In reality none of our enemies has approached us with suggestions of peace. Our enemies have rather considered it to their interest to attribute to us falsely offers of peace. Both facts have the same explanation—self-deception beyond compare, which we would only make worse if we approached them with peace proposals, instead of waiting for them to come to us.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg.
Reichstag, December 5, 1915.
FERDINAND S'EN VA T'EN GUERRE NE SAIT S'IL REVIENDRA
In true comradeship the glorious triumphal march of your Majesty's nation in arms began, which, under the guidance of its illustrious War Lord, has added one sublime leaf of glory to another in the history of Bulgaria. In order to give visible expression to my feelings for such deeds, and to the feelings of all Germany, I have begged your Majesty to accept the dignity of Prussian Field Marshal, and I am, with my army, happy that you, by accepting it, also in this sense have become one of us.
The German Emperor to
King Ferdinand of Bulgaria
at Nish, Serbia, December, 1916.