<P> The Schlieffen Plan ( German : Schlieffen - Plan , pronounced ( ʃliːfən plaːn ) ) was the name given after World War I to the thinking behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914 . Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen , the Chief of the Imperial Army German General Staff from 1891 to 1906 , devised a deployment plan for a war - winning offensive , in a one - front war against the French Third Republic from 1905 -- 06 . After the war , the German official historians of the Reichsarchiv and other writers , described the plan as a blueprint for victory . German historians claimed that the plan had been ruined by Generaloberst ( Colonel - General ) Helmuth von Moltke the Younger , the Commander - in - Chief of the German army after Schlieffen retired in 1906 , who was dismissed after the First Battle of the Marne ( 5 -- 12 September 1914 ) . </P>
the schlieffen plan was intended to bring about the quick defeat of
the French Third Republic