Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
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The armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in woods near Compiègne on November 11, 1918, and marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front. Principal signatories were Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Allied Commander-in-chief, and Matthias Erzberger, a representative of the closest thing to a government that Germany had left.
Negotiations process
The Armistice was agreed at 5am on November 11, to come into effect at 11am, Paris time (for which reason the occasion is sometimes referred to as "the eleventh of the eleventh of the eleventh"). It was the result of a hurried and desperate process.
Acting German commander Paul von Hindenburg had requested arrangements for a meeting from Ferdinand Foch via telegram on the 7th. He was under pressure of imminent revolution in Berlin, Munich and elsewhere across Germany.
The German delegation crossed the front line in five cars and was escorted for ten hours across the devastated war zone of Northern France (perhaps, they speculated, to focus their minds on the lack of sympathy they could expect). They were then entrained and taken to the secret destination, Foch's railway siding in the forest of Compiègne.
Foch appeared only twice in the three days of negotiations: on the first day, to ask them what they wanted, and on the last day to see to the signatures. In between, the German delegation discussed the detail of Allied terms with French and Allied officers. The Armistice amounted to complete German demilitarization, with few promises made by the Allies in return. The naval blockade of Germany would continue until such time as complete peace terms could be agreed.
There was no question of negotiation. The Germans were able to correct a few impossible demands (for an example, the decommissioning of more submarines than their fleet possessed), and registered their formal protest at the harshness of Allied terms. But they were in no position to refuse to sign. On Sunday 10, they were shown newspapers from Paris, to inform them that Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated.
Telegrams passed to and from the German team to both German Army Chief of Staff Paul von Hindenburg in Spa and the hastily assembled civilian government of Friedrich Ebert in Berlin. Erzberger apparently attempted to take negotiations to the limit of the 72 hours Foch had offered Hindenburg, but an open telegram from Berlin imploring him to sign immediately somewhat undermined his team's credibility. Ebert was desperate, facing imminent insurrection in many large German cities. Signatures were made between 5.12am and 5.20am, Paris time.
Key personnel
For the Allies, the personnel involved were entirely military:- Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the French supreme commander
- First Sea Lord, Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, the British representative
- General Weygand, Foch's Chief of Staff
- Matthias Erzberger, for the civilian government
- Count Alfred von Oberndorff, for the Foreign Ministry
- General Detlev von Winterfeldt, Army
- General von Gruennel, Army
- Captain Ernst Vanselow, Navy
See also
- Paris Peace Conference, 1919
- Treaty of Versailles (1919)
- Armistice Day
- Armistice with France (Second Compiègne) - signed on June 22, 1940 at the same location
External link
- [La convention d'armistice du 11 novembre 1918] (in French)
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