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Austro-Hungarian soldiers celebrate the 30th birthday of Kaiser Karl, waving paper lanterns as one holds a framed portrait of the Emperor in an postcard promotion for a Festival for the Kaiser.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
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.
A couple out for a stroll, he a German officer, she stylishly dressed. The title, Renommierbummel, may indicate that one is boasting, or that the stroll itself is one to boast about. It may also refer to the glove she is showing off or putting on. He holds its mate in his right hand. Postcard of a watercolor by Brynolf Wennerberg whose work tended to show that all was well on the German home front, with fashionable women following the war on maps, mailing packages to the front, or engaging with soldiers, wounded or on leave. The message on the reverse is dated November 27, 1916.
A gleeful Russian Cossack skewers Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph in Galicia, the Empire's northeastern region isolated from the rest of the country by the Carpathian Mountains. The caption is a play on words echoing the name of the mountain range in telling Franz Joseph, 'it seems your soldiers took to their heels.' After twin defeats in the Battles of Gnila Lipa and Rava Russka, the Austro-Hungarian Army lost the great fortress at Lemberg, and was being driven out of Galicia and back through the Carpathians. Russia's attempts to break through the Carpathians continued through April 1915, with heavy losses on both sides. The Austro-Hungarians, with German support, held.
"I have just received a letter from Statthalter N.N. which justifies all the fears I have constantly repeated to your Majesty, and shows that in the question of food-supplies we are on the very verge of catastrophe. The situation arising out of the carelessness and incapacity of the Ministers is terrible, and I fear it is already too late to check the total collapse which is to be expected in the next few weeks. My informant writes: 'Only small quantities are now being received from Hungary, from Rumania only 10,000 wagons of maize; this gives then a decrease of at least 30,000 wagons of grain, without which we must infallibly perish. On learning the state of affairs, I went to the Prime Minister to speak with him about it. I told him, as is the case, that in a few weeks our war industries, our railway traffic, would be at a standstill, the provisioning of the army would be impossible, it must break down, and that would mean the collapse of Austria and therewith also of Hungary. To each of these points he answered yes, that is so, and added that all was being done to alter the state of affairs, especially as regards the Hungarian deliveries. But no one, not even your majesty, has been able to get anything done. We can only hope that some deus ex machina may intervene to save us from the worst.'" ((1), more)
"Telegrams arriving show the situation becoming critical for us. Regarding questions of food, we can only avoid collapse on two conditions: first, that Germany helps us temporarily, second, that we use this respite to set in order our machinery of food-supply, which is at present beneath contempt, and to gain possession of the stocks still existing in Hungary.. . . I must, however, emphatically point out that the commencement of unrest among our people at home will have rendered conclusion of peace here absolutely impossible. As soon as the Russian representatives perceive that we ourselves are on the point of revolution, they will not make peace at all, since their entire speculation is based on this factor." ((2), more)
"By January 17, about 200,000 wageworkers had downed their tools in Vienna alone, though the walkout was less widespread in the Czech provinces. Greatly alarmed, the Emperor that day wired Czernin, 'The fate of the Monarchy and of the dynasty depends on how soon you will be able to arrange peace in Brest-Litovsk. . . . If peace is not concluded a revolution will break out here.'" ((3), more)
"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." ((4), more)
"On 19 January [1918], we were relieved at four in the morning, and marched off through thick snow to Gouy, where we were to spend some time training for the imminent offensive. From the instructions issued by Ludendorff as far along the chain as company commanders, we concluded that there was a mighty do-or-die offensive in the offing." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from a telegraph to Austro-Hungarian Kaiser Karl from the Empire's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ottokar Czernin, sent January 15, 1918 from Brest-Litovsk, where Czernin lead the Austro-Hungarian delation in the Central Power peace negotiations with Russia. Czernin was increasingly a powerless bystander in the debate between the German and Russian delegates even as food riots and strikes broke out in Vienna. As Hungary withheld food from Austria, peace would offer the hope of supplies from Russia. A Statthalter is a governor.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, pp. 264–265, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(2) Excerpt from a telegram to Austro-Hungarian Kaiser Karl from the Empire's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ottokar Czernin, sent January 16, 1918 from Brest-Litovsk, where Czernin lead the Austro-Hungarian delegation in the Central Power peace negotiations with Russia. Czernin was increasingly a powerless bystander in the debate between the German and Russian delegates even as food riots and strikes broke out in Vienna. Leon Trotsky led the Russian delegation, and he and Vladimir Lenin fully expected that the example of the Bolshevik Revolution would spread across Europe. Austria-Hungary had not recovered from the loss of most of its rolling stock in the battles against Serbia and Russia in 1914. Hungary withheld food from the rest of the empire, and a peace settlement offered the hope of supplies from Russia and Romania.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 266, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(3) Austro-Hungarian Kaiser Karl's telegram of January 17, 1918 was to the Empire's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ottokar Czernin, who was in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, leading the Austro-Hungarian delegation in the Central Power peace negotiations with Russia. Czernin was increasingly a powerless bystander in the debate between the German and Russian delegates even as food riots and strikes broke out in Vienna and other cities. Leon Trotsky led the Russian delegation, and he and Vladimir Lenin fully expected that the example of the Bolshevik Revolution would spread across Europe. A peace settlement offered the hope of supplies from Russia and Romania.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, Vol. 2, p. 656, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
(4) 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
(5) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger had fought in the first days of the Third Battle of Ypres, begun on July 31, 1917, but on August 10 was redeployed to the front southeast of Verdun where he was wounded in a trench raid in which he also lost 10 of his 14 comrades. After a leave, he returned to Flanders where Third Ypres ground on. In November, he was again wounded in the Battle of Cambrai, recovering over a Christmas leave. In January, 1918, German commander Erich Ludendorff was preparing exactly the 'mighty do-or-die offensive' Jünger refers to. It would be Operation Michael, launched on March 21. Gouy, France, is about 20 km north of Saint-Quentin and 30 km east of Péronne, a city on the Somme River.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, pp. 220–221, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
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