The Schlieffen Plan

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).

The Schlieffen plan had failed by November 1914. It didn’t entirely go to plan.. What the Germans presumed wasn’t right. Firstly they presumed that it would only take 6 weeks to get through Belgium and that it wouldn’t take long at all, but in the end it took than expected. The Belgians resisted a lot and put up a strong fight. German troops got held up in Belgium and never got round to invading Paris. In addition to this, Russia mobilised quicker than presumed! So

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

Although critical for the German war plan, the Schlieffen-Moltke plan was kept a secret to the public, and even staff members of the German Imperial Army. Moltke kept the Schlieffen Plan a secret throughout his service in the army. Even close staff members, such as General Gerog Graf von Waldersee, admitted they had never actually seen the blueprints for the plan. (Ehlert, 90, PPed). A reason that Moltke wished to keep the Schlieffen-Moltke plan a secret was for the reason of altering it if needed without objection from his staff members. Other commander’s opinions may have helped find a better strategy, as well as counter-arguments to flawed areas of the plan. Surprisingly, Moltke did not tell Schlieffen about the changes he had made to his plan. However, Schlieffen found out about his changes and questioned Moltke’s leadership out of spite. (Ehlert, 97, pped).

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

Back in Germany, the Chief of General Staff had crafted a plan of attack in the event that there would emerge a two-front war in the country emerged the Scliphen plan.

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

The original plan called for all of Hitler’s reserves, plus the 6th and 5th Panzer and the 7th Armies. Chosen to command these troops were Josef Dietrich, Hasso Von Manteuffel, and Erich Brandenberger. The 6th PZ was assigned priority for supplies, and given the most direct lane to Antwerp. The 5th PZ was to contribute in the attack as well. The 7th was to shield the left against attack from Montgomery’s Army Group. More than 200,000 troops were assigned to make this miracle happen. The plan would rely on frictions between the Allied commanders, as well as a thick overcast to neutralize the Allied airpower. Rapid progress must be achieved, before the US had time to reinforce 1st Army.

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

Both the allied and central powers based their campaigns on rapid mobilization and aggressive movements against strategic objectives which was best demonstrated through the Schlieffen plan which was constructed by the German war ministry in 1897 and accounted for a large scale conflict fought simultaneously on two fronts namely with the French and Russians, this doctrine called for rapid mobilization of German forces and a direct assault and conquest of the French homeland effectively neutralizing them before the Russian army could muster its troops in a way that posed a threat to Germany itself. The Schlieffen plan depended upon the superiority of German equipment and logistical support which formed the basis and is one of the earliest demonstrations of the “blitzkrieg” style warfare that would be successfully utilized by Nazi Germany in later years and is still used as a model for the conduct of offensive campaigns by modern militaries. The French plan relied upon engaging the German forces along two fronts with one serving as a defensive which would tie up German resources and manpower while also mitigating their logistical superiority

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.

The Schlieffen plan purpose was to capture Paris within 6 weeks, then turn against Russia in the war. The failure was caused due to modifications made to the original plan. This reduced strength, speed, and attack in their


The second aspect to the Schlieffen Plan was to invade neutral Belgium as a means to get to France, because the German-Franco border was heavily fortified and would mean almost certain defeat for