Editing Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (section)

==== Hindenburg and Ludendorff ====
[[File:Hindenburg and ludendorff.jpg|left|thumb|272x272px|[[Paul von Hindenburg]] (left) and [[Erich Ludendorff]]]]
In July 1916 leading industrialists as well as government figures such as [[Walther Rathenau]] argued for transferring the [[Supreme Army Command]] (OHL) from Erich von Falkenhayn to [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and [[Erich Ludendorff]] and giving them dictatorial powers in the civilian sphere as well. Bethmann Hollweg supported the plan by publicly saying that the name Hindenburg was the terror of the enemy and by prevailing on the Emperor to give him command of the entire eastern front. On 28 August he convinced the Emperor to dismiss Falkenhayn, and the following day Wilhelm II appointed Hindenburg Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army and Ludendorff First Quartermaster General.

Early in the war Bethmann Hollweg had supported annexing the [[Polish Border Strip]] from [[Congress Poland]] in order to strengthen Germany's eastern border against Russia. The plan included removing ethnic Poles from the area and populating it with German settlers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hull |first=Isabel V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4tiHdU0OxXUC&pg=PP7 |title=Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0801442583 |location=Ithaca, NY |pages=233 |author-link=Isabel V. Hull |access-date=7 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Holborn |first=Hajo |title=A History of Modern Germany: 1840–1945 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1982 |location=Princeton, NJ |pages=449 |author-link=Hajo Holborn}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolf |first=Gerhard |title=Ideology and the Rationality of Domination: Nazi Germanization Policies in Poland |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0253048073 |location=Bloomington |pages=29–31}}</ref> The new Quartermaster General Ludendorff called for the immediate establishment of a pseudo-independent Kingdom of Poland as a "breeding station for people needed for further fighting in the east". In negotiations with Austrian Foreign Minister [[Stephan Burián von Rajecz]] in August 1916, the representatives of the [[Central Powers]] agreed on an independent constitutional kingdom of Poland, but under pressure from Bethmann Hollweg, it was not to be proclaimed until after the end of the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Bethmann Hollweg |first=Theobald |url=https://archive.org/details/BehmannHollwegTheobaldVon-BetrachtungenZumWeltkriege-Band2/page/n111/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Betrachtungen zum Weltkriege |publisher=Hobbing |year=1919–1921 |volume=2 |location=Berlin |language=de |trans-title=Reflections on the World War}}</ref> On 18 October 1916, following protests from Vienna, the August agreement was declared invalid, and Poland's independence was brought forward to November. On 5 November 1916 the proclamation of the [[Regency Kingdom of Poland]] was announced.{{Sfn|von Vietsch|1969|p=241}}

Bethmann Hollweg had succumbed to pressure from the army command and the Danube monarchy. He was able to prevent forced levies, but the fact that the military began recruiting the first volunteers for the Polish armed forces immediately after the proclamation of Polish independence revealed Ludendorff's plans. Although the Chancellor was not the driving force in the Polish question, even openly resisting the OHL, he was ultimately politically responsible.

In the fall of 1916, the OHL, which was increasingly wielding more power in the Reich, drafted a law under the [[Hindenburg Programme]] called the [[Auxiliary Services Act (1916)|Auxiliary Services Act]]. In order to increase Germany's industrial output, especially of weapons, it sought to militarize the economy by mobilizing all resources, both material and human, through the introduction of compulsory labor. The plan, especially its inclusion of women, caused widespread resistance among labor unions and the liberal and socialist parties in the Reichstag. As a result, the OHL was forced to make concessions that included arbitration committees, the expansion of trade unions' powers and a repeal of the act at the end of the war.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nagornaja |first=Oksana |title=Gesetz über den vaterländischen Hilfsdienst, 5. Dezember 1916 |trans-title=Auxiliary Services Act, 5 December 1916 |url=https://www.1000dokumente.de/index.html?c=dokument_de&dokument=0001_hil&object=context&st=&l=de |access-date=10 January 2024 |website=100(0) Schlüsseldokumente |language=de}}</ref>

At the same time, at the insistence of the OHL, the deportation of Belgian workers to the Reich began. In spite of Bethmann Hollweg's appeal to carefully consider the question of forced laborers, the coercive measures continued until February 1917.{{Sfn|von Vietsch|1969|p=244}}