German Responsibility for the War of 1914–1918

Abstract

Fritz Fischer is the most important German historian today, famous — or, rather, with Germans notorious — for telling them the truth that Germany was responsible up to the hilt for the war of 1914–1918 and proving it from all the evidence.¹ If he had dared to say all this just after that war, he would have been assassinated by the reactionary Frei Korps, as so many were — including the Catholic Centre Party leader, Erzberger, for signing the Treaty of Versailles, though this book shows what a deep-dyed nationalist and annexationist he was. Perhaps that taught him, or he had learned something from the war, like Stresemann, who was another.