Gerhard Ritter

Early life

Ritter was born in Bad Sooden-Allendorf (now in the federal state of Hesse, in Central Germany). His father was a Lutheran clergyman. The young Ritter was educated at a gymnasium in Gütersloh.

University studies

His studies were continued at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Heidelberg University, and Leipzig University. Ritter began serving as a teacher in 1912. While studying at Heidelberg University, he was a research assistant to the national-liberal historian Hermann Oncken, who was a major influence on Ritter. Professor Oncken opposed the Nazis and was forced to resign in 1935.

Ritter's first book was published in 1913: Die preußischen Konservativen und Bismarcks deutsche Politik (The Prussian Conservatives and Bismarck's German Policy). It was his PhD dissertation completed in 1911 under the supervision of Oncken. Ritter examined the dispute between Otto von Bismarck and conservative Prussian Junkers from 1858 to 1876. The Junkers felt that Bismarck's policy was a menace to their traditional privileges. A source of special conflict between Bismarck and the Junkers was their opposition to Bismarck's compromises with the southern German states, which were seen as a threat to the traditional powers that they enjoyed. The theme of the extent of one's allegiance to those who hold power would be a recurring subject in Ritter's works.

In 1919, he married Gertrud Reichardt with whom he had three children.

Break or continuity?

In his last years, Ritter emerged as the leading critic of the left-wing historian Fritz Fischer, who claimed that there had been powerful lines of continuity between the German Empire and Nazi Germany and that it was Germany that had caused World War I. During the ferocious "Fischer Controversy", which engulfed the West German historical profession in the 1960s, Ritter was the best known of Fischer's critics.

Ritter fiercely rejected Fischer's arguments that Germany had been primarily responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914. The later volumes of Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk were taken up with the goal of rebutting Fischer's arguments. Ritter claimed that Germany had not started a war of aggression in 1914 but admitted that the situation of the German government had required a foreign policy, which contained the immediate risk of war. Against Fischer's thesis, Ritter maintained that the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg had resisted the demands by General Ludendorff for wide-ranging annexations as a war aim.

Ritter's points against Fischer

As part of his critique of Fischer, Ritter contended that Germany's principal goal in 1914 was to maintain the Austria-Hungary as a great power; thus, German foreign policy was largely defensive although Fischer claimed that it was mostly aggressive. Ritter claimed that the significance that Fischer attached to the highly-bellicose advice about waging a "preventive war" in the Balkans offered in July 1914 to the Chief of Cabinet of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Count Alexander Hoyos, by the German journalist Viktor Naumann was unwarranted. Ritter charged that Naumann was speaking as a private individual, but Fischer claimed that it was on behalf of the German government.

Likewise, Ritter felt that Fischer had been dishonest in his portrayal of Austro-German relations in July 1914. Ritter charged that Germany had not pressured a reluctant Austria-Hungary into attacking Serbia. Ritter argued, ironically against Fischer, that the main impetus for war within Austria-Hungary came from domestic politics and was internally driven. There were divisions about the best course to pursue in Vienna and Budapest, but it was not German pressure that led Austria-Hungary to choose war as the best option.

In Ritter's opinion, Germany may be criticized for its mistaken evaluation of the state of European power politics in July 1914. According to Ritter, the German government had underrated the state of military readiness in Russia and France, falsely assumed that the British were unwilling to go to war over the violation of Belgian neutrality, overrated the sense of moral outrage caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on European opinion and above all overestimated the military power and political common sense of Austria-Hungary.

Ritter felt that in retrospect, it was not necessary for Germany to maintain Austria-Hungary as a great power but claimed that at the time, most Germans regarded the Dual Monarchy as a "brother empire" and viewed the prospect of the Balkans being in the Russian sphere of influence as an unacceptable threat. As opposed to Fischer's claim that Germany was deliberately setting off a war of aggression, Ritter argued that Germany's support for Austria-Hungary's retributive plan to invade Serbia was an ad hoc response to the crisis that was gripping Europe.

Ritter accused Fischer of manufacturing the quote he attributed to German General Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, Chief of the General Staff, during a meeting with Austro-Hungarian War Minister Field Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorf, about the necessity of a "speedy attack" on Serbia. Ritter claimed the importance that Fischer attached to the report of the German Army's quartermaster that the army was "ready" for war in 1914 was simply mistaken since the quartermaster always reported every year that the army was "ready" for war.

Likewise, in reference to the order by Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Siegfried von Roedern, the State Secretary for Alsace-Lorraine, to end Francophobic remarks in the German-language press in Alsace, Ritter claimed that was proof of Germany's desire not to have a wider war in 1914. He accordingly claimed also that Fischer's contrary interpretation of Bethmann Hollweg's order was not supported by the facts.

Contrary to Fischer's interpretation, Ritter maintained that Bethmann Hollweg's warnings to Vienna were sincerely meant to stop a war, rather than not window dressing intended to distract historical attention from Germany's responsibility for the war. Ritter claimed that Fischer's interpretation of Bethmann Hollweg's meeting with British Ambassador Sir Edward Goschen was mistaken since in Ritter's opinion, if Bethmann Hollweg was serious about securing British neutrality, it made no sense to express the German war aims to Goschen that Fischer attributed to him.

Ritter strongly disagreed with Fischer's interpretation of the meeting of Moltke, Bethmann Hollweg and General Erich von Falkenhayn (the Prussian war minister) on 30 July 1914. Rather than a conscious decision to wage an aggressive war, as Fischer argued, Ritter's claim was that news of Russia's mobilisation led the German generals into persuading a reluctant Bethmann Hollweg to activate the Schlieffen Plan.

Ritter was strongly critical of what he regarded as Fischer's "biased" view of Moltke's reaction to the outbreak of the war and argued that Moltke's opposition to the sudden last-minute suggestion of Wilhelm II for the German attack on France to be cancelled was for logistical concerns, rather than a desire to provoke a world war. Finally, Ritter faults Fischer for his reliance on the memories of Austro-Hungarian leaders such as Count István Tisza and Count Ottokar Czernin, who sought to shift all of the responsibility for the war onto Germany.

Ritter argued there were no lines of continuity between the German Empire and Nazi Germany and considered the Sonderweg view of German history to be a myth. Ritter clearly denied Fischer's arguments that both world wars were "wars for hegemony" by Germany.

In 1964, Ritter successfully lobbied the West German Foreign Ministry to cancel the travel funds that had been allocated for Fischer to visit the United States. In Ritter's opinion, giving Fischer a chance to express his "anti-German" views would be a "national tragedy" and so Fischer should not be allowed to have the government funds for his trip. Writing in 1962, Ritter stated that he felt profound "sadness" over the prospect that Germans may not be as patriotic because of Fischer.