The Trautmann Mediation (Chinese: 陶德曼調停, Japanese: トラウトマン和平工作) was an attempt by the German Ambassador to China, Oskar Trautmann, to broker a peace between Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and Chiang Kai-shek of the Chinese Nationalist government shortly after the Second Sino-Japanese War began.
After the Nazi Party took power, Germany maintained its good relationship with the Chinese government but signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan in November 1936.
China appealed to the international community including League of Nations, to take necessary measures against Japanese aggression.
During that time, Japan was gaining the upper hand militarily, with the end of the Battle of Shanghai on November 26.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek decided to accept the Japanese proposal as the basis of peace negotiations, which was communicated to Trautmann on December 2, 1937.
After lengthy internal discussion, the Konoe cabinet made the second proposal as follows: A Japanese diplomat told it to the German ambassador in Japan on December 22, 1937.
On January 11, 1938, six days after the deadline for a Chinese government reply, an Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) was held at Tokyo.
Tetsuya Kataoka, Resistance and Revolution in China: The Communists and the Second United Front,1974, University of California Press