Was the Schlieffen plan the ultimate reason for Germany losing World War 1?

Answer 1

Well, no, the Schlieffen Plan was pretty successful. Germany's plan was to knock out France first and then attack Russia under the assumption that Russia wouldn't mobilize fast enough. As Germany rolled in Northeastern France, you really have to credit the French effort on the Marne which stopped the Germans. Futher, you have to credit the Russians with actually mobilizing because although they were disastrously defeated at Tannenberg, this did take pressure off the Western Front.

Perhaps more importantly, the failure of Germany to beat France using the Schlieffen Plan had mostly to do with the poor execution of the plan by the current head of the Germany Army, General Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. Moltke fatally weakened the strong Right Flank that the Schlieffen plan called for to sweep through Belgium and the Netherlands. He moved over 400,000 troops out of this Right Flank to help reinforce the Left Flank and Eastern Front; the Schlieffen plan had considered these reinforcements unnecessary, and, history has show, was correct. Moltke's adjustments meant that the German Right Flank was about 50% of the size it should have been, and thus, the French were able to contain and delay it enough to prevent it from performing the knock-out blow it was designed to.

In the end, Moltke was too timid a commander for a strategy so bold as the Schlieffen plan.