The Berlin Conference of 26–27 March 1917 was the second governmental meeting between Arthur Zimmermann and Ottokar Czernin, the German and Austro-Hungarian foreign ministers, under the chairmanship of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.

[1] However, despite the new Russian government's determination to continue the war, the revolution and the resulting turmoil meant that the Russian Army's operational capabilities were temporarily lost; aware of this reality, German an Austrian-Hungarian military planners quickly redeployed part of their armies then engaged on the Eastern Front to Italy, the Balkans and the West.

[2][3] In response to an official German request made on 18 October 1916, Stephan Burián von Rajecz, then Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, sent a note on 5 November 1916, specifying Austria's war aims, in search of an "increase in power and security".

In reality, however, Austrian negotiators were maneuvered by Matthias Erzberger and Georg von Hertling, then Minister-President of the Kingdom of Bavaria, both of whom supported the continuation of the war until victory.

His delegation included the Minister's new Chief of Cabinet, Alexander Hoyos,[Note 6] as well as Ladislas Müller von Szentgyörgyi, Head of Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[17][18] However, in the course of exchanges between the two parties, Czernin succeeded in convincing the Chancellor of the necessity of Romania's return to the Austro-Hungarian sphere of influence, in exchange for the ceded its interest in Poland to Germany: Romania territory was thus promised to be shared between Russia and Austria-Hungary, with the Siret marking the border between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian zones of influence.

The status of the regions promised to Austria-Hungary had not yet been definitively determined, as the Austro-Hungarians vacillated between outright annexation or the establishment of a puppet monarchy, with the crown vested in an archduke of the Habsburg family.

[14][20] In a context marked by the weakening of military pressure on the Eastern Front, the Germans Bethmann-Hollweg and Zimmermann and the Austro-Hungarian Czernin defined the minimum conditions under which Germany and Austria-Hungary declared their readiness to leave the conflict.

For Czernin, the return of Eastern Galicia and Bukovina - still occupied by the Russian army - was a non-negotiable objective, even if it had to be paid for by abandoning Austro-Hungarian ambitions in Poland.