The 'Schlieffen plan' and German war guilt

War in History

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 96-108

  Zuber, Terence ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60949868611     PISSN: 09683445     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0968344507071042     Document Type: Review

References (18)

1. R. Foley, 'The Real Schlieffen Plan', War in History XIII (2006), pp. 91-115.
2. Op. cit., p. 91.
3. T. Zuber, Inventing the Schlieffen Plan (Oxford, 2002), pp. 302-303.
4. Foley, 'Real Schlieffen Plan', p. 91.
5. For a previous attempt, see R. Foley, 'The Origins of the Schlieffen Plan', War in History X (2003), pp. 222-32,
6. and my rebuttal, T. Zuber, 'The Schlieffen Plan Was an Orphan', War in History XI (2004), pp. 220-25.
7. R. Foley, Alfred von Schlieffen's Military Writings (London. 2003), p. 11.
8. Foley, 'Origins', p. 220.
9. E. Ludendorff, Mein militärischer Werdegang (Munich, 1933), p. 97.
10. It also possible that Foley failed to translate Ludendorff correctly. The pasage in question is not an easy one. As Terence Holmes noted in his review of Foley's book Alfred von Schlieffen's Military Writings, Foley's 'translation is marred by numerous errors, a few examples of which are given here to show how far they may distort the sense of the original', so much so that 'the translation itself is not sufficiently reliable to earn wholehearted recommendation'. War in History XI (2004), p. 454.
11. Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg I (Berlin, 1925), p. 187.
12. Foley says that after the war the 'Schlieffen plan' documents were the property of Schlieffen's daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Wilhelm von Hahnke (op. cit., p. 94). The real question is, who had possession of the Schlieffen plan documents before the war? The note in the Schlieffen plan file says they belonged to Elizabeth and Maria von Schlieffen. Hahnke is not mentioned. This is confirmed by the official history of the German archives. (Zuber, Inventing the Schlieffen Plan, p. 45.)
13. T. Zuber, German War Planning, 1891-1914: Sources and Interpretations (Woodbridge, 2004), pp. 49-121.
14. Foley, Schlieffen's Military Writings, p. xxiii.
15. Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg V (Berlin, 1929), pp. 5-6, 272, 282, 297, 300ff.
16. See also Historical Evaluation and Research Organization, German and Allied Reserves in 1914 (Dunn Loring, VA, 1980), pp. 5-64.
17. Foley, 'The Real Schlieffen Plan', p. 109.
18. Greiner, 'German Intelligence Estimate', in Zuber, German War Planning, p. 22.