Next the German armies would be able to fight the Russians who were towards the east. For the German armies to be able to fight against Russia, they had to get to Paris and defeat France within the six weeks they had planned. When they had defeated France they could send all their troops to fight against the Russians. After this this Germans had not thought through properly about the German soldiers and how they were coping. Many were extremely tired and some starving. This slowed them down and eventually Germany were invaded by the Russians as they had mobilised more quickly than expected.
In Europe the German army was not the biggest but many people agreed it was the most powerful. Already at the start before only war broke out the German commanders had already thought they would have to fight Russia and France at the same time.
They assumed Russia would take at east 6 weeks to mobilise. France would be easily defeated in 6 weeks. Belgium would not resist and German attack and that Britain would remain neutral. On 2nd August 1914, the German army invaded Luxembourg and Belgium according to the Schlieffen Plan. The Germans were held up by the Belgium army, backed up by the BEF which arrived extremely quickly. Russia mobilised in just 10 days and Germany was forced to withdraw troops from the Schlieffen Plan to defend her eastern border. Germany did not take the chance to take Paris, instead decided to attack east of the capital. They were met by French at the battle of the Marne (5-11 Sept) which halted the German advance.
In full knowledge of French defences, Schlieffen proposed attacking France through Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg - the Benelux countries. Schlieffen planned to use 90% of German military forces to deliver a knock out blow to France. The remaining 10% would defend the eastern border of Germany against Russian attack
Von Molkte replaced Von Schlieffen in 1906, and made some alterations to the plan.
His version avoided invading Holland, instead concentrating attack through Belgium. According to Von Molkte, the Belgium army would be unable to resist a powerful German military, and German forces would rapidly enter France.
The Germany Army Chief of Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen was asked to plan a way of preventing a war on two fronts. His initial plan was produced late in 1905. He believed that it was a priority to defeat France quickly, forcing them to surrender before Russia had a chance to mobilize her armed forces.