A grain magnate’s optimistic reports extended the First World War

Evidence

During the First World War, Hermann Weil had tried to be of service to the national cause. He used his years of experience and his contacts to observe the world markets, the grain markets and the food situation in each of the warring powers, and sent reports to government agencies in Berlin. Kaiser Wilhelm II liked the optimism and the certainty of victory in his reports. But Hermann Weil’s over-optimistic estimates of the effects on the Allies of the sinking of grain freighters contributed to making a pointless war even longer. His role in the war as the `father of submarine warfare’ was in the end seen to have been disastrous. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 41

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader scholarship on civilian advisors and economic intelligence prolonging wartime misjudgment, e.g. the role of business interests in conflict dynamics. — connects to: World War I victory hinged on industrial production capacity — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 118; Record-level trade failed to prevent the First World War

Broader Connections

• Record-level trade failed to prevent the First World War #corroborates (0.78)
• World War I victory hinged on industrial production capacity #expands (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 118