Was the Schlieffen Plan Foredoomed to Failure?
Was the Schlieffen Plan Foredoomed to Failure? 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. Alfred von Schlieffen built this plan around the inevitable outcome of a two front war. It was inevitablele that Germany was going to have to face Russia and France. Although Russia had the weaker army, her vast geography posed many issues; it was France that was decided to be the first country to invade. Schlieffen planned for a quick victory on the Western Front which would allow the armies to travel back across Germany to meet Russia at the Eastern Front. He also believed that France was the most decisive factor in the war and defeating them quickly would deter their allies from joining. The German forces had to surround Paris and conquer France before the Russians could mobilize her army. The German Chief of Staff knew that with the advanced rail systems of Germany this transition of armies was possible. Schlieffen predicted that it would take Russia 6 weeks to mobilize. However, Russia prepared her armies much faster, which resulted in attention being shifted from the west to the east. One can argue that the Schlieffen plan was doomed from conception rather than poor execution because of Count Schlieffen’s underestimations. However, even with these miscalculations, the plan could have worked with proper execution. In 1906, Schlieffen had retired and Helmuth von Moltke was appointed as Chief of General Staff. Moltke was never a confident leader, in fact, he had doubts
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