Kühlmann's speech

On 24 June 1918 the Reichstag was debating, in second reading, the budget of the Reich Chancellery and the Foreign Office. The floor was taken by the Foreign Secretary, Richard von Kühlmann, the diplomat who had negotiated the peace treaties of Brest and Bucharest on Germany’s behalf. He spoke at length and reviewed the whole of the Reich’s policy. He praised the loyalty of the Austro-Hungarian minister István Burián, noted with regret the fall of the Bulgarian prime minister Radoslavov, announced a conference of the Central Powers with the peoples of the Caucasus in Constantinople and talks with Soviet Russia on Germany’s recognition of Estonia and Livonia. On the Polish question he said only that he hoped for a solution acceptable to all parties before the general peace negotiations, but that the difficulties were enormous, because the question was inseparably bound up with the economic relations between Germany and Austria-Hungary.

“By military decisions alone”

The most important part concerned peace. Kühlmann spoke appreciatively of the “brilliant” course of the German operations in France, but admitted that he could not point to a moment at which the war must end, and that no readiness for peace could be seen anywhere among the enemy. He rejected the charge that Germany had unleashed the war in order to seize world domination, and set out what it wanted: to live securely and independently within its borders, to have overseas possessions corresponding to its greatness, and to trade freely on the open sea. He called the territorial integrity of Germany and its allies a condition of any talks, and as regards Belgium he refused to make commitments in advance. He then said that exchanging speeches from parliamentary tribunes would no longer bring peace any closer and that a confidential exchange of ideas would have to be undertaken at some point. Without it, as he put it in a reference to a recent statement by the former British prime minister Herbert Asquith, given the enormous scale of this coalition war and the number of belligerent states, including overseas ones, “an absolute end can hardly be expected from purely military decisions alone, without any diplomatic negotiations”. He concluded with the assurance that Germany’s reserves allowed him to speak in this way, and that the idea of an Entente victory was an illusion.

The words came at an unfortunate moment. The fourth great German offensive had stalled on the Matz ten days earlier, and the Austro-Hungarians had just withdrawn behind the river after their failed offensive on the Piave. The right read the sentence about “military decisions” as an admission that the government no longer believed in victory. That very day the leader of the Conservatives, Count Kuno von Westarp, declared that foreign countries would take the speech as a new peace offer, and that peace had to be won by fighting. The Social Democrat Eduard David, on the other hand, recalled that the Reichstag peace resolution of July 1917 was still in force.

Retreat the next day

On 25 June, at the start of the sitting, Chancellor Georg von Hertling took the floor. He declared that the Foreign Secretary had merely wished to lay the blame for prolonging the war on the enemy, and that there could be no question of any weakening of the will to defend the country or of faith in victory. Kühlmann had to explain himself: he assured the house that the main weight rested on military success and that diplomacy was of secondary importance, and he concluded with words of hope for future victories. The right greeted this with hissing. The leader of the National Liberals, Gustav Stresemann, announced that the speech had had a “downright crushing” effect on his political friends. The leader of the Independent Social Democrats, Hugo Haase, remarked that Kühlmann had dutifully turned up for his own execution and put the noose round his own neck. As early as 26 June the Austrian press was writing about the Foreign Secretary’s possible resignation.

The real verdict, however, was being reached outside the Reichstag. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff had for months wanted to be rid of Kühlmann, whom they accused of weakness in the negotiations in the east, and a campaign against him was being waged by the press associated with the Pan-German League. According to historians, Hindenburg let the chancellor know the very day after the speech how the army had received it. At the beginning of July, at headquarters in Spa, Emperor Wilhelm II gave way to the demands of the Supreme Army Command, and on 9 July Kühlmann lost his office. He was replaced by Admiral Paul von Hintze. The last influential advocate of a compromise peace left the government, and the generals kept the decisive voice in the Reich’s policy.