ABSTRACT
In a speech given on the 100th anniversary of Helmuth von Moltke's birth, Alfred von Schlieffen bemoaned the fact that Moltke had not left behind a substantial work of theory in which he elaborated his ideas about warfare.1 A hundred years later, a student of Schlieffen could make a similar statement.2 Like his mentor and unlike many of his contemporaries, Schlieffen never produced a single theoretical work that set out all his ideas about warfare. Instead, his ideas were scattered throughout his service writings and his post-retirement works. However, only the works he published after his retirement in 1905 were available for public consumption until his service papers were published in the interwar period. Thus, these works offer an important insight into the concepts that Schlieffen believed significant enough to continue to stress even after his retirement. Of these, three stand out – his 'War Today', 'Cannae Studies', and 'The Feldherf. These three contain Schlieffen's ideas about Germany's contemporary strategic situation and how modern war would be fought, about how to bring about decisive victories, and about the role and responsibilities of an army's commander.
