War in the West & the East

Lecture 3

Outline• Schlieffen Plan vs. Plan XVII—plans / realities/ and unintended consequences

– Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (Ger. military)– Joseph Joffre (Fr. military) and Ferdinand Foch (Fr. military)– Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (Chancellor of Germany)

• 1st Battle of the Marne (September, 1914)– Stalemate and Trench Warfare

• 1st Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914)– Race to the Sea– Erich von Falkenhayn (Ger. military) vs. Conrad von Hötzendorf ( A-H. military)

• Christmas Truce of 1914• 2nd Battle of Ypres (21 April – 25 May 1915 )• Battle of Verdun (21 February – 18 December 1916 )• Battle of the Somme (1 July and 18 November 1916)

– Douglas Haig (Br. military) – Ferdinand Foch (Fr. military)– Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg (Germ. military until October 1918)

Schlieffen Plan vs. Plan XVII

Personalities of War (1)

Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (1848-1916)

Joseph Joffre (1852-1931)Ferdinand Foch

(1851-1929)Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg(1856-1921)

1st Battle of the Marne (September, 1914)

Stalemate and Trench Warfare

1st Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914)

Erich von Falkenhayn(1861-1922)

Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf(1852-1925)

Christmas Truce of 1914

2nd Battle of Ypres (21 April – 25 May 1915 )

Otto Dix, Stormtroopers Advance under Cover of Gas (1924)

Battle of Verdun (21 February – 18 December 1916 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fucpsNS-xBQ

Battle of the Somme (1 July and 18 November 1916)

Personalities of War (2)

Erich Ludendorff(1865-1937) Paul von Hindenburg

(1847-1934)Douglas Haig(1861-1928)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

"In Flanders Fields" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1915)

The Eastern Front

Battle of Tannenberg (August 1914) and Battle of Masurian Lakes (September 1914)

Paul von Hindenburg & Erich Ludendorff (German)

• Pavel Rennenkampf (or Paul von Rennenkampf) and Alexander Samsonov (Russian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JidDI60nBqw

Battle for Galicia (August / September 1914)

From Brusilov Offensive to the Kerensky Offensive

June 1916 July 1917

Italian Front: From the Battles of Isonzo to the Piave

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/jan/30/frozen-corpses-wwi-soldiers-glaciers-melt-italy/

Hidden Legacy of the Eastern Front?---an historiographical argument by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

• From Land & People to Space & Race

• German occupation of the Ober-Ost (Kurland and Lithuania)

• Germans at first were overwhelmed by the ethnic and geographical complicity of the region, but soon enough started the view the region as a place that was ripe for manipulation and reorganization and eventually led to the transformation of German view of the East—a place need to be civilized by German Work

• At the end, Liulevicius claims, the Germans developed repulsion and loathing toward the East, a mentality that aided Nazi efforts when they sought to realize their racial utopia during WW II