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Institutionalized innovation: The German army and the changing nature of war 1871–1914

Dr Robert Foley is the editor and translator of Alfred von Schlieffen's Military Writings (London: Frank Cass, 2002) and is currently a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King's College, London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College The world today is experiencing change at a seemingly unprecedented rate. The rapid collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the rise of new types of security have altered the international situation and our view of threats in the world almost overnight. Moreover, observers tell us that we are experiencing today a 'revolution in military affairs,' brought about by changes in technology, which will transform warfare into something all but unrecognizable to yesterday's soldiers. Given these fundamental changes, it is not surprising that most have looked forward to new ideas rather than backward in time for inspiration. While the changes we are undergoing are undoubtedly unique in their specifics, the process of change itself is nothing new. It is often tempting to view one's age as unique, but the world has experienced changes on a similar, if not greater, scale before now. The study of history offers us examples of how such changes have been dealt with by our forebears and gives us an opportunity to avoid having to re-invent the proverbial wheel. Moreover, it allows us to measure our own approaches against those taken by our predecessors. Indeed, the period between 1871 and 1914 offers clear parallels to the world today. This article examines how one army the German attempted to deal with the changes that had altered the way in which it had to fight and in the process developed a means of institutionalizing innovation. The years between the conclusion of the Franco-German War of 1870/71 and the outbreak of the First World War were ones of change for the newly founded German Empire, as well as for Europe as a whole change on the international level, change on the domestic political level, change on the social level, and change on the technological level. It was in this climate of rapid and almost continuous change that European soldiers had to formulate military strategy and doctrine. For German soldiers, these changes were particularly acute. The years between the wars saw an almost 60 per cent increase in population of the German Empire, with her population growing from forty-one million in 1871 to more than sixty-five million in 1911. The spread of statesponsored secondary schools ensured that this growing population was better educated, and the shift of workers from agriculture to industry also helped ' create a population more at home with technology and complex systems. The increased literacy was matched by an increased spread in popular newspapers, creating a population that was more politically aware and willing to question authority. On the international scene, German Wars of Unification filled the power vacuum that had traditionally existed in Central Europe. It created a German Empire equal, if not larger, in stature to the states that had dominated the European political arena for centuries. Indeed, the Franco-German War and the Austro-Prussian War that had occurred