Was the outcome of the First World War hanging by a thread? One hundred years after Germany's defeat, Holger Afflerbach traces the military developments, analyzes the political and strategic decisions, and shows that the war could have ended differently. A German victory had already receded into the distance after the failure of the Western Offensive in the autumn of 1914. However, it is not just a matter of victory or defeat. In his densely argued book, based on numerous new archival research findings, Holger Afflerbach demonstrates that a draw would have been the logical outcome of the First World War—if the German leadership had not made serious mistakes. Yet, the policies of the Allies must also be viewed much more critically than is often the case today. German policy was not as unequivocally focused on extensive conquests as is commonly understood.