Was the german nation in 1914 in a much better situation, in relation to its peers, than the german nation in 1939/1940, also in relation to its peers?
Im finding the german effort during WW1 to be much more impressive than the german effort in ww2. This includes the disparity in their industrial potential in relation to the other nations. One example (not to be generalized as we know the situation of the russian empire, but nonetheless), the Russian Empire was outclassed by the German Empire in the production of everything, pretty much enormously, while during ww2 the Soviet Union outproduced the germans in most areas.
Basically, the whole course of ww2 falls upon one thing: the disastrous fall of france which was the result of strategic blunders, and not of any alarming disparity in the war effort between france and germany. In this way, the fall of france was anything but a foregone conclusion. And if a similar scenario happened in 1914, the german empire would've taken way more advantage of it than nazi germany. The facts that after a miracle such as the fall of france, the UK and the british empire as a whole was still unassailable, and that Germany had to rush to invade the soviet union, as every year that passed its situation worsened in comparison to the UK and the Soviet Union, should speak wonders.