Germany sends an ultimatum to Russia

At 3.30 p.m. on 31 July 1914 an urgent telegram from Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to the ambassador in St Petersburg, Count Friedrich von Pourtalès, left the Central Telegraph Office in Berlin. It was an ultimatum: Russia was to halt its war preparations within twelve hours or face German mobilisation. A few hours earlier news of the general mobilisation in Russia had reached Berlin.

Twelve hours

The telegram read: “In spite of the still pending negotiations for mediation and although we ourselves have up to the present hour taken no mobilisation measures of any kind, Russia has mobilised her entire army and navy, thus against us also. For the security of the Empire, we have been compelled by these Russian measures to declare a state of threatening danger of war, which does not yet mean mobilisation. Mobilisation must follow, however, in case Russia does not suspend every war measure against Austria-Hungary and ourselves within twelve hours and make us a distinct declaration to that effect.” The ambassador was to inform the Foreign Minister at once and wire the hour at which he had done so.

The Chancellor wrote the text for St Petersburg in his own hand. In the telegrams to the other capitals, drafted by the Secretary of State, Gottlieb von Jagow, he himself added the assurance that Germany had so far taken no mobilisation measures, and from the version for London he struck out Jagow’s sentence that war with Russia could hardly be avoided. The demand covered the halting of preparations not only on the German frontier but also against Austria-Hungary. The British Ambassador in Berlin was surprised by this and thought Russia could not agree to it.

Telegrams with the same content went to Paris and Rome, with an addition that was absent from the text for St Petersburg: mobilisation means war. The ambassador in Paris was to ask France whether it would remain neutral in a Russo-German war and demand an answer within eighteen hours. A secret addition stipulated that if France declared neutrality, it would have to be asked to hand over the fortresses of Toul and Verdun for the duration of the war as a pledge. Baron Wilhelm von Schoen put the question to the Prime Minister, René Viviani, at 7 p.m.

Night in St Petersburg

The telegram reached the embassy at 11.10 p.m. Pourtalès carried out his instructions at midnight. As he reported to Berlin, Sergey Sazonov again cited the technical impossibility of suspending the preparations and argued that Germany overestimated the significance of a Russian mobilisation, which could not be compared with a German one. He asked that Berlin be satisfied with the word of honour of the Tsar, who had assured the Emperor by telegram that day that his troops would take no action as long as the talks with Vienna continued. Pourtalès replied that the Tsar had committed himself only for the duration of the talks. He asked outright whether Sazonov could guarantee that Russia would keep the peace even if no agreement with Austria were reached. Sazonov could not give an affirmative answer. “In that case nobody can blame us for our unwillingness to allow Russia a longer start in mobilisation,” the ambassador concluded.

In a circular to Russian missions Sazonov recorded that he had asked whether this meant war. Pourtalès was said to have replied that it did not, but that they were very near it. The deadline expired at noon on 1 August. That is how the French government gave it, though the Russian circular speaks of “midnight on Saturday”.

No answer

The French Foreign Ministry considered the ultimatum unjustified, since Russia had just accepted the British formula, which implied a halt to military preparations by all the powers, and signals of readiness to talk were coming from Vienna. The French Ambassador in Berlin wrote that the ultimatum did away with the last chances of peace.

Russia did not make the required declaration. On 1 August, after the deadline expired, Germany proclaimed mobilisation, and in the evening Pourtalès handed Sazonov the declaration of war. The question put to Paris showed that the war would not be confined to the east of Europe.