August 1, 1914

[Martin Antonenko]

The March Into The Abyss Begins!


On August 1, 1914, the German Empire declares war on Tsarist Russia - and thus takes on the odium of being the aggressor in front of the world ...:











But the German general staff has already badly miscalculated!

They had set out to strike first in a quick campaign against the French Republic, allied with Russia, to overthrow it, and then to turn with all their might against Russia, which was regarded as the main enemy.

The tsarist empire, it was hoped, would take several weeks to mobilize its huge army due to the great distances and its inadequate railway network - and besides, one underestimates the morale and fighting power of the Russian soldiers downright criminally ...:...:



But already in the early evening of August 1st, the first units of the 1st Russian Army under General Pawel Karlowitsch fon Rennenkampf...



... cross the East Prussian border ...





... overrun the German defense at several places ...







...und nehmen erste deutsche Ortschaften ein...



... first the border town of Stallupönen ...:



Basically, the war is already lost for Germany, as it has to wage the dreaded two-front war from the first day, which one actually wanted to avoid at nearly all costs ...

 

[Airkid]

I started re-reading Kerensky's biography recently (after your post reminded me of it), and have just got to the part where the German ambassador Count Portales informs Sasonov, the Russian Foreign Minister that Germany is now at war with Russia.
As you say, the Germans seriously underestimated the Russians' capabilities at the outset (and overestimated that of their own Generals in the West too, for that matter)

Phil

 

[Martin64]

This post is somewhat misleading IMHO:
July 23rd: Austria issues an ultimatum to Serbia (at that time the Kaiser and the German Chief of staff are on vacation obviously not realising the seriousness of the situation)
July 28th : Austria declares war on Serbia
July 29th: Russia mobilises it`s Army along the border to Austria - first as a general mobilisation (along the border to Germany and Austria) issued by Russian General von Rennenkampf - then by intervention of the Zar carried out as a partial mobilisation.
July 30th: Russian Headquarters issues a general mobilisation - also along the German border ! - the Russian falcons had won against the Zar (their motto: the way through the Dardanelles leads through the Brandenburg gate at Berlin).
July 31rst: Germany in turn issues an ultimatum to Russia and France to confirm neutrality (France) and to stop the general mobilisation (Russia).
August 1rst 1914: General mobilisation of the armies in France (15:15 hrs) and Germany (17:00 hrs) and Declaration of war against Russia by Germany.

Due to the Russian mobilisation in progress since July 29th Russian troops could easily cross the border into Eastern Germany but due to the overestimation of their fighting power and the abilities of their leaders German troops were finally shipped from the Western front/weakening the operations at the Marne (in underestimation of France) to the Eastern front - only to arrive too late to take a decisive part in the catastrophic defeat of the ill-led Russian forces during the battle at the masuric lakes in Sept 1914.

In WW II it happened the other way around: WWI-veterans of the General Staff and the political leadership overestimated France and severely underestimated the abilities of the Red Army.
War on two fronts is always a sorry business...and to loose a war leads to the allegation that the looser is the sole agressor (Treaty of Versailles 1919) which finally lead to another great war...
and after being the looser two times todays German leftwing historians feverishly defend the legend of being the sole agressor of 1914 against historians of other nations like Christopher Clarke ("The sleepwalkers" - highly recommended).

Cheers, Martin

 

[Nap]

As we all know ....a total ABYSS

Nap