Hi, this thread may be of some use to you:

What did Germany hope to gain from entry into WWI?

tl;dr:

1. All fortifications from Dunkirk to Boulogne will be destroyed.

2. The ore rich area of Briey will be annexed outright. Coastal strips in the North would also fall under German control.

3. War debts shall be imposed on France so large that she is incapable of rearming herself for 15-20 years

4. The French will cease all trade with Great Britain and will be reliant on the Germans economically.

5. Either the outright annexation of Belgium or the seizure of lands up to Antwerp and making the rest a "vassal state"

6. Luxemburg integrated into the empire as a "Germanic State" (think how Prussia, Bavaria, Wurttemburg, and Saxony were quasi-independent states in the Empire)

7. The creation of a Central European economic sphere (think EU almost) of the German client states in the West and the newly formed states created in the East from a supposed Russian defeat as well. All client/buffer states of Germany, of course. Translated it states " including France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Poland and tolls. Italy, Sweden and Norway. This association will not have no common constitutional supreme superficial equality of its members, but actually under German leadership, must the economic dominance over Central Europe stabilize. "

8. The annexation of all Central African colonies controlled by Belgium and France -- basically creating a continuous state across the continent.

I feel late to the party. /u/Elos_ gives a great answer and provides a link for you to go to.

I am going to hop in for some more detail. I concur that Fritz Fischer is probably the best way to go really flush out German War Aims. It is a long and arduous read for those who aren't accustomed to academic reading. I think that the historical community for the most part accepts Fischer as probably one of if not the most important German Historian of the 20th Century.

As far as my own writing and thoughts I want to discuss the concept of "Mitteleuropa" and the criticisms of Fischer against German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg. All of which that follows that is quoted is from my own work. It was hastily written over a 10 hour period with a due date looming the following morning. The writing could have been better. I hope my writing assists you and sheds new light on your question.

During the early stages of the German advance in the First World War the general public believed in the notion that Germany fought a purely defensive war, this opinion soon faded. Controversy eventually erupted over Germany’s real agenda in regards to war aims and raised the geopolitical question of Belgium and Poland. Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg in an effort to suppress this controversy put in motion a moratorium on public discussion of war aims. The war aims set forth by the German government aimed at establishing German hegemony specifically in Mitteleuropa (Central Europe).

The central purpose of Mitteleuropa promised to eliminate, once and for all, the problem of German access to foreign markets and resources. This ideology also pushed Hohenzollern and Habsburg dominance where their satellite countries spanned across Europe which relied on either political or economic dependence. It provided German hegemony over Europe and the platform to challenge not only Great Britain, but also the United States. As Germany progressed through the war this projected ideology and aggression hurt its relationship with the United States resulting in war. When Germany surrenders to the allies the ideals of Mitteleuropa dissipate along with all of Germany’s war aims. Article 231 within the Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany accepted responsibility for the war imposed “by the aggression of Germany and her allies.” This in turn provokes Historians to gather evidence to refute German responsibility for starting the war. One such historian, Professor Fritz Fischer, then a professor at the University of Hamburg in 1961 published, Germany’s Aims in the First World War which states the opposite: That Germany is responsible for starting the war.

Flip side of Fischer and his book:

His main opponent Professor Gerhard Ritter among other critics noted that Fischer only dealt exclusively with German war aims and worked exclusively on German documents. Professor Ritter in his works talked about the Schlieffen plan and how it had irrevocable political consequences with which their authors had not been very much concerned and which their successors, and especially those responsible for foreign relations.

My own summary of the book condensed heavily. I don't mind if people disagree with my analysis of Fischer. At this particular time when I was writing the paper I had only read about a third of the volume. Take that with a grain of salt I suppose.

The book makes use of carefully analyzed documents to show demonstrate that Germany was ready to resort to war in order to establish herself as a Weltmacht. Fischer's original intention behind the book wanted to show Germany’s war plans and aims were a result of the social and economic situation developing in Germany. In 1914 Fischer argues that even if Germany did not want war in 1914 they were at any rate prepared to face the risk associated with war. Fischer believed this is because Germany already had intentions for establishing a new order in Germany specifically the notion of Mitteleuropa and territorial annexations. In later chapters Fischer discussed the development of German war aims and how the circumstances for starting war changed.

Sources and additional books for you to check out:

Chickering, Roger. Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Koch, H.W. The Origins of the First World War: Great Power Rivalry and German War Aims. London: Macmillan Education LTD, 1984.

Kramer, Alan. Dynamic of Destruction. Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Kramer was a Professor of mine at Trinity College, Dublin. I think his book is pretty good for the most part and adds some nice analysis. He never really plugged his book which was nice so I'll recommend it.

Link to the Fischer book: http://www.amazon.com/Germanys-Aims-First-World-War/dp/0393097986