Schlieffen

British  

/ ˈʃliːfən /

noun

1. Alfred (ˈalfreːt), Count von Schlieffen. 1833–1913, German field marshal, who devised the Schlieffen Plan (1905): it was intended to ensure German victory over a Franco-Russian alliance by holding off Russia with minimal strength and swiftly defeating France by a massive flanking movement through the Low Countries. In a modified form, it was unsuccessfully employed in World War I (1914)

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Example Sentences

German tactics centered on the “Schlieffen Plan,” named after its author, Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, who had devised it in the first years of the twentieth century.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

Nonetheless, speed was vital to the Schlieffen Plan.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

The defeat of the Germans left the Schlieffen Plan in ruins.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

When the preposterous Russians, unequipped, untrained and unafraid, invaded East Prussia, Moltke forgot Schlieffen and diverted two corps from the Belgian drive to the Russian front.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was Schlieffen, the Prime Minister, who in the Hessian Parliament urged the English treaty as a means of refilling the state treasury, so exhausted that it was at the end of its resources.

From A Defence of the Hessians by Rosengarten, J. G. (Joseph George)