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15 World Pol. 163 (1962-1963)
German War Aims in the First World War

handle is hein.journals/wpot15 and id is 177 raw text is: GERMAN WAR AIMS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR By KLAUS EPSTEIN Fritz Fischer, Grifi nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiser- lichen Deutschland, 19I4-I9i8, Diisseldorf, Droste Verlag, 1961, 896 pp. DM 34.80. I G RIFF nach der Weltmacht, the new book by Professor Fritz Fischer of Hamburg University, is a noteworthy contribution to our understanding of German policy during the First World War. Its wealth of documentation from previously unused archives (as well as its startling interpretations) makes much of the earlier literature in the field-such as the standard work by Erich Otto Volkmann, Die Annexionsfragen des Welt rieges (Berlin 1929)-obsolete. Fischer is the first historian of the period who bases his conclusions upon a thor- ough examination of the official German documents, which became accessible to researchers only in 1955. His work certainly bears out the truism that definitive diplomatic history can be written only after the archives have been opened. A brief listing of the collections examined for the present volume will give an impression of its exhaustive char- acter. Fischer has worked through deposits of the old Reichsarchiv, now located at Potsdam (in the East Zone), where the files of the Chancellery, Reich Ministry of the Interior, and Commercial Section of the Foreign Office proved especially important; the old Preussisches Geheimes Staatsarchiv, now at Merseburg (also in the East Zone), con- taining the files of the Prussian government (whose great influence upon the formulation of war aims is revealed for the first time); the Politisches Archiv des Auswiirtigen Amts, Bonn, containing most of the files of the Old German Foreign Office (recently returned to Ger- many from Britain, where they had been brought in 1946); the Oster- reichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna, for the files of the Austrian Foreign Office; as well as some important collections in the Bundesarchiv at Koblenz and the Staatsarchive at Munich and Stuttgart. Fischer's doc- umentary basis is so firm and broad that startling additions to the factual evidence are unlikely in the future. The archives have yielded their treasure at last. The task of future historians will be one of in- terpreting an established body of facts rather than making fresh dis- coveries.

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