Schlieffen Plan Schlieffen Plan The Schlieffen Plan (, ) was the name given, after the First World War, to German war plans and the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen and his thinking on the invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914. Schlieffen was Chief of the General Staff of the German Army from 1891 to 1906. In 1905 and 1906, Schlieffen devised an army deployment plan for a war-winning offensive against the French Third Republic. After losing the First World War, German official historians of the and other writers described the plan as a blueprint for victory. (Colonel-General)
Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II were volunteers, conscripts and those otherwise induced to join who served in Nazi Germany's armed forces during World War II. In German war-time propaganda those who volunteered for service were referred to as "Freiwillige" ("volunteers"). At the same time, many non-Germans in the German armed forces were conscripts or recruited from prisoner-of-war camps. The term "Freiwillige" was used in Nazi propaganda to describe non-German Europeans (neither "Reichsdeutsche" nor "Volksdeutsche") who volunteered to fight for the Third Reich during World War