This book presents the views of a number of distinguished German military historians on the problems of civil-military relations in Germany and France in the period from the Franco-Prussian War to the French occupation of Germany after 1945. It compares the origins, recruitment and political attitudes of the respective countries' officer corps and considers the impact of defeat on both of them - in the French case after 1940, and in the German case after 1918. The authors discuss the role of the French and German navies in politics and the impact of the military on foreign policy in both nations during the period between the two world wars.