What was the Schlieffen Plan?
Probably the most infamous military plan, the Schlieffen Plan was the German Plan of War in the event of a conflict with France and Russia. It was based on the following facts/assumptions: • Germany was smaller in population and military than France and Russia combined, and thus would lose a long war in which it had to fight both countries. (A long war was in any case undesirable (to everyone in Europe), due to its high economic cost.) Germany could, however, win a war against one or the other. • Given its huge size (and, during much of the year, terrible weather), Germany would not be able to knock Russia out of the war quickly. • The forts constructed by France, the large French Army, and the hostile terrain meant that the German military was unlikely to defeat France in a massive frontal attack across the German-French border. The solution to this quandary was called the Schlieffen plan, after Count Alfred Von Schlieffen, the German Army’s chief of staff from 1891-1906. Its essence
