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This answer on Quora by Jim Wayne, B.A. Duke University (1967) doesn't answer my question, because it just raises these follow up questions.

So Zimmermann thought that lying would be useless, since the Americans had the proof.

  1. Why didn't Zimmermann deny the Americans' proof? Couldn't Zimmermann fib and allege that the Americans trumped up that "proof"?

Zimmermann was an old-school German member of the officer class, and really wasn’t ready for the world of secret diplomacy. Even the rawest British diplomat, or any German diplomat trained by Bismarck, would have said, “Telegram? What telegram?” with a surprised look and denied any knowledge of it even if a copy was put in his hands. But Bismarck was dead, and the diplomats he trained had been purged from the service by his enemies. Wilhelm II had been left with Holstein, who was a sneak; Bethmann Hollweg who was a dud: and Zimmermann, who was a fool. (Wilhelm, in the opinion of many, was all three, and a buffoon besides.)

  1. Is this para. just saying that Zimmermann was merely foolish and guileless? Is there other evidence that Zimmermann was a patsy? He studied law from 1884-87. He worked as a lawyer before receiving his doctorate of law. . According to all those jokes about lawyers, lawyers aren't known for being simple-minded or guileless. I don't know about you, but I've come across sleazy lawyers.
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    A related question. – Lucian Sep 01 '21 at 06:18
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    ...and honestly Tom's answer there is probably the one that's most applicable to this question. Kaiser Wilhelm was a very Trumpian figure, and as such mostly surrounded himself with advisors who wouldn't have a problem with his kind of anti-diplomatic approach to world affairs. Zimmerman was one of those advisors. – T.E.D. Sep 01 '21 at 14:50
  • @T.E.D. : Forgive me for engaging in a possible off topic here, but is there some deeply entrenched history of German denial-ism or negation-ism that I am not aware ? All sorts of conspiracy theorists asking why Nazis didn't deny the validity of various war crime accusations brought against them at Nuremberg, etc. Is there some genuine fire to substantiate all this smoke ? – Lucian Sep 01 '21 at 19:36
  • @Lucian - That Nazi denialist stuff is a different topic altogether, and yes best not conflated with what's going on here. – T.E.D. Sep 01 '21 at 20:17
  • @T.E.D. : That's what I used to think as well, before seeing all these WWII-unrelated questions, apparently confusing the German national anthem with a certain millennial US rap hit, for some mysterious reason, which is why I asked... – Lucian Sep 01 '21 at 21:25

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