Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"The seriousness of the strikes can be gleaned from Ambassador Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst's briefings in Berlin. On 16 January [1918] Hohenlohe shared Viennese police reports stating that 12 000 workers at the state locomotive plant, 2000 at the Fiat auto factory, and 1800 at Kofherr & Schrantz as well as at the United Rubber Works had walked off the job. Within 48 hours, Berlin promised 125 000 tons of grain and 8000 tons of wheat from Romanian depots. That same 18 January, Hohenlohe reported that leading Austrian Social Democrats were meeting with the government to discuss the strikes."
Peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers were at a standstill on January 18, 1918, and were increasingly a debate between Leon Trotsky, leader of the Russian delegation, and Germany's representatives. Austria-Hungary's situation, particularly Austria's, was increasingly desperate, and food riots and strikes had broken out in Vienna and other cities. From Brest-Litovsk Ottokar Czernin, the Empire's Minister of Foreign Affairs, begged Kaiser Karl to address the food situation by requesting food from Germany, and by forcing Hungary to stop withholding supplies. The Emperor in turn asked Czernin to hurry to a settlement, something over which he had little control. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin fully expected that the example of the Bolshevik Revolution would soon spread across Europe.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 362, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
1918-01-18, 1918, January, strike, Vienna, food, Social Democrats, Zweibund, Zweibund handshake, Dual Alliance, Central Powers
