WWI Historians

Question 1

David Lloyd George

Answer 1

No one country was responsible for the First World War and, in 1914, no country wanted war. The war was accidental.

Question 2

Ulrich Wehler

Answer 2

Agrees with Fischer’s view

Question 3

Immanuel Geiss

Answer 3

In agreement with Fischer’s views. Sees Germany as the aggressor in the July Crisis, putting pressure on Austria-Hungary to resolve by military action the threat posed by Serbia. According to Geiss, Bethmann Hollweg’s government was prepared to provoke a general European war in order to fulfill the aims of Weltpolitik.

Question 4

Gerard Ritter

Answer 4

Disagrees with Fischer’s views. Argues that Germany acted defensively in July 1914 and was seeking a diplomatic victory over the Triple Entente, rather than a military one.

Question 5

Egmont Zechlin

Answer 5

Argues that Germany in 1914 was seeking a preventative war, with no plans for acquiring land from its neighbors. Believed Germany went to war in desperation in 1914 as an attempt to break out of its encirclement by the Triple Entente as the balance of power tipped increasingly in favor of Germany’s enemies.

Question 6

Fritz Fischer

Answer 6

Fischer’s thesis was that Germany had pursued an aggressive foreign policy since the 1890s aimed at expanding Germany’s borders and that, from the time of the War Council meeting of December 1912, Wilhelm II’s government wanted to go to war as soon as possible.
Argues that German government’s expansionist aims of the pre-First World War period were similar to those of the Nazis.