| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: The disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy was a hypothetical variant until the last year of war, when none of the war parties intended to completely destroy the monarchy. Although the internal conditions of the Habsburg Empire were tense, without the external forces, the decisions of the Western Allies, would not have been the decomposition of the empire. Czechoslovak and South Slav foreign actions were only a tool for destabilizing the Habsburg state, but they could not play a crucial role. The aim of this article is to outline the role of Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Ottokar von Czernin and his policy between years 1916- 1918, based on memories of straight participants and secondary literature. Since December 1916 to spring 1918, the Czernin political strategy went through the change, that has proved to be a fatal mistake. Czernin’s wrong attack on France in April 1918 brought Vienna definitively into a satellite position towards Berlin. That was the deciding moment for the Anglo-Saxon powers. The ghost of German Mitteleurope was the end of an old Europe. It was only in May 1918, when the funeral card of the ancient empire was printed. |
