Arthur Zimmermann

Born October 5th, 1864 in Marggrabowa, East Prussia(Now Olecka, Poland).  He was the German foreign secretary during part of World War 1(1916-17), the author of a sensational proposal to Mexico to enter into an alliance against the United states.

After a career in the consular service, Zimmermann won transfer to the diplomatic branch in 1901. Because of the retiring nature of Gottlieb von Jagow, who became foreign secretary in 1913, Zimmermann conducted a large share of the relations with foreign envoys. As acting secretary in Jagow's absence, he participated, with Emperor William(Wilhelm II) and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, in Germany's decision of July 5th, 1914, to support Austria-Hungary when, after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary put pressure on Serbia, thus angering Russia. Zimmermann drafted the telegram to Vienna embodying Germany's decision, which intensified the crisis that culminated in the outbreak of war.

In 1916, when the German High Command insisted on the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare as the only remaining weapon to defeat the Allies, even at the risk of provoking the United States into belligerency, Jagow resigned. On November 25th, Zimmermann, who was regarded as "pro-U-boat", was appointed to succeed him. In an effort to nullify or at least to reduce U.S. intervention in Europe by engaging U.S. arms and energies elsewhere, Zimmermann planned to embroil the United States in war with Mexico and Japan. In pursuit of this goal, on January 16th, 1917, he sent a secret telegram in code(through the German ambassador in Washington, D.C.) to the German minister in Mexico, authorizing him to propose an alliance to Mexico's President Venustiano Carranza. The offer included "an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer her lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona." Carranza was also asked to "invite the immediate adherence of Japan." Intercepted and decoded by British Admiralty intelligence, the telegram was mad available to President Woodrow Wilson, who caused it to be published on March 1st, 1917. In convincing Americans of German hostility toward the United States, the "Zimmermann Note" became one of the factors leading to the U.S. declaration of war against Germany 5 weeks later.

Zimmermann lost office just after the fall of Berthmann Hollweg's government in the summer of 1917 and never held it again. Zimmermann died June 6th, 1940 in Berlin, Germany.

Erich von Falkenhayn

He was born November 11th, 1861 in Graudenz, in West Prussia. He served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff for part of the 1st World War before his eventual dismissal by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Having joined the army at an early age, Falkenhayn served as a military instructor to the Chinese army in 1899, where he remained until 1903. During the Chinese Boxer Rebellion he was a member of the German General Staff, seeing action when the Allies marched to relieve besieged Peking.

Upon his return to Germany, Falkenhayn continued to serve on the German General Staff, and was appointed Prussian Minister of War in 1913. Whilst in this role he and Helmuth von Moltke, then Chief of Staff, frequently clashed. However, with the declaration of war in August 1914 and the German setback at the Marne, the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, dismissed Moltke and replaced him with Falkenhayn on September 14th, 1914.

Falkenhayn's cautious nature appeared to make him well-suited to the realities of trench warfare, unlike many of his contemporaries. He was inclined to consider defensive rather than offensive operations-a sound strategy, but one ill-suited to the Eastern Front. His approach led him to reject an ambitious plan to capture the entire Russian army championed by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludenorff.

Falkenhayn however believed that the real war was being fought on the other front, the Western Front. He conceived the idea of besieging the historic French city of Verdun in early 1916, of "bleeding it white" as he phrased it. He planned to draw the bulk of the French army into the Verdun salient, thus effectively tying up the French army, and then to methodically destroy them with concentrated artillery fire.

Certainly French losses at Verdun were significant, as were German casualties. It succeeded in diverting French attention solely towards the defence of Verdun, to the extent that the British offensive on the Somme on July 1st, 1916 was executed as much as anything else to provide relief for the French forces at Verdun. Even so, the German Verdun offensive was ultimately a failure; indeed, by the time the Somme offensive was started the French were already beginning to claw back ground.

With the failure of the Verdun offensive, for which the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, was scathing, together with the Russian resurgence at the hands of Brusilov, the loss of Bitolj to the Serbs, and the fall of Gorizia to Italy, the Kaiser finally decided to replace Falkenhayn with the more aggressive von Hindenburg on August 29th, 1916 when he heard news of Romania's declaration of war with Austria-Hungary.

Falkenhayn was sent to the Transylvania Front on August 29th 1916 to command Ninth Army. He defeated the Romanian Army at the Battle of the Red Tower Pass on September 30th, 1916, advancing towards Bucharest. Linking up with Mackensen's army in mid-November, Falkenhayn's troops entered Bucharest on December 6th, thereby defeating Romania.

Falkenhayn was next dispatched to Palestine to command the Ottoman forces in early 1917. A series of setbacks followed: he was defeated by General Allenby at Gaza on October 31st, 1917, and Jerusalem fell to the British in December. Falkenhayn was dismissed by General Liman von Sanders in February 1918; upon his return to Germany he retired.

Erich von Falkenhayn died on April 8th, 1922 near Potsdam.