Germany declares war on France

On 3 August 1914 at 6.45 p.m. the German ambassador in Paris, Baron Wilhelm von Schoen, handed a declaration of war to the French Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, René Viviani. From that moment Germany was waging war on two fronts: against Russia in the east and against France in the west.

An invented pretext

Two days earlier Germany had asked France whether it would remain neutral in a war with Russia. Viviani replied that France would act in accordance with its interests, and France then announced mobilisation. Berlin, however, needed a reason that would allow Germany to be presented as the party attacked.

The declaration of war accused France of “flagrantly hostile acts”. French airmen had allegedly violated Belgian neutrality by flying over its territory, and one of them had supposedly dropped bombs on the railway near Karlsruhe and Nuremberg. The accusations were false. There had been no French raids on German towns, and it soon became clear that the reports had no basis whatsoever. Moreover, the telegram from Berlin reached the embassy partly garbled, and Schoen had to reconstruct the missing parts of the text himself.

Viviani heard the note in silence and then firmly protested against the injustice and absurdity of the German accusations. Shortly afterwards Schoen left Paris.

A war planned for years

The declaration of war formally closed a matter long since settled by German war plans. The Schlieffen Plan assumed that in a war with Russia Germany would first quickly defeat France, striking at it through Belgian territory, and only then transfer its main forces to the east. That is why, after declaring war on Russia on 1 August, Berlin could not wait for France to decide for itself to enter the conflict.

France, too, was prepared for war. Since the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, recovering these provinces had remained one of the aims of French policy. The commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, planned an offensive precisely in Lorraine and Alsace.

The sacred union

The next day, 4 August, President Raymond Poincaré, in a message to parliament, called on the French to form a “sacred union” (union sacrée). All political forces, from the right to the socialists, suspended their quarrels and supported the defence of the country. Parliament unanimously voted the war credits.

Significance

On 3 August 1914 war between Germany and France became a fact. The very next day German troops entered Belgium and Great Britain entered the war. Within a week of the declaration of war on Serbia the conflict had engulfed all the great powers of Europe except Italy, which declared its neutrality. On the Western Front the bloodiest battles of the war were to be fought.