At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, World War I ends. Germany declares surrender and signs an armistice with the Entente in a railway carriage near Compiègne, France.
For the Entente, the document is signed by Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Chief of the Allied Command, and on the German side by Matthias Erzberger.
Armistice negotiations have been underway since early November, when it is already clear in Berlin that the Central Powers have lost the war.
The beginning of 1918 gives hope to the Central Powers. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Soviet Russia. This was a victory on the Eastern Front of the Central Powers. In the spring and summer of 1918, Germany threw its main forces into a series of offensives against the Allied troops in northern France, without achieving strategic success. In July, the German troops were defeated in the Second Battle of the Marne, and in August they suffered a heavy blow at Amiens. Reinforced by reinforcements arriving from the United States across the Atlantic, the Franco-British troops launched a general counteroffensive, which the Germans were unable to resist.
Germany's military situation was further complicated after the Armistice of Thessaloniki on September 29, when Bulgaria ended its resistance to the Entente. Under these circumstances, the military leadership recommended that the Kaiser and the government negotiate an armistice with the Allies.
Bulgaria was forced to ask for an armistice, having been abandoned by the Allies to hold back the enemy's pressure.
The situation forced the German commander-in-chief, Paul von Hindenburg, to send a telegram to Foch on November 7, requesting a meeting. He was in a hurry to arrange an armistice, as a revolution was smoldering in Germany, and Munich, Berlin, and other cities were on the verge of rebellion. The German delegation crossed the front line in five cars, driven through the devastated areas of northern France, to reach Compiègne, where Foch was waiting for them.
During the three-day negotiations, he appeared only twice - first to ask the Germans what their demands were, and finally to sign the treaty. In fact, there were no real negotiations, and only a few of the German demands were accepted. They were even further pressured by the news that Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated. Erzberger dragged out the negotiations until the maximum pre-agreed deadline of 72 hours, but finally on the morning of November 11 he signed and the armistice became a fact.