The Fischer Thesis about whom started WW1

FIRST BOOK

'Griff Nach der Weltmacht'  [Germany's aims in the first World War - 1961]

1) Germany had gone to war to achieve European and worldwide domination - similar to that aimed by Hitler with the Nazis within WW2

2) Germany had hoped the 'blank cheque' (1914) given to Austria would result in war.

3) The roots of German expansion were to be found in the social, economic and political tensions which troubled Germany before 1914

Evidence

• Kurt Riezler's diaries (B-H's private secretary) where he outlined - from 9th September 1914 the peace negotiations that he expected to be soon.
• These plans were continuation of the policy made by politicians, military leaders and industrialists before the outbreak of war
• They weren't just from B-H/leading figures within Germany, but, more the case of the wider political nation
• September Programme represented a complete revolution within Europe's political and power relations. Plans for annexation were written down in this Programme but, they did not come from nowhere - must have been considered before war had been cast
• The German Govt accepted and even hoped that war…