberations of the Army High Command revolved around two variations : if they withdrew quickly in order to immediately fulfil the preconditions for the opening of armistice talks, the final stockpiles would have to be left behind. If they started with their removal, however, and let the troops return at the end, then the evacuation would last longer, at least several weeks. For his part, Arz did not trust the Austro-Hungarian armies in Italy to carry out an orderly withdrawal. They would immediately disintegrate. Thus, since they could not be withdrawn, the troops were to be left where they were. Ultimately, Arz could only be prevented with difficulty by the Foreign Minister from commencing armistice negotiations with Italy on his own initiative.2444 The Army High Command was informed on 9 October by its intelligence division that on 15 October a congress of the Allies would meet in Paris, at which binding agreements regarding the future solution of the nationalities problem in Austria-Hun- gary were to be concluded and especially the borders of a southern Slav state fixed.2445 Now it was a case of acting quickly, if the imperial manifesto on the restructuring of the Danube Monarchy was to be issued as an advance delivery. Hussarek surprisingly shelved his misgivings regarding the issuing of the imperial manifesto. In this way, he rendered the Emperor a great service, since as much as Karl was at pains to utilise the simultaneous government crisis in Austria and Hungary, he likewise sought support for his manifesto days later. On 15 October, the Joint Council of Ministers convened again with the Emperor, on which occasion the approbation of the so-called ‘Manifesto to the Peoples’ took place. This did not mean, however, that nothing was changed retroactively. The current Hungarian Prime Minister Wekerle did not arrive in Vienna until after the Privy Council and achieved the insertion that the