page_title: Septemberprogramm
hierarchical_section_title: Septemberprogramm
caption_attribution_description: English: A possible outcome of the German Septemberprogramm in Europe if Germany had gotten a quick victory and it was put into effect.
context_page_description: The Septemberprogramm was the plan for the territorial expansion of the German Empire, prepared for Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, at the beginning of World War I. The Chancellor's private secretary, Kurt Riezler, drafted the Septemberprogramm on 9 September 1914, in the early days of the German attack in the west, when Germany expected to defeat France quickly and decisively. The extensive territorial conquests proposed in the Septemberprogramm included making a vassal state of Belgium, annexing portions of France, expanding its colonies in Africa, and seizing much of the Russian Empire. The Septemberprogramm was not effected because France withstood the initial German attack, the war devolved into a trench-warfare stalemate, and ultimately ended in German defeat.
  As geopolitics, the Septemberprogramm itself is a documentary insight to Imperial Germany's war aims, and shows the true scope of German plans for territorial expansion in two directions, east and west. Historian Fritz Fischer wrote that the Septemberprogramm was based on the Lebensraum philosophy, which made territorial expansion Imperial Germany's primary motive for war.
context_section_description: The Septemberprogramm (German: [zɛpˈtɛmbɐpʁoˌɡʁam]) was the plan for the territorial expansion of the German Empire, prepared for Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, at the beginning of World War I (1914–18). The Chancellor's private secretary, Kurt Riezler, drafted the Septemberprogramm on 9 September 1914, in the early days of the German attack in the west, when Germany expected to defeat France quickly and decisively. The extensive territorial conquests proposed in the Septemberprogramm included making a vassal state of Belgium, annexing portions of France, expanding its colonies in Africa, and seizing much of the Russian Empire. The Septemberprogramm was not effected because France withstood the initial German attack, the war devolved into a trench-warfare stalemate, and ultimately ended in German defeat.
  As geopolitics, the Septemberprogramm itself is a documentary insight to Imperial Germany's war aims, and shows the true scope of German plans for territorial expansion in two directions, east and west. Historian Fritz Fischer wrote that the Septemberprogramm was based on the Lebensraum philosophy, which made territorial expansion Imperial Germany's primary motive for war. 
  Jonathan Steinberg has suggested that if the Schlieffen Plan had worked, and produced a decisive German victory, like the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Septemberprogramm would have been implemented, thus establishing German hegemony in Europe.
caption: Possible outcome of the Septemberprogramm in Europe
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