* Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg ( Germany )

* January 1 – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany ( born 1856 )

* November 29 – Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany ( d. 1921 )

* Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, 24 June 1907-14 July 1909, also Secretary of the Interior.

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg ( 29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921 ) was a German politician and statesman who served as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917.

Bethmann Hollwig was born in Hohenfinow, Brandenburg, the son of Prussian official Felix von Bethmann Hollweg.

His grandfather was August von Bethmann Hollweg, who had been a prominent law scholar, president of Frederick William University in Berlin, and Prussian Minister of Culture.

His great grandfather was Johann Jakob Hollweg, who had married a daughter of the Frankfurt am Main banking family of Bethmann, which attained great prosperity in the 18th century.

In 1889, Bethmann Hollweg married Martha von Pfuel, niece of Ernst von Pfuel, Prime Minister of Prussia.

From 1905 to 1907 Bethmann Hollweg served as Prussian Minister of Interior, then as Imperial State Secretary for the Interior from 1907 to 1909.

In 1909, on the resignation of Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, Bethmann Hollweg was appointed to succeed him.

Despite the increase in tensions due to the Second Moroccan Crisis of 1911, Bethmann Hollweg did improve relations with Britain to some extent, working with British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey to alleviate tensions during the Balkan Crises of 1912-1913, and negotiating treaties over an eventual partition of the Portuguese colonies and the Berlin-Baghdad railway.

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, Bethmann Hollweg and Foreign Secretary Gottlieb von Jagow were instrumental in assuring Austria of Germany's unconditional support regardless of Austria's actions against Serbia.

Bethmann Hollweg, much of whose foreign policy before the war had been guided by his desire to establish good relations with Britain, was particularly upset by Britain's declaration of war following German violation of Belgium's neutrality in the course of her invasion of France, reportedly asking the departing British Ambassador Goschen how Britain could go to war over a " mere scrap of paper " ( the Treaty of London of 1839 which guaranteed Belgium's neutrality ).

During the war, Bethmann Hollweg has usually been seen as having generally attempted to pursue a relatively moderate policy, but having been frequently outflanked by the military leaders, who played an increasingly important role in the direction of all German policy.

However, this view has been partially superseded, as the work of historian Fritz Fischer in the 1960s showed that Bethmann Hollweg made more concessions to the nationalist right than had previously been thought.

Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg received prominent attention throughout the world in June 1919, when he formally asked the Allied and associated powers to place him on trial instead of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Bethmann Hollweg spent the short remainder of his life in retirement, writing his memoirs.

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In addition, the government of Imperial Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg threatened to outlaw all parties in case of war.

Fischer was the first German historian to publish documents showing that the German chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had developed plans in 1914 to annex all of Belgium, part of France and part of European Russia.

In Hillgruber's opinion, after the war had begun, a split occurred within the German leadership between the moderate imperialism of the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, who wished for territorial gains if they could be obtained, but was prepared to settle for a peace based on the pre-1914 status quo, and a more radical group centered around General Erich Ludendorff and the rest of the Third Supreme Command who wanted total victory over all of Germany's enemies, no matter what the cost, and very wide-ranging annexations in Europe, Asia and Africa.

At a meeting held also on the 5th at Potsdam palace, the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, the Foreign Ministry ’ s State Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, the Minister of War Erich von Falkenhayn, the head of the German Imperial Military Cabinet Moritz von Lyncker, the Adjutant general Hans von Plessen, Captain Hans Zenker of the Naval General Staff, and Admiral Eduard von Capelle of the Naval State Secretariat all endorsed Wilhelm ’ s “ blank cheque ” as Germany ’ s best policy.

As Bethmann Hollweg put it, “ If war should come after all, such a telegram would make Russia ’ s guilt glaringly plain ”.

The British were warned that “ War is inevitable and by the fault of England ; that if England had at once declared her solidarity with Russia and France and her intention to fight if necessary, Germany and Austria would have hesitated .” In Berlin, Admiral von Müller wrote in his diary that “ Germany should remain calm to allow Russia to put herself in the wrong, but then not to shrink from war if it were inevitable .” Bethmann Hollweg told Wilhelm that “ In all events Russia must ruthlessly be put in the wrong .”

The Kaiser wants peace ... He even wants to influence Austria and to stop continuing further .” Bethmann Hollweg sabotaged Wilhelm ’ s proposal by informing Prince Tschirschky: “ You must most carefully avoid giving any impression that we want to hold Austria back We are concerned only to find a modus to enable the realisation of Austria-Hungary ’ s aim without at the same time unleashing a world war, and should this after all prove unavoidable, to improve as far as possible the conditions under which it is to be waged .” In passing on Wilhelm ’ s message, Bethmann Hollweg excluded the parts wherein the Emperor told the Austrians not to go to war.

During the same meeting, Bethmann Hollweg all but announced that Germany would soon violate Belgium ’ s neutrality, though Bethmann Hollweg said that, if Belgium did not resist, Germany would not annex that kingdom.

Later that day, Bethmann sent a message to the German ambassador to Vienna increasing pressure to accept the halt-in-Belgrade proposal, saying that: “ If Vienna … refuses … to give way at all, it will hardly be possible to place the blame on Russia for the outbreak of the European conflagration.

In this way, Hillgruber largely followed the distinction first made by Gerhard Ritter between a moderate civilian group in the German leadership centred around Bethmann Hollweg who, while not eschewing territorial expansionism, did not insist on it as a precondition for making peace, and the more radical group in the military centered around Ludendorff, who would settle for nothing less than a war ending in making Germany the world's greatest power.

Riezler ’ s diary has Bethmann Hollweg saying to him on July 20th that Russia with its “ growing demands and tremendous dynamic power would be impossible to repel in a few years, especially if the present European constellation continues to exist .” Riezler ended his diary with noting that Bethmann Hollweg was “ determined and taciturn ”, and quoted his former Foreign Minister Kiderlen-Waechter who “ had always said we must fight ”.

After Goschen left the meeting, Bethmann Hollweg received a message from Prince Lichnowsky saying that Grey was most anxious for a four power conference, but that if Germany attacked France, then Britain would have no other choice but to intervene in the war.

After the Reichstag and the High Command forced the resignation of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg on July 14, 1917, Michaelis became Chancellor of Germany as well as Minister President of Prussia -- the first non-titled person to hold either office.

Following instructions from Bethmann Hollweg, Prince Tschirschky did not present Wilhelm ’ s “ Stop in Belgrade ” proposal until noon.

On July 14, the resignation was announced and Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg became the new Chancellor.

* 13 July 1917 Dr. Georg Michaelis replaces Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg as Chancellor of Germany.

Ritter strongly disagreed with Fischer's interpretation of the meeting of Moltke, Bethmann Hollweg, and General Erich von Falkenhayn ( the Prussian War Minister ) on 30 July 1914.

On 6 July, Hoyos, Zimmerman, Bethmann Hollweg, and Austro-Hungarian Ambassador Szögyény met and Germany gave its " blank cheque " commitment to Austria-Hungary of firm support.

On July 6, Bethmann Hollweg and Zimmermann further repeated the promise of Wilhelm ’ s “ blank cheque ” at a conference with Szögyény.

On July 7, Bethmann Hollweg told his aide and close friend Kurt Riezler that “ An action against Serbia can lead to a world war ”.

On July 16, Bethmann Hollweg told Count Roedern, the State Secretary for Alsace-Lorraine, that he couldn't care less about Serbia or alleged Serbian complicity in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

Moltke was overruled by Bethmann Hollweg in two meetings on July 29th, who argued that Germany should wait for Russia to begin a general mobilization.

Also on July 28th, Bethmann Hollweg offered to form an anti-Russian military alliance with Turkey.

At a meeting with Bethmann Hollweg late on July 29th, both Falkenhayn and Moltke again demanded that Germany use Russian partial mobilization as an excuse to go to war.

At 9: 00 PM of July 30th, Bethmann Hollweg gave in to Moltke and Falkenhayn ’ s repeated demands and promised them that Germany would mobilize at noon the next day regardless of whether Russia began a general mobilization or not.

At a meeting of the Prussian State Council held on July 30th, Bethmann Hollweg noted Russian mobilization was a not a source of worry for Germany: “ Although the Russian mobilization had been declared, her mobilization measures cannot be compared with those of the West European states … Moreover, Russia does not intend to wage war, but has been forced to take these measures because of Austria .” Bethmann Hollweg stated that his only interest now was, for domestic political reasons, to “ represent Russia as the guilty party ” behind the war.