Reichstag Peace Resolution

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February 1917, the military predicted that Britain would be forced to make peace within six months,[2] but by the summer it was clear that the goal would not be achieved.

[3] On 6 July 1917, in the main committee of the Reichstag, Centre Party deputy Matthias Erzberger recommended that Germany continue the war but end unrestricted submarine warfare and seek a negotiated peace (Verständigungsfrieden).

[6] Erzberger's efforts led to the Reichstag Peace Resolution drafted by the newly formed Inter-Party Committee (Interfraktionellen Ausschuss) that included representatives of the SPD, FVP, Centre and, initially, National Liberal parties.

The text of the document:[8]As it did on August 4, 1914, the word uttered from the throne still holds true for the German people at the threshold of the war’s fourth year: “We seek no conquest.” Germany resorted to arms in order to protect its freedom and independence, to defend its territorial integrity.

Even Erzberger, who was later ostracised by the political right for signing the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and for his insistence on approving the Treaty of Versailles, and who was assassinated in 1921 by members of the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul, thought that German interests in Belgium and the east were not affected by the resolution.

General Erich Ludendorff attributed the majority parties' change in attitude towards war aims to a "relapse of sentiment" and a "prevalence of international, pacifist, defeatist thinking".

In spite of the adoption of the peace resolution, the Reichstag majority and the Supreme Army Command (OHL) did not subsequently stand as two opposing political camps.

The newly formed "war-goal majority" in the Reichstag, in cooperation with the OHL and the Reich government, succeeded in repressing the peace resolution's offers in the period that followed.

In line with Erzberger's own views, they believed that under the resolution Germany would keep the territory in France that it had occupied, along with both Belgium and Luxemburg, because the German people would not accept arbitration over what they had suffered so long to gain.