A row of signatures in Berlin on 15 July 1920 meant more for Latvia than a courteous diplomatic handshake. That day Hermanis Albats, Menders, and Alberts Kviesis signed, on Latvia’s behalf, a provisional treaty restoring relations with Germany. It provided for an exchange of representatives, Germany’s promise to recognize Latvia de jure later, and a commission to assess compensation for losses caused in Latvia by German troops or forces under German command. Even Bermondt’s military property was written into the treaty as a possible source of compensation.

The treaty came soon after the hardest phase of the Latvian War of Independence and the Bermondt offensive, when relations between Latvia and Germany were still burdened by mistrust. Historian Ainārs Lerhis, writing in Latvijas Vēstnesis, notes that the agreement ended the formal state of war between the two countries.