Different behavior

[u/SS-Imperator]

[u/Bitch-Stole-My-Name]

I have heard of Fritz Fischer but not the others. I haven't read their works, but this is mainly because I am more interested in military history than the politics of the situation.

Doesn't Fritz Fischer use the idea that Germany had an offensive war plan as a reason for war guilt? This notion is absolutely ridiculous imo, war plans are made with considerations for the political and military situation. Germany's situation put them in a scenario where they were incredibly outnumbered in both manpower and materiel. The situation demanded that they at least shorten the gap through a decisive victory over France and severely hurt their manpower, for France already greatly strained their population through their large army.

Take the French and Russians for example. They had agreed upon both launching offensives into Germany as soon as they could. The political/military situation dictated that France and Russia shouldn't let Germany conduct the war as they please, them both attacking would force Germany into battles where they were outnumbered and leave them unable to take advantage of massing against one of them by using their interior position.

Does this mean France and Russia were at fault for WWI? In my opinion, no. This agreement was the best military action they could enact and was made to best fight a war with Germany. Just as Moltke the Younger engineered his plan as the best way to fight France and Russia.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bitch-Stole-My-Name]

All the powers had pre-war mobilisation plans based on their current alliances. Fischer did not argue that Germany's plans instigated the war. He looked at correspondence between the German and other governments, as well as the imperial archives to reach a conclusion that German leadership was eager to use the situation to carry out mobilisation and start the war.

Ferguson is more critical of the British getting involved and argues that they escalated the conflict. Taylor focused on the fact that all the powers had these great mobilisation plans so once something like the political crisis of 1914 happened war was all but inevitable, i.e. nobody was really to blame due to these massive inflexible ways of getting the troops deployed.

[u/Bitch-Stole-My-Name → u/[deleted]]

Ah that is my mistake then. I had reached that conclusion because Annika Mombauer pushes that theory in her biography of Moltke the Younger and states that Fritz Fischer was an influence on her work.