He received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg in 2001 after serving for twenty years as an infantry officer in the United States Army.
Some scholars, such as Hew Strachan, have largely accepted his ideas, while others including Terence M. Holmes and Holger Herwig have dismissed them.
But his claim that the Schlieffen Plan itself never existed is more speculative and rests on a reading of evidence that is plausible but not conclusive.
"[1] Rebuttals to his ideas include: Perhaps most importantly, in 2006, Germany’s Military History Research Office (MGFA) published Der Schlieffenplan: Analysen und Dokumente, edited by Michael Epkenhans, Hans Ehlert and Gerhard P. Groß (The Schlieffen Plan: Analyzes and documents.
These documents, not yet available in English translation, are said to strongly support the traditional ideas of a "Schlieffen Plan" that Zuber disputed.