Unlike in case of WW2 the outbreak of WW1 cannot be blamed on one nation only. After the war the treaty of Versailles ascribed the guilt to Germany only (to form the legal basis for many of the reparations) in article 231:
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
This article created a lot of bitterness in Germany at the time. In fact I notice that whenever the subject of WW1 is brought up around here these days many people will point out defensively that it was not Germany's fault only. With the horrible crimes committed by Germans in WW2 there seems to be a strong sense of guarding against being solely blamed for WW1 too.
It is quite likely that WW1 could have been prevented if only there had been some real political will to stop that war. This will however was barely existent in the nations of Europe in 1914, the much the more as the expectation everywhere was for it to be a splendid little war which would be over by Christmas, solve the political troubles of prewar Europe and which would of course be won by the own party. Realism doesn't ever play a major role when it comes to mobilizing a country for war :unsure:
I do not admire any German governments before the current one,
but I do know that Germany was, in a way, tricked into war.
However, to say that Germany was tricked into the war (suggesting for it to be entirely against the will of people in Germany) would ascribe a bit too much innocense to Germany.
Kaiser Wilhelm I. (same as probably all rulers in Europe at the time) didn't want something of the scale of WW1 to errupt, but same as all other rulers he did not do what was in his power to prevent the situation from escalating. He was a person with a lot to compensate for (his crippled arm and his mother's contempt for him because of this deformation had a devastating effect on his psyche) and he compensated mainly with a display of military fetishism.
One of the German contributions to almost ensure the escalation of the conflict was the so called "blanque check" to Austria-Hungary after the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. Rather than calming the rough waters Germany pretty much promised Austria-Hungary any kind of assistance (including military assistance) in any kind of procedure against Serbia. This likely contributed to Austria-Hungary making demands against Serbia which would have come down to seriously cutting (if not ending) Serbia's national independence. With the guarantee of German assistance Austria-Hungary was quite ready to accuse and "punish" Serbia as a state rather than allowing for objective investigations of an assassination that was not in any way conducted, planned or supported by the Serbian government. Serbia's turning to the mighty Russian ally was a natural reaction.
Another dark spot on the record of Germany's role in the outbreak of WW1 is the invasion of neutral Belgium (which was the ultimate casus belli for Great Britain). Belgium was the "thoroughfare" to France in the "Schliefen-Plan", the German strategy for an attack on France with a strong right (northern) wing. Belgium's neutrality and its refusal to grant Germany military access to their territory was just ignored. Some people claim that France would have done the same if given more time, but even if we assume this to be right, there is no denying that Germany was the one to actually do it and invade a neutral country.
Many young people in Germany at the time were very much in favor of the war. Having been told countless of times about the "heroics" of their fathers and grandfathers in the war of 1870/71 there was a great eagerness of the young generation at the outbreak of the war to take the own turn in being "heroic" now. Nobody of course was thinking of rat infested, muddy, trenches and being permanently shelled at the time.
There were motivations for the war in other countries which hampered the political will that could have prevented it. In France there was a degree of revanchism for the war of 1870/71 (in which Germany had dictated a harsh peace), Russia was the first country to actually mobilize its troops, in Great Britain their was the sense of being threatened by Germany's naval build-up. None of the major powers went "perfectly innocently" into this war which each of them, with a little more good-will and diplomatic efforts, might have prevented. Germany was not solely responsible for it, but it was very far from being reluctantly dragged into the war. There was but only a single representative in the Reichstag (the German congress) who voted against the mobilization in 1914. His name was Karl Liebknecht.
