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!
". . . Bethmann Hollweg, like Ludendorff convinced that Falkenhayn's conduct of the war would not lead to total victory, was more than ready to exploit the divisions within the OHL for his own political gain. The Chancellor immediately recruited two influential Bavarian politicians . . .On 3 January [1915] Bethmann Hollweg petitioned Wilhelm II to replace Falkenhayn with Ludendorff."
After his predecessor's defeat at the Marne, the end of the Race to the Sea, and his own failure to achieve victory in the Battle of Flanders, German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn told the German Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg that victory could not be achieved, and argued for a separate peace with Russia to encourage peace with France and Britain. Bethmann Hollweg refused and supported Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff in their campaigns not only for additional troops being diverted to the eastern front for campaigns against Russia, but also to replace Falkenhayn as head of OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung), the German High Command.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, pp. 131, 132, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
1915-01-03, 1915, January
