Alexander von Kluck Alexander Heinrich Rudolph von Kluck ( 20 May 1846 – 19 October 1934 ) was a German general during World War I . Early life . Kluck was born in Münster , Westphalia on 20 May 1846 . Military career . He enlisted in the Prussia n army in time to serve in the seven - week Austro - Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco - Prussian War , where he was wounded twice in the Battle of Colombey - Neuilly , and awarded the Iron Cross ( second class ) for bravery . He was made a general of infantry in 1906 , and in 1913 was appointed Inspector General of the Seventh Army District . World War I . With the outbreak of World War I , Kluck was placed in command of the German First Army . According to the Moltke revisions of the Schlieffen Plan , the First Army was part of the strong right wing and positioned on the outer western edge of the German advance through Belgium and France . This western flank was to advance alongside Karl von Bülow ' s Second Army to Paris . Upon reaching Paris in concert , the First and Second armies were to threaten Paris from both the west and east . After fighting the British at Mons and Le Cateau , the First Army pursued Lanrezac ' s French Fifth Army during the great retreat . However , thirty miles from Paris and anticipating an encounter with the French Fifth Army ( commanded by Lanrezac ) , the cautious von Bulow halted his Second Army ' s advance and demanded von Kluck ' s direct support . By this time , the aggressive Kluck had advanced his First Army well south of von Bulow ' s position to 13 miles north of Paris . On August 30 , Kluck decided to wheel his columns to the east of Paris , discarding entirely the Schlieffen Plan . Although frustrated by Bülow ' s caution , on 31 August Kluck turned his army southeast to support the Second Army . In so doing , Kluck created a 30 - mile gap in the German line extending toward Bülow ' s stalled Second Army . Critically , the move exposed Kluck ' s right flank in the direction of Paris where ( unknown to Kluck ) General Michel - Joseph Maunoury ' s new Sixth Army was being created . The French learned of Kluck ' s change in course on September 1 , when a French patrol captured a German dispatch car , containing a map showing the changed position . The following events were critical to the future course of the war . Passing to the east of Paris , Kluck exposed his right flank to the new French Sixth Army ( General Maunoury ) . On 5 September , Maunoury attacked Kluck ' s right flank , marking the opening of the First Battle of the Marne . Kluck parried the blow by borrowing two corps in the space between the First and Second army . A surprise attack on 8 September by Franchet D ' Esperey ' s ( who had replaced Lanrezac ) Fifth Army against Bülow ' s Second widened the gap which the British Expeditionary Force marched to exploit . The attack , as Winston Churchill said , " probed its way into the German liver . " On 9 September a representative of the German Headquarters , Hentsch , considered the situation of Bülow ' s Army as very dangerous and ordered a retreat of all the armies , even though by that time von Kluck had overcome most of his own problems , ( except presumably , the problem of keeping in contact with his headquarters and letting his chief of Staff , and therefore Hentsch , from knowing how he had solved his problems ) . The Germans retreated in good order to positions forty miles behind the River Aisne . There , the front would remain for years in the form of entrenched positions as World War I continued . Kluck and Bülow ' s lack of coordination and the ensuing failure to maintain an effective offensive line was a primary contribution to the failure of the Schlieffen Plan which was intended to deliver a decisive blow against France . Instead , the long stalemate of trench warfare was ready to begin . Many German experts hold Kluck and especially his Chief of Staff , Hermann von Kuhl , in the highest esteem . Germany could have won the Battle of the Marne , they think , if only Bülow had matched the courageous initiatives of Kluck ' s Army , although this doesn ' t explain the near encirclement of his army . The British at the time called him " old one o ' clock " . Retirement and later life . Toward the end of March 1915 , while inspecting an advanced portion of his troops , he was struck by shrapnel , which caused seven wounds and seriously injured his leg . Shortly afterward , he received the Order Pour le Mérite . In October 1916 the " Militär Wochenblatt " announced that von Kluck had been placed on half - pay , in accordance with his request to be allowed to retire . His son , Lieutenant Egon von Kluck , was killed early in 1915 . General von Kluck wrote of his participation in the War in the volume entitled " Führung und Taten der Erste " ( 1920 ) . His post war memoirs , " The March on Paris and the Battle of the Marne " , were published in 1920 . Kluck died in Berlin in October 1934 . In popular culture . Von Kluck ' s name was mentioned in a bawdy British army song ( whose lyrics were written to the tune of the traditional folk - song " The Girl I Left Behind Me " ) , which in the original ran : It was later reported styled in censored form , that is , in less offensive but wholly inaccurate language from an historical point of view .