Something needs to be said

[FireLight]

Giving Hitler credit for anything, I would say he was a genius of manipulation. He knew how to manipulate the German people when they were going through great difficulties after World War I. He knew how to tell them what they wanted to hear and many of them listened. He persuaded enough that he was able to take power, and once he took power he could use that power to either persuade (by fear or pride) or eliminate his enemies, using whichever method he felt would work, against whoever he believed was his enemy (jew, gypsy, slav, disabled, etc.)

He also knew what to tell his enemies. He told many stories to persuade them of his innocent intentions. The final culmination of this was Munich in which the allied powers gave up the "german" portion of Czechoslovakia without a fight. And then defenseless, and without allies, the rest of Czechoslovakia fell.

He also was a strong supporter of the Blitzkreig strategy which overpowered his enemies in short order to gain tactical victories. However, his tactical understanding of war did not match his strategic understanding, and he made many blunders in this regard. ie., attacking Yugoslavia prior to attacking the Soviet Union - therefore pretty much ensuring that the war in the east couldn't be won before winter, allowing the USSR to recover to become a major factor in his defeat.

Only a few recognized the deception in Hitler's rhetoric. One was Winston Churchill, who became the leader of Great Britain just in time - but only just. He pretty much recognized Hitler for who he was early in the game, as Hitler was coming to power, but I don't believe there were many who recognized the full horror of Hitler's rule to the end of the war or afterwards.

[seahawk]

That's quiet wrong. Germany was more than an ally. Everything depended on the German reaction and they were behind every Austro-Hungary decision. The Austro-Hungarian empire wasn't crazy enough to start a conflict without the strong support of their German ally. Why did the Germans give the green light to the Austro-Hungarian empire is quiet complicated and mainly based on 2 bad assessment of the situation. They believed that :
- UK wasn't going to react.
- There were strong chances that Russia wasn't going to react neither

This way Germany thought they would be able to obtain a very quick victory over France and that if they were quick enough it wasn't going to be a generalized conflit... but yes they were wrong... and badly.

Alex

Well, this is not quite right. The German warplan foresaw a quick war in the west, before turning east, to avoid war on 2 fronts. But considering what happened on the road to war, Germany could have avoided WW2 as easily as France, England and Russia. The Austrian crown prince was killed by a Serbian nationalist with at least knowing of the Serbian secret service. After that Austria and Serbia quickly headed for war. Germany declared it would back Austria, if Russia would fully mobilize against Austria. Even after some diplomatic contacts to the Russian leader by the German side, Russia decided to fully mobilize, which then started a domino effect. Russia fully mobilizes against Austria, Germany mobilizes against Russia, France mobilizes against Germany, England mobilizes against Germany. I am nit trying to say Germany was not responsible for WW1, but every other major european power could have avoided the conflict just as easily.

[Alex - Spot-This !]

I agree Stefan, what I was trying to say is that we can't compare The role Germany had with the role England had in the Irak war. Austria's empire was nothing without Germany backing up. The domino effect is proven but things wouldn't have happened this way if Germany hadn't given the green light. In 1913 the situation went almost to war but this time Germany was really afraid of that domino effect and decided to calm things down. Then after the situation went that bad in Serbia in summer 1914 they thought it was the right moment to achieve the plan you descrieb.
Yes German warplan was a quick war in the west, quick enough so the UK wouldn't have the time to mobilize an army... And they were also very badly surprised by the first russian victories as they thought that russian army wasn't able to react so quickly.

Terry, totally agree, and yes Churchill was one of the very rare one who recognized what Hitler's regim really was early in the game.

[seahawk]

For me the main point is that the backing of the Austrians was seen as a defensive move by the Germans. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was seen as an attack by Serbia and the following demands against Serbia and declaration fo war against Serbia by Austria was seen as just. On the 28th July Austria declared war on Serbia, Germany still stood aside. Only after Russia decided to fully mobilize on 31st July, Germany declared war on them on August 1th and France August 3rd.

That Germany then went ahead with the Schliefen Plan puts the blame for the war in the west on Germany. Especially after the "Septemberprogramm" by Hollweg clealry set aggressive targets for Germany.

But in the days leading to war, Germany´s reaction was defensive in nature imho.