Austro-Hungarian trench art pencil drawing on pink paper of a soldier in a ragged, many-times-patched uniform, labeled 'Bilder ohne Worte' (No Comment, or Picture without Words). Kaiser Karl who succeeded Emperor Franz Joseph is on reverse. The printed text on the reverse is in Hungarian and German.
Bilder ohne WorteNo Comment
"Reports reached Berlin that if the Central Powers did not bring off an armistice soon, Vienna would be obliged to make a separate settlement with the enemy.Such was the environment when Emperor Charles and his leading counsellors appeared at Spa on August 14 for another top-level parley on war and peace with the Germans. The Hapsburg armed services could not possibly carry on another winter, the men from Vienna flatly asserted, and an armistice must be sought forthwith. Burián presented his plan for an informal, confidential meeting of representatives of the warring states to examine the fundamental considerations on which a settlement might be negotiated. Although Ludendorff had described August 8 as 'the black day' for the German army, the Berlin policy makers recoiled in dismay at Burián's proposal, and insisted that no move for peace should be undertaken until the military situation in France had been stabilized. In the light of first-hand observations in Dresden and Munich, the Austrians were sure that ordinary Germans urgently desired an armistice, and the governments of Bulgaria and Turkey assented to a general conference of belligerents with alacrity."
The success of the Anglo-French Battle of Amiens, particularly the seven-mile advance on a broad front in the first day, stunned German commander Erich Ludendorff who referred to a 'black day for the German Army.' Military and civilian leaders met at Spa on August 13 to review the situation, joined by the Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Karl of Austria-Hungary the next day. Hungarian Stephan Burián served as Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary from January 1915 to December 1916 and again from April 16 to October 24, 1918. He also served as Joint Finance Minister from December 1916 to September 7, 1918.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, pp. 730–731, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
1918-08-14, 1918, August, Spa, Spa conference, crown council, Bilder ohne Worte
