"Revanche pour Sedan" - France and the Schlieffen plan. Military and Political Preparations for World War One

In the last one hundred years historians have argued in a highly controversial way about the causes and the responsibilities for the outbreak of World War I. One crucial factor, however, has never been taken into consideration: the precise knowledge that France had about the so-called "Schlieffenplan". This paper explores and highlights the argument that this knowledge enabled Poincaré's government to develop a concise strategy of war preparation and of blackmail with regard to Berlin. Its aim was not merely to guarantee French security; its main object was rather to take revenge for the French defeat of 1870/71. According to Poincaré's calculation, the Berlin government was to be put under pressure so as to create a situation which left only one alternative: to trigger off war or to face an outstanding and unprecedented diplomatic defeat. Thus, Poincaré's policy between 1912 and 1914 paved the way for the strategy of brinkmanship and uncontrollable offensive pursued by Berlin in the "crisis of July" of 1914. This puts the blame on France and Poincaré to be likewise responsible for the outbreak of the war. © 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston.