Even at the height of World War I, the safeguards of nineteenth-century constitutionalism continued to function. Less than ten days after the Kaiser had made his apocalyptic address, he was directly contradicted in front of the Reichstag by his Foreign Secretary.20 Germany must realize, Kühlmann insisted, that in light of the ‘incredible magnitude’ to which the war had expanded, it was unrealistic to expect that the country could impose in the West the kind of one-sided peace (Diktatfrieden) that had been possible at Brest. Final and ultimate military victory, as Ludendorff seemed to envision
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