"Germany's population and industrial might, together with its strong military traditions and its aggressive policies which had brought on the First World War, made it the most dangerous nation on the continent of Europe. But it could not attack any other nation when its own industrial heartland was undefended and therefore could be quickly seized by French troops, who were just across the Rhine."

Germany did not bring about the First World War. Like most of the nations of Europe, it was sucked into a small peripheral conflict by a series of treaties and alliances. Serbian radicals as well as Astro-Hungarian stubbornness was the key that unlocked that Pandora's box.

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/classes/diplo177/warstart.html

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/willynilly.html