Germany in WWI (1914-1918)

The German Empire was unified in 1871, and in forty years it had gone from a federation of disparate states to the most powerful economic unit in Europe, with a population of over sixty-three million people. Massive output in coal, steel, chemicals, and armaments quadrupled trade from 1880 to 1913. Its roads and railways were expansive, and Germany had the agricultural production to sustain itself without imports. The government was a constitutional monarchy headed by the Kaiser, his ministers, a Chancellor, and a legislative body elected by universal male suffrage. While the Kaiser controlled ministerial appointments, foreign policy and the military, most of the governing was left to the twenty-two individual German states.1

Rapid growth proved to be a double-edged sword. Germany, in its quest for colonial possessions and competition with the powers of the day, alienated itself from other European nations. France became Germany’s enemy after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and allied with Russia, surrounding Germany in the 1890s. Britain had been in a naval arms race with Germany for years before 1914 and joined France in response to German aggression in northern Africa.2 While conservative politicians and their great acolyte Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) dominated the German government, leftist political parties gained considerable ground in the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament, in the years before WWI. Union activity also fed into paranoia amongst conservatives who believed a leftist revolution might be inevitable. It was this concern; combined with military reports that Germany would be hopelessly surrounded by the alliance of Britain, France and Russia by 1916, that led to the Schlieffen Plan. The Schlieffen Plan called for an enormous northern flank to march west, invading Belgium and crushing Paris, then pivoting to attack Russia. Most believed the doctrine of a quick war was best executed as soon as possible. So when the July Crisis between Austria and Serbia came in 1914, the German government largely approved of open war.3

To the shock of many in the military and conservatives, the leftists in Germany openly embraced the war, which was framed as a defensive measure against French aggression. Under the nineteenth century Prussian Siege Law the military took over civil administration of the country. This enthusiasm waned when it became clear the war would last longer than the nine months originally predicted. Frontline needs soon outran industrial capacity, which was hurt by the British boycott. The government’s war materials organization, the KRA, seized control of much of the economy. To pay for the war Germany issued war bonds and raised taxes. Unfortunately, any chance of repaying these debts relied on a German victory, and the government feared bankruptcy from a negotiated peace.4

Germany’s greatest advantage was its army in 1914. The Prussian military system applied excellent training from long serving NCOs and officers and a sophisticated conscription system. Although the standing army in 1914 was 700,000 men, within a week of mobilization, 3,800,000 were at arms. The Schlieffen Plan also created material advantages. Germany, unlike its opponents, equipped itself with siege weapons for its massive offensive against French fortifications. Heavy artillery, grenades and mortars were all in supply during the first years in the trenches, along with modern machine guns and rifles. Germany was also the strongest nation in the air and fielded the German Army Air Service.5

The British naval blockade led to rising inflation and a series of poor harvests and military failures on the Eastern and Western Front led to strikes and protests from the left in the Reichstag. The left demanded constitutional reforms. The Kaiser and conservatives responded by placing greater power in the hands of the monarch and his war council. Any chance of this succeeding collapsed when General Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) and General Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937) took the reins in 1916. Both refused constitutional compromise and expanded their control over civil administration. Hindenburg and Ludendorff also specified war aims that included significant territorial expansion, compulsory labor service and increased material commitment to the military.6

In the field Germany suffered from a two front war, only able to launch serious offensives by weakening one front. While tactical strategies began to change ingenuity was slowed by economic and material realities, a result of the British blockade. Germany’s early successes at the Battle of the Frontier in 1914 were all but erased by successive offensive failures. Included in these failures was the disastrous Battle of Verdun in 1916, an attempt to push France into capitulation through attrition. Although the army was successful in repelling Allied offensives the possibility of America’s entrance into the war forced the German Army into one final offensive in the spring of 1918. During this offensive the Germans implemented a new type of infiltration tactic using specialized troops to flank Allied lines. Nevertheless, French and British defenses on the Western Front held.7

While the war raged the winter of 1917 in Germany was harsh. Those who could not muster the funds for black market food found themselves near starvation. Infant mortality increased, and some estimates indicate that by 1918, 700,000 Germans died of causes related to malnutrition. When spring finally came many Germans demanded peace. The strikes and debates over how peace could be achieved polarized the Reichstag and ended the tenuous alliance between the right and left. The right was holding out for spoils and the left wanted to end the war on equal footing. However, by then the Reichstag was all but useless, and Germany was a military dictatorship headed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff.8

In the spring of 1917 two significant events occurred. Russia collapsed into revolution and signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which surrendered lands to Germany and ended the fighting on the Eastern Front. Also, Germany committed to unrestricted submarine warfare, alienating the United States into declaring war and joining the Allies. Germany defeated a tired adversary but gained a fresh one with limitless resources. With men, material, and time running short, Ludendorff pitted Germany’s hopes on one last great offensive in the spring of 1918. This push eventually failed and the Allied counter attack was devastating. The German high command now believed that U.S. participation made any hope of victory impossible.9    

Having never experienced any enemy troops on German soil the populace was shocked when news of Germany’s immanent military collapse reached the home front. For over a year, every day strikes and food riots were broken up with government violence, and news that the war was hopeless incited revolutionary rage. Ludendorff and Hindenburg handed over authority to the Reichstag in early October hoping to avoid blame for the ensuing peace negotiations. When word of this reached naval commanders in Kiel they attempted to force German sailors into a suicidal attack on the British Navy. This led to an all out mutiny with radical leftists joining forces with mutinous sailors in an attempt to seize cities all over Germany. Germany was falling apart, while in the field soldiers were also ready to abandon the front lines.10

To avert revolutionary disaster on the Russian scale the Reichstag forced the abdication of the Kaiser and declared a republic in Weimar, Germany, to curry favor with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) in the coming peace negotiations. An armistice ending WWI was declared on November 11, 1918, with Germany’s surrender. Returning troops immediately took up arms in Freikorps (Free Corps) attacking and quelling leftist revolutionaries throughout Germany. The German Social Democratic Party achieved a ruling percentage in the republic’s first free election, but the right wing responded by harboring myths of the liberal traitors who abandoned a capable army. Dissatisfaction increased considerably when the terms of the Versailles Treaty were delivered to Germany, but by then the demobilization of the armed forces made resistance impossible.11

WWI was a complete disaster for Germany. Versailles imposed punitive measures that financially, politically, and socially hobbled the new Weimar Republic. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, Germany’s Navy was destroyed, the German armed forces were no longer allowed to exceed 100,000 men and massive war reparations to be paid by the German government on threat of invasion were leveled. Accepting the treaty to avoid invasion hobbled the Social Democratic and Catholic Center Party, polarizing the German people who began to support the extremist parties of the right and left.12 The German Army suffered five million casualties, 1,750,000 of whom were deaths. In the midst of the chaos of postwar revolution, no demobilization occurred. Many veterans joined the rising vigilante Freikorps organizations, while others remained in the east where they worked to exploit Germany’s possessions there or turned to banditry and mercenary service.1