I am very grateful to Britain At War, Illustrated History of the Third Year of the Great War: 1916, without which I would not have sought out, and found the speech offering Germany’s peace proposal in Dec 1916. Thanks to Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914–1918 by R Chickering.
The intolerable strains of the war showed on all sides. Britain, the only major nation that had been at war without conscription, introduced it in early 1916. Depleted manpower resources forced governments throughout Europe to begin deploying women in various hitherto male-only jobs on the home front. Signs of popular disillusionment with the ongoing conflict, such as labour unrest and food riots, were more common. By 1916 End-The-War voices had been everywhere.
Although their armies were killing each other’s young men by the millions, the warring sides in WW1 remained in almost constant diplomatic contact. How bizarre! As early as Feb 1916, newspapers were describing an attempt by German chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to make a peace proposal through Pope Benedict XV. His proposal and its stipulations were further explained by Count Julius Andrassy in Budapest in April, but the Allies dismissed it out of hand because of it was fundamentally calling for a return to pre-war boundaries, leaving only the fate of Germany’s overseas possessions in dispute.
In Nov the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne circulated a letter calling for a negotiated peace in the name of saving civilisation, but it was loudly damned by most British statesmen. One other proposal followed the death of Austrian Kaiser Franz Josef I in Nov 1916, when Kaiser Charles I took over. The new Emperor’s offer interested American President Woodrow Wilson enough to remain strictly neutral until April 1917, when it became clear that Austria-Hungary would not break its alliance with Germany. Ultimately the peace initiatives failed and the war went on. And on.
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Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg read out the Central Powers’ peace offering,
The intolerable strains of the war showed on all sides. Britain, the only major nation that had been at war without conscription, introduced it in early 1916. Depleted manpower resources forced governments throughout Europe to begin deploying women in various hitherto male-only jobs on the home front. Signs of popular disillusionment with the ongoing conflict, such as labour unrest and food riots, were more common. By 1916 End-The-War voices had been everywhere.
Although their armies were killing each other’s young men by the millions, the warring sides in WW1 remained in almost constant diplomatic contact. How bizarre! As early as Feb 1916, newspapers were describing an attempt by German chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to make a peace proposal through Pope Benedict XV. His proposal and its stipulations were further explained by Count Julius Andrassy in Budapest in April, but the Allies dismissed it out of hand because of it was fundamentally calling for a return to pre-war boundaries, leaving only the fate of Germany’s overseas possessions in dispute.
In Nov the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne circulated a letter calling for a negotiated peace in the name of saving civilisation, but it was loudly damned by most British statesmen. One other proposal followed the death of Austrian Kaiser Franz Josef I in Nov 1916, when Kaiser Charles I took over. The new Emperor’s offer interested American President Woodrow Wilson enough to remain strictly neutral until April 1917, when it became clear that Austria-Hungary would not break its alliance with Germany. Ultimately the peace initiatives failed and the war went on. And on.
at the Reichstag
2nd Dec 1916.
But we would have expected the Central Powers’ (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) public offer to negotiate in Dec 1916 to be taken very seriously. On 5th Dec 1916 the Imperial German Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, delivered an address in the Reichstag in which he stated the willingness of the German Empire, under certain conditions, to consider the question of peace with its enemies. Hollweg included the text of a note which the Imperial Government had submitted, through neutral governments, for consideration by the Entente Powers (Great Britain, France and Russia). An identical note was likewise submitted on the same date by Germany's allies.
“Should our enemies refuse to enter peace negotiations – and we have to assume that this will be the case – the odium of continuing the war will fall on them. War-weariness will then grow and generate new support for the elements that are pushing for peace. In Germany and among its Allies, too, the desire for peace has become keen. The rejection of our peace offer, the knowledge that the continuation of the struggle is inevitable thanks alone to our enemies, would be an effective means of spurring our people to utmost exertion and sacrifice for a victorious end to the war”.
Soon after its victory in Romania, the German peace offer was seen as ambiguous, and arrogant, in tone. It produced only cynicism in the Allied camp, and its failure eased the way towards even greater German ferociousness regarding submarine warfare.
Why was Germany prepared to give up very little, if it truly wanted peace? Why did the Germans assume the Allies would refuse to enter peace negotiations, before the speech had even been delivered? Why did the Germans insist that Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine were to remain German, or have pro-German governments? Historians have suggested that the German peace offer of Dec 1916 was a real one, but so inflexible that it could only have been made as a public relations exercise to impress the Neutral Nations. It was felt that the original peace proposals made in August 1914 were still the same and only ones that were on offer in December 1916. Two years of killing (650,000 dead or wounded from the British and French armies, and 500,000 German soldiers killed or wounded) apparently did not modify governmental thinking, on either side of the war.
In return, the Entente Powers stated the conditions upon which they would consider pursuing peace with the Central Powers. Herbert Asquith had resigned as British prime minister and his successor, David Lloyd-George, reaffirmed the British and French resolve that “an acceptable peace could only come with the outright defeat of Germany”. So Lloyd-George rejected the German offer of peace negotiations and called for the Allies to redouble their efforts against the Central Powers. By Christmas, the Germans had counter-attacked successfully in Romania and occupied Bucharest. Soon after, the Czar was dead, the revolution was commanding its generals’ attention and the Russian soldiers were called home.
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A German poster quoted a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II,
“Should our enemies refuse to enter peace negotiations – and we have to assume that this will be the case – the odium of continuing the war will fall on them. War-weariness will then grow and generate new support for the elements that are pushing for peace. In Germany and among its Allies, too, the desire for peace has become keen. The rejection of our peace offer, the knowledge that the continuation of the struggle is inevitable thanks alone to our enemies, would be an effective means of spurring our people to utmost exertion and sacrifice for a victorious end to the war”.
Soon after its victory in Romania, the German peace offer was seen as ambiguous, and arrogant, in tone. It produced only cynicism in the Allied camp, and its failure eased the way towards even greater German ferociousness regarding submarine warfare.
Why was Germany prepared to give up very little, if it truly wanted peace? Why did the Germans assume the Allies would refuse to enter peace negotiations, before the speech had even been delivered? Why did the Germans insist that Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine were to remain German, or have pro-German governments? Historians have suggested that the German peace offer of Dec 1916 was a real one, but so inflexible that it could only have been made as a public relations exercise to impress the Neutral Nations. It was felt that the original peace proposals made in August 1914 were still the same and only ones that were on offer in December 1916. Two years of killing (650,000 dead or wounded from the British and French armies, and 500,000 German soldiers killed or wounded) apparently did not modify governmental thinking, on either side of the war.
In return, the Entente Powers stated the conditions upon which they would consider pursuing peace with the Central Powers. Herbert Asquith had resigned as British prime minister and his successor, David Lloyd-George, reaffirmed the British and French resolve that “an acceptable peace could only come with the outright defeat of Germany”. So Lloyd-George rejected the German offer of peace negotiations and called for the Allies to redouble their efforts against the Central Powers. By Christmas, the Germans had counter-attacked successfully in Romania and occupied Bucharest. Soon after, the Czar was dead, the revolution was commanding its generals’ attention and the Russian soldiers were called home.
against the Allied rejection of the peace proposal,
January 1917.
I actually think the Allies refused to negotiate a peace settlement in Dec 1916 for a rather insane reason. The peace offer apparently indicated a real weakness on the German side and rather than increasing the probability of peace, the offer actually diminished it. Ironically, and dangerously as it turned out, it emboldened the Allies and made them believe that Germany was about to fall apart, from deaths, starvation, inflation and internal divisiveness.
If only France and Britain had pursued the German peace offer more vigorously in Dec 1916. If only they had asked the grieving widows and mothers of Cape Town, Toronto, Delhi and Perth, instead of asking elderly male parliamentarians about national honour and brilliant victories yet to come. In August 1914 the combatants could not have known that millions of teenage soldiers and civilians would be massacred on both sides - by December 1916, they certainly did!
If only France and Britain had pursued the German peace offer more vigorously in Dec 1916. If only they had asked the grieving widows and mothers of Cape Town, Toronto, Delhi and Perth, instead of asking elderly male parliamentarians about national honour and brilliant victories yet to come. In August 1914 the combatants could not have known that millions of teenage soldiers and civilians would be massacred on both sides - by December 1916, they certainly did!