ABSTRACT
Schlieffen was a very different man from his brilliant predecessor. The family did not trace back its descent into the misty regions of the princely elect. They were descended from a line of Kolberg burgesses who had been mayors and aldermen, and their great successor had the habit of attributing his own industry to the traditions of these simple, dutiful folk. It was only under the Prussian kings that the family acquired land and attained nobility. Schlieffen’s complete imperviousness to anything that lay outside the sphere of his professional interest could at times be astonishing. Schlieffen looked at the scene, remarked, “An unimportant obstacle”, and relapsed into silence. Schlieffen followed with interest the development of military means of communication by the telegraph, the telephone and the heliograph. The idea now came to Schlieffen of marching round the flank and into the rear of the French fortress system and of forcing the enemy to battle with his front reversed.
