Schlieffen Plan

Schlieffen Plan, German war plan that influenced the opening stages of World War I. Count Alfred von Schlieffen was Chief of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1905. He developed a plan for the conduct of a war on two fronts, against both Russia and her ally France. Taking advantage of the fact that the huge Russian Army would be slow to mobilize, he planned a massive German attack in the West, hoping to defeat France swiftly and allow Germany to turn on the Russians thereafter.

Central to Schlieffen’s strategy was the deployment of weak German forces in the Lorraine region, at that time part of Germany, to draw the main part of the French Army into an eastward advance. Simultaneously, a huge German force would advance into northern France, encircle Paris from the west and envelop the French Army, which would be unable to disengage from the battle in the East. The plan was ambitious and subtle, but contained inherent flaws. The main German advance would violate the neutrality of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Schlieffen chose to ignore the fact that an attack on Belgium would probably bring Britain into the war. He was also taking an extraordinarily optimistic view of the stamina and endurance of his troops.

Schlieffen’s successor, Colonel-General Helmuth von Moltke, revised the plan. He altered the line of advance of the German invasion force to avoid the Netherlands, hoping to leave a neutral conduit for the conduct of trade. More damagingly he significantly strengthened the forces committed to the defence of Alsace and Lorraine. This destroyed any chance of luring the French Army into Schlieffen’s trap.

Moltke made further changes after the plan was put into effect in August 1914. Where Schlieffen had envisaged the use of second-line troops to cover cities and fortresses bypassed during the initial advance, Moltke used substantial formations of regular troops. He then withdrew two Army Corps from the main attack, to reinforce the German Army facing the Russians in East Prussia. Finally, as the Germans advanced into northern France, Moltke altered their axis of advance, intending to smash into the flank of the French Army to the east of Paris. However, because the French had not been sucked into an advance deep into Alsace and Lorraine, they were able to transfer forces to the Paris area, and defeat the Germans in the Battle of the Marne. This defeat effectively ended any chance of the swift and decisive German victory planned by Schlieffen.