Alfred von Schlieffen

Alfred von Schlieffen was born on 28 February 1833 into the Prussian officer class and rose through the ranks to field marshal. He served as chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, spending those years wrestling with Germany's geographic nightmare: hostile powers on two borders. Between 1905 and 1906 he codified his answer in what was then called Aufmarsch I, a deployment plan and operational guide for a decisive initial offensive against France and Russia simultaneously. The logic was speed: knock France out fast through encirclement, then wheel east before the Russian E…