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During the war, the German government blamed Russia for the outbreak of hostilities.<ref>"[https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_German_White_Book Germany's Reasons for War with Russia]." From the ''World War I Document Archive'' at the Brigham Young University Library.</ref> This view was undermined when telegrams between Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were discovered in the Russian archive and published in 1920.<ref>Levine, Isaac Don, "[https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Willy-Nicky_Letters_between_the_Kaiser_and_the_Czar Willy-Nicky Letters between the Kaiser and the Czar]." From the ''World War I Document Archive'' at the Brigham Young University Library.</ref> They show Nicholas making various peace proposals and Wilhelm brushing them aside.

During the war, the German government blamed Russia for the outbreak of hostilities.<ref>"[https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_German_White_Book Germany's Reasons for War with Russia]." From the ''World War I Document Archive'' at the Brigham Young University Library.</ref> This view was undermined when telegrams between Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were discovered in the Russian archive and published in 1920.<ref>Levine, Isaac Don, "[https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Willy-Nicky_Letters_between_the_Kaiser_and_the_Czar Willy-Nicky Letters between the Kaiser and the Czar]." From the ''World War I Document Archive'' at the Brigham Young University Library.</ref> They show Nicholas making various peace proposals and Wilhelm brushing them aside.

Much of the debate on the war's causes was inspired by the "war guilt" clause of the Treaty of Versailles, which was used to justify reparations. It the 1920s, Germany produced an edited version of its diplomatic archive that left out incriminating material. The view that Germany was no more guilty than other nations was orthodox from the 1920s until the 1960s. The classic work of this type of history is the popular and readable ''Guns of August'' (1962) by Barbara Tuchman.

Much of the debate on the war's causes was inspired by the "war guilt" clause of the Treaty of Versailles, which was used to justify reparations. The view that Germany was no more guilty than other nations was orthodox from the 1920s until the 1960s. The classic work of this type of history is the popular and readable ''Guns of August'' (1962) by Barbara Tuchman.

That Germany planned to go to war is the thesis of Fritz Fischer's ''Germany's Aims in the First World War'' (1968). Rather than the official archive, Fischer used an archive that was collected privately by Karl Kautsky and published in 1919.

Fritz Fischer's ''Germany's Aims in the First World War'' (1968) argues that Germany was committed to war at least as early as July 1913, when the Reichstag approved an unsustainably large amount for army expansion. This was a full year before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Fischer's reseach is based on a diplomatic archive that was collected privately by Karl Kautsky and published in 1919.<ref>''Outbreak of the World War'' (1924). German documents collected by Karl Kautsky and edited by Max Montgelas and Walther Schiicking. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. The German version was published in 1919 as ''Die deutschen Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch''.</ref>

At the end of the Cold War, historians gained access to significant new material from the German military archive in Potsdam. Annika Mombauer deals with this material in ''Helmuth von Moltke and the Origin of the First World War'' (2005).

At the end of the Cold War, historians gained access to significant new material from the German military archive in Potsdam. Annika Mombauer deals with this material in ''Helmuth von Moltke and the Origin of the First World War'' (2005).