Alfred Von Waldersee - The Great General Staff

The Great General Staff

In 1882, Waldersee was chosen by Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder as his principal assistant on the General Staff at Berlin with the rank of Generalquartiermeister. With his selection, he was already seen as the putative successor of the octogenarian field marshal. On several occasions Waldersee accompanied Prince Wilhelm, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, on trips abroad, representing the prince's grandfather Kaiser Wilhelm I. Out of these trips grew a tenuous teacher/student association, however, Waldersee was seen by Wilhelm's liberal parents (Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Victoria, Princess Royal) as "anti-Semitic, narrowly zealous in religion, and reactionary... the quartermaster general was the personification of everything Wilhelm's parents most detested."

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had been in power in Prussia and Germany for a generation, but by the mid-1880s the socio-political mood in Germany was changing. Socialists were gaining seats in the Reichstag and the liberal middle-class had a friend in the crown prince. Bismarck, in efforts to retain his power, now looked to an alignment with the army, but he was weary and suspicious of Waldersee. Effectively in all but title already chief-of-staff, the count was "able but extravagantly ambitious, restlessly intriguing, more or less openly aspired to the chancellorship ." The General Staff knew of few of Bismarck's schemes and Waldersee's outlook was on occasion at odds with foreign policy positions held by the chancellor. Waldersee, officially still second under Moltke, had been elevating the military attachés at the Imperial embassies "into a virtually independent diplomatic service," often managing to bypass the Foreign Ministry. After one such breach of protocol was detected at the Vienna embassy, Waldersee in person was subsequently "hauled over the coals" by Bismarck, to demonstrate to the military establishment who was in charge of foreign affairs. Field Marshal Moltke finally retired in August 1888 and Waldersee's appointment to succeed him was a foregone conclusion: the newly crowned 29-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm II gave his consent.

Waldersee essentially followed the Moltke line until he ran headlong into the often unpredictable young emperor. In 1891, at the autumn maneuvers of the Imperial Army, Waldersee had the effrontery to soundly "defeat" the formations under control of the impetuous Wilhelm II. Waldersee thus lost the confidence of his sovereign and was relieved of his duties and reassigned to command IX Army Corps at Hamburg-Altona, a clear demotion but still an assignment of importance. Waldersee, despite all that had happened, would establish his Hamburg residence near the Bismarck retirement estate at Friedrichsruh. In 1898, he was appointed inspector-general of the Third Army at Hanover, the transfer orders being accompanied by eulogistic expressions of Wilhelm II's goodwill.