Count Alfred von Schlieffen (February 28, 1833 - Berlin, January 4, 1913) was a Prussian strategist.
Son of a Prussian commander-in-chief in Berlin, he joined the army in 1854 then joined the general staff in 1863, and participated in 1866, as a captain of the general staff, in the battle of Sadowa.
He took part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 as a commander on the staff of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg. From 1876 to 1884 he was commander of the ulhan regiment of the guard and then worked exclusively at the general staff. In 1884, he became head of department of the general staff. In 1888, he was promoted to senior quartermaster, and therefore representative of the Chief of Staff Count von Waldersee. In 1891, von Schlieffen succeeded Waldersee. In 1903 he was a general, a member of the Superior War Council. In 1905, he presented a plan for an offensive strategy on two fronts, assuming that the next war would be short, against France first against which he planned an offensive with a pincer movement and a rapid advance towards the west and the Russia next.
In 1906, he retired after fifty-three years of service. He was appointed Marshal in 1911. He died in Berlin on January 4, 1913, nineteen months before the outbreak of hostilities which would see the application of his plan.
On August 3/4, 1914, despite the evolution of the political and military situation, the military command applied the Schlieffen plan on the western front. Some believe that this plan would have been successful were it not for the downsizing on the right flank initiated by his successor, von Moltke.
He is recognized, although the ideas were in tune with the times, as one of the inspirations of the blitzkrieg.