German military history had previously been influenced by Carl von Clausewitz, Alfred von Schlieffen and von Moltke the Elder, who were proponents of maneuver, mass, and envelopment.

To further block German-Polish diplomatic talks, Ribbentrop had the German Ambassador to Poland, Count Hans-Adolf von Moltke, recalled, and refused to see the Polish Ambassador, Józef Lipski.

Bismarck, Roon and Moltke took charge at a time when relations among the Great Powers — Great Britain, France, Austria and Russia — had been shattered by the Crimean War of 1854 – 55 and the Italian War of 1859.

At the end, France had to surrender Alsace and part of Lorraine, because Moltke and his generals insisted that it was needed as a defensive barrier.

Moltke had indeed massed three armies in the area — the Prussian First Army with 50, 000 men, commanded by General Karl Von Steinmetz opposite Saarlouis, the Prussian Second Army with 134, 000 men commanded by Prince Friedrich Karl opposite the line Forbach – Spicheren, and the Prussian Third Army with 120, 000 men commanded by Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, poised to cross the border at Wissembourg.

Moltke had originally planned to keep Bazaine's army on the Saar River until he could attack it with the 2nd Army in front and the 1st Army on its left flank, while the 3rd Army closed towards the rear.

Ludendorff also learned at this point that von Moltke had decided to take three corps and a cavalry division from the Western front and redeploy them to East Prussia.

John Wheeler-Bennett wrote in 1967: " To such a nadir of supine degradation had come the child of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and Moltke.

After the war he disowned all responsibility for the offensive: " If old von Moltke thought that I had planned that offensive he would have turned over in his grave.

Further, van Creveld points out that while Schlieffen had assigned five corps for the investment of Antwerp, Moltke made do with only two.

Schlieffen had been willing to sacrifice some German territory in the short run to decisively destroy the French Army but Moltke refused to run the same risk and shifted some divisions from the right flank to the left flank in Alsace-Lorraine.

Moltke also had ideological opposition to the proposed passage of the invading armies through the neutral Netherlands, deciding instead to send his armies only through Belgium and Luxembourg.

Contrarily, Captain Douglas Cohn argues that the plan may have worked if Moltke had followed Schlieffen's original plan instead of modifying it.

He argues that had Moltke not depleted the right flank on the Western Front, Kluck's 1st German Army would not have been forced away from the sea, the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) would have been overwhelmed, and the French armies would have been trapped between Paris and France's eastern frontiers.

Fromkin continues by putting much of the genesis of the plan, as finally enacted, on Moltke, who had seen the memorandum and believed it to be a fully operational plan which he then proceeded to expand upon.

Peter Hoffmann's biography of Hitler assassination conspirator Claus Graf von Stauffenberg (" Stauffenberg, A Family History ," 1992 ) indicates that after the failure of Stauffenberg's bomb plot in July 1944, Gisevius went into hiding until January 23, 1945, when he escaped to Switzerland by using a passport that had belonged to Carl Deichmann, a brother-in-law of German Count Helmuth James von Moltke, who was a specialist in international law serving in the legal branch of the Foreign Countries Group of the OKW ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, " Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ").

These included Trott but also members who had not been part of the Plot, such as Moltke, Yorck and Delp.

She was the widow of Helmuth James von Moltke, who had opposed National Socialism and was executed by the Nazis.

Ducrot ordered the retreat that Moltke had expected, but was overruled almost immediately by General de Wimpffen, who threw his forces against the Saxons at La Moncelle.

Although these officers subsequently alternated between regimental and staff duties, they could be relied upon to think and act exactly as von Moltke had taught them when they became the Chiefs of Staff of major formations.

In the victories which the Prussian Army was to gain against Austrian Empire and France, von Moltke needed only to issue brief directives to the main formations, leaving the staffs at the subordinate headquarters to implement the details according to the doctrines and methods he had laid down, while the Supreme Commands of his opponents became bogged down in a mountain of paperwork and trivia as they tried to control the entire army from a single overworked headquarters.

Although he maintained an icy formal demeanour, von Moltke the Elder had been a flexible and innovative thinker in many fields.

For a year Moltke had charge of a cadet school at Frankfurt an der Oder, then he was for three years employed on the military survey in Silesia and Posen.

In eighteen months he had finished nine volumes out of twelve, but the publisher failed to produce the book and Moltke never received more than 25 marks.

Moltke planned and led the successful military operations during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.

He also directed the operations conducted by General von der Tann around Orleans, and defended the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg from interference by Moltke.

On January 25, 1871, Wilhelm I overruled Moltke and ordered the field-marshal to consult with Bismarck for all future operations.

On 18 August, the battle began when at 08: 00 Moltke ordered the First and Second Armies to advance against the French positions.

Moltke was against killing Hitler ; instead, he wanted him placed on trial.

When this party came into power Madvig became Kultus Minister in the Cabinet of Moltke II and III, but left the cabinet on 7 December 1851 as a protest against the government's unity state program.

It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger.

Before the war, Moltke also moved 180, 000 men to eastern Germany to defend against the Russian invasion of East Prussia.

As Minister of War 1859 – 1873 Roon, along with Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke, was a dominating figure in Prussia's government during the key decade of the 1860s, when a series of successful wars against Denmark, Austria and France led to German unification under Prussia's leadership.

In 1838 Moltke was sent as adviser to the Ottoman general commanding the troops in Anatolia, who was to carry on a campaign against Muhammad Ali of Egypt ( for details see Ali's rebellion.

Moltke had pondered the tactics of Napoleon at the Battle of Bautzen, when the emperor brought up Ney's corps, coming from a distance, against the flank of the allies, rather than to unite it with his own force before the battle ; he had also drawn an inference from the combined action of the allies at the Battle of Waterloo.

Moltke, however, was confident of beating both French and Austrians if the French should intervene, and he submitted to Bismarck his plans in case of need for war against both France and Austria.

At this news, the Kaiser, seeing that a two front war could be avoided, told Moltke to reverse the western front forces to the eastern one against Russia.

advise Eliza von Moltke against publication.

On 18 August 1870, the battle began when at 08: 00 Moltke ordered the First and Second Armies to advance against the French positions.

Testifying against Moltke were his former wife of nine years, Lili von Elbe, a soldier named Bollhardt, and Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.

Throughout May and June 1914, Moltke engaged in an " almost ultimative " demand for a German " preventive war " against Russia in 1914.

* Helmuth James Graf von Moltke ( 1907 – 1945 ), German jurist involved in the July 20 assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944

* 1945 – Helmuth James Graf von Moltke – German jurist, a member of the opposition against Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and a founding member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group.

Marion Hedda Ilse Gräfin von Dönhoff ( December 2, 1909 – March 11, 2002 ) was a German journalist who participated in the resistance against Hitler's National Socialists with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

Thus, Moltke and Falkenhayn recommended to the Kaiser a preemptive attack against France, Luxembourg and Belgium when war against Russia ( and therefore, her ally France ) appeared imminent.

That same day, General von Moltke sent a message to Belgium demanding that German troops be allowed to pass through that kingdom “ in the event of an imminent war against France and Russia ”.

Through as late as July 27th, Jagow expressed the view that Russian partial mobilization against the frontiers of Austria-Hungary was not a casus belli, Moltke instead argued that Germany should mobilize at once and attack France.