Spa Conferences (First World War)
At the request of the Dioscuri Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff,[Note 3] German Emperor Wilhelm II issued an order transferring the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL) to Spa at the beginning of 1918.
[3][1] During the four main conferences of 1918, German and Austro-Hungarian civil and military officials took part in the talks, each of the parties involved tried to assert their points of view during sometimes tense exchanges.
[4][Note 4] Officially co-chaired by the two emperors, the conferences of May and August, allowed the Hohenzollern to demonstrate the predominance of the Reich in the alliance linking it to the dual monarchy.
[Note 5] During these meetings, the monarchs set the guidelines for relations between the two empires, establishing the general terms of the agreements in principle between the two monarchies, which their advisors must specify during subsequent negotiations.
[7][8] Stephan Burián von Rajecz, Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs in office April 16At October 24, 1918, assists Emperor - King Charles I during the German-Austro-Hungarian meetings of May 12 and August 14, 1918.
During two of them, only representatives of the Imperial and Prussian governments were invited; the other two were joined by Emperor-King Charles I, assisted by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stephan Burián von Rajecz.
The August conference was held when the German and Austro-Hungarian armies had exhausted the means of their respective empires, in men and equipment, and showed themselves incapable of confronting the Allied breakthroughs, present or future.
[17][18][9] Furthermore, it appears to German officials that the war must allow the integration of the Reich and the dual monarchy into a vast political and economic whole constituted on the scale of the European continent.
[22][23] Thus, during the council of the German crown meeting on August 14, Chancellor Georg von Hertling presents at length the internal situation of the Reich, then engaged since the summer of 1914 in the world conflict.
He insists in particular on the brigandage which rages in the countryside, the bands of plunderers seizing the harvests of helpless peasants; the food situation also generates high inflation while the Germans can no longer buy anything, due to shortages.
In addition, the moral crisis experienced by the front quickly reached the country, notably through letters from soldiers to their families, informing them of the reality of the military situation and the absurdity of the orders given by the command.
[27][28] Always accompanied by Emperor William, the negotiators mandated by the Reich, the main leader of the Quadruplice, set, sometimes in agreement with their counterparts from the dual monarchy placed under strict political and military control, the conditions for which they affirmed their readiness.
[29] The last two conferences, that of the 13th, 14th and 15th of August and that of September 29, are marked by the rebellion of members of the civil government against the Dioscuri Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the military ostensibly neglecting the seriousness of the internal situation in the Reich; Chancellor Georg von Hertling, supported by his ministers, multiplied initiatives towards the army command to impose an end to the conflict, without success.
Alongside these internal exchanges, German leaders must take into account the increasingly insistent desire of their Austro-Hungarian counterparts to withdraw from the conflict as quickly as possible and at any cost.
He was charged with both the opening of negotiations with a view to the armistice and the implementation of political reforms, intended to transform the authoritarian Bismarckian Reich into a parliamentary monarchy.
