Early end to the Great war?

[JodelDiplom]

I've read that Germany did have a plan for mobilization priority against Russia, along with a number of other options for various nations and situations. But von Moltke told the Kaiser there was no other choice than to mobilize against and strike first at France, for a couple of reasons. First, he knew the Kaiser would waver back and forth, leaving mobilization a muddled mess, if he had choices. Second, he assumed that France would inevitably come in on the side of Russia anyway, and likely sooner than later. Third, the German General Staff believed that Russian increases in industrialization and improvement in railroads would make them too strong to beat in the near future, so the window for decisively beating France and Russia was small. And fourth: once German mobilization started, they had to let it complete before they could shuttle troops around, and being who they were the General Staff picked the plan they wanted - the modified von Schlieffen - to take out the stronger opponent first.

So von Moltke told the Kaiser a lie.

Where did you read that?

 

[Director]

@JodelDiplom - that's a good question and I don't have a definite answer for you. I read a great deal... I'll try to track it down for you.

 

[JodelDiplom]

@JodelDiplom - that's a good question and I don't have a definite answer for you. I read a great deal... I'll try to track it down for you.

Please do! I would love to read about that too. To my knowledge only the speculative computer games like AGEOD's To End All Wars ever presented fleshed out versions of alternate war plans. I though the German general staff papers had all been destroyed or lost during WW2.

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

Thats Aufmarsch Ost 1 and 2 if I remember right.
It was assumed that France stays neutral at first but joins later.