In order to the completeness of this military ideal the army
became the nation and the nation became the army to a degree which had
never before been realized in either the savage or the civilized world.
This army could be summoned and put in play by the Chief Executive of
the German Nation with no preliminaries except the consent of the
hereditary heads of the several States which united to form the empire
in 1870-71 under the domination of Prussia, the Prussian King, become
German Emperor, being Commander in Chief of the German Army. At the word
of the Emperor this army can be summoned, collected, clothed, equipped
and armed, and set in motion toward any frontier in a day. The German
Army was thus made the largest in proportion to population, the best
equipped, and the most mobile in the world. The German General Staff
studied incessantly and thoroughly plans for campaigns against all the
other principal States of Europe, and promptly utilized--secretly,
whenever secrecy was possible--all promising inventions in explosives,
ordnance, munitions, transportation, and sanitation. At the opening of
1914 the General Staff believed that the German Army was ready for war
on the instant, and that it possessed some significant advantages in
fighting--such as better implements and better discipline--over the
armies of the neighboring nations.
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