Toll (1966) on Fischer

Fischer’s main thesis – perhaps over-emphasized by the title “Grasping at World Power” – is that Germany was ready to resort to war in order to establish herself as a “Weltmacht,” a Great Power, that is, which could take its place along with the other world powers, who had established their position in the world before Germany had achieved national unity. This idea of achieving true great power status in a world balance of power – a concept which Professor Ludwig Dehio, although he has criticized some of Fischer’s conclusions, had previously examined and developed in some interesting essays was easily turned into a plan for organizing the world, or part of it, in such a way that it should be dominated by Germany and serve German economic, cultural, or strategic interests. Professor Fischer
demonstrates, by a detailed examination of the documents, first that the German government, if they did not actually want war in 1914,
were at any rate prepared to face the risk of it in pursuit of their general aims, and that they systematically encouraged their Austrian
allies to provoke war with Serbia even when they saw that it could not be localized; and, secondly, that, as soon as the war had started, they developed plans, which they had already previously discussed, for large-scale territorial annexations and for the establishment of a
German-controlled new order in Europe. James Toll, The 1914 Debate Continues. Fritz Fischer and His Critics. Source: Past & Present, No. 34 (Jul., 1966), pp. 100-113