Primary Documents - Treaty of Bucharest, 7 May 1918

Background to the Treaty

Romania, having started the war as a neutral, entered on the side of the Allies in August 1916, led by Ion Bratianu, the Allies having promised support for the fulfilment of Romanian national unity.

Revolution in Russia in 1917, followed by the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, brought about the end of German operations on the Eastern Front. With the withdrawal of her Russian allies on the Moldavian front peace was forced upon Romania, who realistically could not continue to fight alone against the Germans.

The resulting Treaty of Bucharest, between Romania and the Central Powers, was initially ratified by the following bodies upon the given dates:

German Bundesrat (4 June 1918)

Romanian Chamber (28 June 1918)

German Reichstag (3 July 1918)

Romanian Senate (4 July 1918)

The treaty never completed ratification in Romania and was denounced in October 1918 by the Romanian government, which then re-entered the war on the Allied side.

With the Allied-German armistice of 11 November 1918 the treaty was declared void (along with the Russian Brest-Litovsk treaty).

Text of the Treaty

There follows the English translation of the German text as published the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on 8 May, 1918.

The sidebar to the right lists the eight separate chapters of the treaty, divided into 31 Articles.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey on the one hand and Roumania on the other hand, animated by a desire to bring the state of war between them to an end and to re-establish the friendly relations of their peoples within the field of politics, law and economy, have decided to transform the preliminaries of peace signed in Buftea, 5 March, 1918, into a final peace treaty.

Accordingly, the plenipotentiaries of the Governments of the four mentioned Powers, namely, for the Imperial German Government, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Imperial Actual Privy Councillor, Herr von Kühlmann, the Imperial Actual Privy Councillor, Herr von Körner, the Director of the Foreign Office, the Imperial Actual Privy Councillor, Dr. Kriege, the Royal Prussian Major General, Herr Hell, Chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Command of the Mackensen Army Group, the Imperial Naval Captain, Herr Bene: for the Imperial and Royal Joint Austro-Hungarian Government, the Minister of the Imperial and Royal House and for Foreign Affairs, His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty's Privy Councillor, baron Burian von Rajecz; for the Royal Bulgarian Government, the Royal Ministerial President, Dr. Radoslavoff, the Royal Minister of Finance M. Tontscheff, the Royal Major General M. Zanttloff, the Deputy of the National Assembly M. Kostoff, Dr. Miletitsch, Professor in the University of Sofia; for the Imperial Ottoman Government, the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Nessimy Bey, the Imperial General of Cavalry Ahmed Izzet Pascha, the Under-Secretary in the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs Rechad Hikmet Bey; for the Royal Roumanian Government, the Royal Ministerial President, M. Marghiloman, the Royal Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Arion, the Royal Minister Plenipotentiary, M. Papiniu, and the Royal Minister, in Retirement, M. Burghele, have met in Bucharest to continue the peace negotiations, and after submission of their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following provisions (see sidebar, right).