Schlieffen Plan Strengths

The Schlieffen Plan was a German battle plan to fight a two front war devised in 1905 by Alfred von Schlieffen as the Chief of the General Staff for Germany. The plan called for the German army to apply overwhelming force in France to capture the capital of Paris within six weeks before changing focus to Russia. The plan intended to achieve a quick and decisive victory by sweeping a line of armies through neutral Belgium and into France. In actuality, Helmuth von Moltke made significant changes to Schlieffen’s original plan before and during World War I. Ultimately, the plan ended in failure when the German advance halted at the First Battle of the Marne (Limbach, 2014).

After the Schlieffen plan failure there was a turning point in the war, showing that stalemate was to come. 3 main battles took place which caused stalemate to happen.

In February 1891 Count Alfred von Schlieffen was appointed Chief of the Prussian General Staff, a post which he held until the end of 1905. The most important responsibility of the General Staff was to produce the annual deployment plans, which stipulated how the German army was to be drawn up ready for battle in case of war. The initial pattern of deployment was the basis of the operational plan for the conduct of the war itself. The General Staff routinely tested these war plans in studies and exercises. During most of Schlieffen’s time as Chief of Staff, the essential strategic problem for Germany was indeed the likelihood that the next war would have to be fought against two enemies on widely separated fronts, the French in the west and the Russians in the east. Schlieffen never found a convincing solution to this problem. His suggestion was to deploy much greater forces on one of the fronts in order to defeat that enemy quickly and decisively, and then to use rail mobility to reinforce the other front and win a decisive victory there too. That sounded fine in theory, but when it was tested in exercises it proved hard to achieve. An initial victory on one front could not be fully exploited because of the need to switch forces promptly to the other front. Once that happened, the first enemy

To a large extent the failure of the Schlieffen plan was the most significant reason for

When Germany declared war on Russia in 1914, they also had their own military plan, which called for a two front war with France and Russia. It was called The Schlieffen Plan and was developed by General Alfred von Schlieffen in 1903 but was revised in December of 1905. At this time, he was chief of the German General Staff, and Europe was separated into the Triple Alliance, which consisted of Germany, Austria, and Italy, on one side and the Triple Entente, which consisted of Great Britain, France, and Russia, on the other. Schlieffen was sought out by the Kaiser in order to construct an arrangement that would allow Germany to

The Schlieffen Plan was created by Alfred von Schlieffen, and he created it to avoid fighting both France and Russia at the same time. The problem was that France and Russia were on opposite sides of Europe. Which meant they would have to split their army in half. The Schlieffen Plan stated that Germany would defeat France while Russia would be mobilizing itś army. They assumed that Russia would take six weeks to mobilize,and that France was weak and Russia was strong. They didn´t think that GB would be fighting for France because of the treaty signed seventy - five years ago. The Schlieffen Plan had many flaws and assumptions.But instead of taking six weeks Russia took ten days, and started fighting when they weren't ready. Which made

This mission had to be carried out as quickly as possible. Schlieffen thought it would be much easier to conquer France by attacking it from the back rather than push their way through the heavily secured Franco-German border. Schlieffen took into account Britain’s position of protecting Belgium but ignored it. He was sure that the Belgian troops would be well defeated before British troops could cross the English Channel. Therefore the Schlieffen Plan was set. The German army would quickly move through Belgium, defeat France and turn it’s attention to

Schlieffen had decided that the German forces were to advance into France via the undefended plains of neutral Belgium. Captain B. Morgan (2001, Pg.6), researcher at the USA Naval War Collage stated that if France were to attack Germany at Alsace-Lorraine Germany would have 48 divisions positioned at the border to hold the French off. While the remaining two thirds of the army, also know as the right flank entered France via Belgium. Then swing northwest around Paris and fold back upon the rear of the French forces, enveloping and crushing them against the forces of the German left flank. The key to the plan’s success and its primary strength was its sheer boldness in its swiftness and the quick defeat of France. Ken Webb (2012, pg.5), author of World War I From Sarajevo to Versailles commented that Schlieffen believed that the swing through Belgium had to be massive and rapid for the plan to be able to achieve such swiftness if the planned needed to be complete in forty-two days before Russian Mobilization.

The Schlieffen Plan was a plan for an attack on France. This was created by General Count Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905. He was chief of the German General Staff, and believed that the best area for any war in Europe would be

I think that Germany made some incredibly costly mistakes in planning and execution of their war plans. The whole world had learned the mistake Napoleon made in his conquests. He had tried to fight a 2 front war which in that time in the world was just too taxing and could not be sustained (Germany foolishly made the exact same mistake in World War II only 25 years later). The German military staff had overestimated their own military strength as were entirely convinced that a victory over France would be achieved in 39 days and they would have enough time to then turn their attention back east towards Russia. Also the German response to the Russian invasion of Eastern Prussia was . It was believed that Russia was a massive military powerhouse and it had an incredibly formidable military. This was not the case. They had fought poorly against the Japanese in Manchuria and came to a humiliating peace treaty known as the Treaty of Portsmouth, lost to the French and British in Crimea, were outfought by the Turks in the siege of Plevna and it was the Russian winter, not the Russian Army, which had defeated Napoleon. For some reason the nations of Europe viewed Russia with this stigma of invincibility when in all reality they were a poor fighting force with sub par equipment and more or less sheer numbers on their side. Germany had sent 2 corps (which she dearly needed to fight the French and British) from the western front to support the campaign in Eastern Prussia and were essentially being unneeded and proved extremely costly to the Germans. At the battle of Tannenberg, the Russian advance was decisively stopped in its tracks withe the battle being decided only 4 days after it had begun. When Germany's military leaders stubbornly moved their armies through Belgium to gain a tactical advantage before invading France despite Belgium being declared a

The Schlieffen Plan was designed to give Germany dominance. The plan was for German armies to travel through Belgium to France, and defeat France. Then further moving on to Russia to defeat them before they had fully mobilised. Unfortunately, Germany could not reach Russia in time, as RUssia started to mobilise too quickly.

In 1905 Germany developed the Schlieffen Plan which meant that they would be prepared to fight two fronts in a war, the plan established the fact that France was weak and likewise Belgium and could fall easily, giving Germany secure control over the west. Upon AustriaHungary's declaration of war on Russia committed Germany to two fronts potentially too early. With a war looming and a large military presence, nationalist views and a war-ravenous leader, Wilhelm led Germany to a world of

In addition, Germany, through the use of the Schlieffen Plan, attempted to overthrow France and Russia to win what would otherwise be a two-front war. Success in the execution of the plan would result into the growth of the German empire; thus, increasing the Germans chances of defeating Britain in a war. Essentially, the nation’s never-ending pursuit for power translated into the war of 1914–World War

As have been said that Germany shouldn’t have been involved in WWI, on the other side they have too. Because Germany is one of the most powerful countries in Europe and if there was a problem/war, they have to be there as having the most power authority. Germany has to be in WWI as it’s, because they have to aid’s their alliance/partnership Austria-Hungary.                      As have Germany has been there in WWI, we are gonna discuss about the Germans military plan, troops, and trenches.  The chief of the German General Staff was Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, he is the one who has planned the whole war for Germany.  German soldiers have been told from the beginning that, if they lost the war, they should reward everything back to the government's.

To avoid the French fortress system, the Germans had developed a plan to surround Paris in a flanking maneuver to quickly conquer France. The plan was expected to be carried out in only 40 days, however, many important steps were not taken which cost the Germans the vital element of haste. The Schlieffen plan was not foredoomed to failure, yet it it did fail due to three factors: the reduction to the right wing on the Western Front, the choice to avoid the path through Holland, and the poor coordination and regulation of the German armies.