Theobald von bethmann-hollweg biography of michael
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Russia had been enraged when Germany came forward with the proclamation of an independent Congress Poland in late 1916 under the pressure of the military that wanted to conscript Polish soldiers into the German army, and Japan was not willing to betray her European Allies for a few minor concessions in the Pacific. A proposed suffrage reform in Prussia failed spectecularly due to the conservatives in 1910 and minor social reforms were not able to appease the working class as hoped.
Foreign Policy
In regard to the German foreign policy, a topic Bethmann had barely any experience, he at least realised that Germany was in a precarious situation. Instead, the OHL's distrust of Bethmann only continued to grow, as they feared he would try to undermine the military's power by strengthening the government's competences.
Plans to destabilise Britain's and France's colonies, most notably the Hindu–German Conspiracy, remained fruitless, and so did efforts do conclude a separate peace with Russia and Japan. Von Bismarck bis Merkel, Berlin 2006 Aufbau Taschenbuch.
In foreign affairs, Bethmann hoped to find a solution to the problem of Germany’s “encirclement” by the Entente powers. But this was too vague for the left and even Bethmann was now convinced that the three-class suffrage had to be abolished.
Coincidently, Falkenhayn had always been one of the most ardent supporters of USMW - he was replaced by the duo of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, who Bethmann deemed as more loyal to the government's foreign political course; a few months later he would realise that this was a more than grave misconception. Conditions at home became critical in late 1916 and Bethmann prevailed upon the Kaiser to issue his “Easter Message” of 7 April 1917, promising a reform of the Prussian suffrage and the Prussian upper house of parliament after the war.
But Bethmann had the luck that he enjoyed the unconditional support of Wilhelm II and was backed by a majority within the Reichstag - therefore, he was not dismissed as many had hoped for. However, in the climate of the day, senior military figures in combatant nations reigned supreme. This angered America so much that she joined the war on the side of the Allies.
Some contemporaries and historians have also seen Bethmann as a more elegiac figure, a dreamer and philosopher who did not want war but may have seen it as a way out of his political difficulties. All reform attempts for the Prussian suffrage were put on hold for the time being. Bethmann was surprised to be offered position after position, effortlessly and indiscriminately.
Erzberger's extraordinary speech was celebrated by the Zentrum, SPD and FVP who would soon form a working group within the Reichstag, the Interfraktioneller Ausschuss (IFA). Nonetheless, when tensions boiled over and France and Russia declared war on Germany, he was shocked, unlike many of his German contemporaries who were enthusiastically looking forward towards the war as part of the Augusterlebnis - from the very beginning, he was completely without faith that Germany would ever be able to win this conflict, especially when Britain joined the war after the German invasion of Belgium.
Bethmann achieved a Reich financial reform and a constitution for the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine (annexed from France in 1871). In 1905 he was appointed Prussian minister of the interior and in 1907 he became both state secretary of the Reich Office of Interior and vice president of the Prussian State Ministry.