THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN - The World War I Document Archive

I. SCHLIEFFEN'S GREAT MEMOPvANDUM
OF DECEMBER 1905
A. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
1. The Drafts
F the great memorandum of December 1905 Schlieffens papers
contain the preliminary drafts, fragments, fair copies and transcripts
enumerated below. Their relationship with each other is not easily
recognisable, because in his constant re-writing Schliejfen often presents the
ideas in the drafts in a different order, using old and new drafts simultaneously
as his working copy without always keeping to the exact wording, etc. However,
by carefully comparing the relevant corrections and insertions with the text
of th°. subsequent fair copies (which in turn served as drafts themselves) it has
been possible to construct a chronological order. The provisional order made
by an archivist (in Washington?) by means of consecutive numbers (in pencil
at the top of each page) is arbitrary and has furthermore disrupted the sequence
of pages. Flere I have enumerated the items chronologically.
I. Draft in the handwriting of Major von Hahuke, nineteen half-page
columns (pages 119-38) interleaved with empty pages for corrections, two of
them used for postscripts (in Hahnke's hand). Many corrections and insertions
in Schlieffens handwriting in the empty left-hand columns. Begins: Chief
of the Army General Staff. Berlin, December 31st, 1905. In a war
against Germany, France will probably at first restrict herself to
defence. Ends: . . . therefore a German attack on France does not permit
one to respect the neutrality of Luxembourg and Belgium.
Since the text displays several gaps (re-starting out of context, sometimes in
the middle of a sentence), parts of this draft must have been lost or have been
used for other purposes. It is probably the earliest dictated draft. I therefore
reproduce it infill as Appendix, 1.
II, Ha, lib. Two fair copies in Hahnke's hand. One of them (lid) com-
prising eighteen half-page columns (pp. 139-56) is not corrected; the other
(II), of nineteen columns (pp. 192-210), has many corrections and insertions
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