The Schlieffen Plan
Essay title: The Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan
Alfred von Schlieffen, a German General, who was chief of the Armys General Staff from 1891 to 1906, was the man who came up with a plan to show that Germany could go to war and win on two fronts. Or at least so he thought; his plan, known as “The Schlieffen Plan” was drawn to go to war against France on the west, while at the same time going to war against Russia on the east. His goal being to “defeat France in the time it took for Russia to mobilize their army, and turn back to the Eastern Front before Russia could react” (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan).
Schlieffen was motivated to defend Germany by attacking France and Russia. He hoped to stop Frances ability to start war against Germany before Russia had time to mobilize, arguing that if France were defeated then Russia and Belgium would no longer be willing to fight (
Between 1905 and 1914 several events had changed Schlieffens original plan. The first change was from Russias defeat in the Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, they had recovered a lot faster than Schlieffen thought possible and had not only expanded their army but had improved it as well. The second change was that France had better military training and had developed an aggressive spirit (Encyclopedia Americano, 360). General Helmuth von Moltke, who was Schlieffens successor, supported Schlieffens plan but made changes that ended up weakening the plan and most likely causing its failure. News of the war among the troops was slow in coming. German armies had been stalled in Paris and were driven back in the First Battle of the Marne. Because the French were holding the Germans in the East, the Germans were soon defeated; this was something that Schlieffen thought was not possible. Moltkes first change for the army was to refrain from violating the Dutch neutrality. This caused the two strongest of the five enveloping German armies to be congested and delayed in a Bottleneck at Leige, Belgium (Dupuy, 931). This limited the proposed strategic withdrawal on the left wing armies before the French advance in Alsace-Lorraine.