Habersack, Sabine - Puşcaş, Vasile - Ciubotă, Viorel (szerk.): Democraţia in Europa centrală şi de Sud-Est - Aspiraţie şi realitate (Secolele XIX-XX) (Satu Mare, 2001)
Teodor Pavel: Wold War I and Revolutionary Options in Central-Eastern Europe: the Project of the "Insurrection" of Romania at the End of the Year 1917
Dr. Teodor Pavel contact with Ferdinand and Queen Maria were officially forbiden and at the end of the war it was planned his removal from the throne. The idea of the dethroning king Ferdinand was also accepted by Austro-Hungary, which wanted also important economical advantages and a large stretch of land from the Romanian State3. The measures strongly affected the king, especially because they were gestures of a “mocking cruelty and useless ones”. But they couldn't diminish the King's and Queen's decision to contribute to the victory of the cause of the nation with which they identified themselves. In the conditions of the enemy's offensive on the East front and of eliminating Russia from the war, 1917 brings back to the attention of the leading circles from Germany and Austria-Hungary the problem of dynasty in Romania. The Conference of the Reich's political and military leadership, which were chaired by Emperor Wilhelm II and were held at the German General High Quarter in 1917, May 30th-31th (new style), decided the “dethroning of the Hohenzollems from Romania” concomitantly with the robbing of some territories from the Romanian State and the economically subduing the country to the Quadruple Alliance4. The problem of the dynasty in Romania was the object of some prolonged controversies between the political and military circles from Berlin and Vienna. But the insistencies concerning this problem came now especially from the Austria-Hungary's part. In spite of the brilliant victories of the Romanians won in the summer of 1917, “the Russian defection” from October 1917 offered again an occasion for revenge. The Austrian-Hungarian foreign minister Ottokar Czemin declared to George Ştirbei in August 1917: ’’The Romanian will be able to elect a new king because on no account king Ferdinand could remain on the throne; and neither could rule prince Carol”5. In December 1917, the problem of the dethroning the Romanian dynasty was openly formulated by the general E. Ludendorf, the chief of the Great German General Headquarter. According to his instructions, the undersecretary of German foreign ministry, von Busche, telegraphically ordered the ambassador Rosenberg, who was in 3 Stere Diamandi, Galeria oamenilor politici (Political Men Gallery), Ed. Gesa, Bucureşti, 1991, p. 16. 4 Politisches Archiv des Auswärtiges Amtes, Bonn (from now on P.A. Bonn), Kommissionsakten Brest-Litovsk, R 22833, Telegrama lui von Busche către Rosenberg (The telegramm sent by Busche to Rosenberg), Berlin, 25 decembrie 1917, Cf. Ion Scurtu, op. cit., p. 37. 5 Al. Marghiloman, Note politice (Political Notes), vol.III, Bucureşti, 1927, p. 65. 88
