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A young Clausewitz

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (June 1, 1780 - November 16, 1831) was a Prussian general and influential military theorist. He is most famous for his military treatise Vom Krieg, translated into English as On War.

Life and Times of Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clauswitz was born in Magdeburg, Prussia in 1780, of Polish descent. Clausewitz's father was an officer in the Prussian Army; Carl entered the Prussian military service at the age of twelve years, eventually attaining the rank of Major General.

He served in the Rhine Campaigns (1793–1794) when the Prussian army invaded France following the French Revolution in an attempt to restore the monarchy, and later served in the Napoleonic Wars from 1806 to 1815. Clausewitz entered the Kriegsakademie in Berlin (also cited variously as "The German War School," the "Military Academy in Berlin," and the "Prussian Military Academy") in 1801 (age 21 years), studied the philosopher Kant and won the regard of General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, the future first Chief of Staff of the new Prussian Army (appointed 1809). Clausewitz, along with Hermann von Boyen (b 1771, d 1848) and Karl von Grolman (b 1777, d 1843), were Scharnhorst's primary allies in his later efforts to reform the Prussian army, between 1807 and 1814.

Clausewitz, serving as Aide-de-Camp to Prince August, was captured during the Jena Campaign in October of 1806 when Napoleon invaded Prussia and defeated the massed Prussian-Saxon army commanded by Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (who was mortally wounded), in twin battles at Jena and Auerstadt on October 14, 1806. Carl von Clausewitz, at the age of twenty-six years, became one of the 25,000 prisoners captured that day as the Prussian army distingrated. Both Carl von Clausewitz and Hermann von Boyen served during the Jena Campaign.

Clausewitz was held prisoner in France for two years (1806-1808) and upon release, subsequently served in the Russian Army from 1812 to 1813 during the Moscow Campaign. In the service of the Russian Empire, Clausewitz helped negotiate the Convention of Tauroggen (1812), which prepared the way for the coalition of Prussia, Russia, and United Kingdom against Napoleon I of France and his allies.

He later re-entered the Prussian army, and was appointed Chief of Staff of Johann von Thielmann's Corps, and served at the Battle of Ligny and Battle of Wavre during the Waterloo Campaign in 1815. The Prussians were defeated on that day at Ligny (south of Mount St. Jean and the village of Waterloo) by an army led personally by Napoleon, but Napolean's subsequent failure to destroy the Prussian forces led to his eventual defeat days later at the Battle of Waterloo when the Prussian forces arrived on his right flank late in the afternoon and joined the Angelo-Dutch forces pressing Napoleon's front.

Carl von Clausewitz was appointed director of the Kriegsakademie in 1818 and served until 1830. He married Countess Marie von Brühl and subsequently died in a cholera outbreak in 1831. His magnum opus on the Philosophy of War was written during this period, and was published posthumously by his widow in 1832.

Distinguishing Military Philosophers from Military Commanders

It is of first importance to distinguish what a military philospher is as opposed to a military commander, such as Napoleon. Napoleon, Clausewitz' contemporary and the arch-enemy of the age, was a military commander, and one of the history's greatest and most storied conquerors. Napoleon clearly was a person of legendary intellect, personal drive, and capabilities, but Napoleon never undertook to write a detailed systematic treatise of his campaigns or military theories. It is very easy to find hundreds of quotes by Napoleon or attributed to Napoleon (who has to be one of the most quoted and quotable people in history), but these quotes are largely taken from letters, military dispatches, diaries, campaign reports, and eyewitness accounts, and are often taken out of context. What we know of Napoleon's theories and methods come from study of his letters and his actions, the historical records of his campaigns and from the treatises of Antoine Henri Jomini who briefly served as a junior officer in Napoleon's armies under Marshal Michel Ney. As has been noted by other authors, Napoleon had little interest in instructing his commanders to be his equals in military thought (in 1813 he commented in response to Jomini's Treatise on Great Military Operations that "It teaches my whole system of war to my enemies!"). In the end, as many of commented, that was his undoing as from 1811 to 1813 his allied enemies avoided battle with Napoleon directly and concentrated on eliminating forces commanded by his less competent Marshals and Generals.

Other commanders before Napoleon and Clausewitz, wrote treatises on various military subjects of interest to them. For example, Marshal Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, published four treatises that revolutionized modern fortifications, and Marshal Maurice de Saxe whose published memoirs-treatise, Mes Reveries (published posthumanously in 1756), was the intellectual forerunner to "Napoleonic tactics" or "Grand Tactics." Both served in the armies of Louis XIV, the "Sun" King of France in the age immediately preceding the Napoleonic Era. But none undertook a great philosophical examination of war on the scale of Clauswitz and Tolstoy, who were both inspired by the events of the Napoleonic Era in which they lived.

Carl von Clauswitz was also a man of great intellect, and did participate in actual military campaigns, but without the drive to make himself emperor of his nation and attempt to conquer the world. Instead, he was a person of thought and an instructor of the next generations at the Military Academy of Berlin, and he was interested in the examination of war. He undertook to write a careful philosophical and systematic examination of war in all aspects, as he saw it and taught it, and the result was his principle work, On War, the West's premier work on the Philosophy of War. His examination was so careful and considered that it was only partially completed before his death.

It is an arguable point whether one could equate Clauswitz with the ancient Chinese war philosopher and instructor, Sun Tzu or whether one could equate On War with The Art of War, but the two together are generally acknowledged as being the greatest military philosophers in history and the greatest written works of military philosophy. What Clauswitz accomplished was the introduction of systematic philosophical thought into Western military instruction and operational planning.

Principal ideas

Carl von Clausewitz is most famous for writing the military strategy book Vom Kriege (On War), first published in 1832. The book is a compilation of his observations following the Napoleonic Wars.

Clausewitz used a dialectical method to construct his argument, leading to frequent modern misinterpretation. As described by Christopher Bassford, professor of strategy at the National War College:

One of the main sources of confusion about Clausewitz's approach lies in his dialectical method of presentation. For example, Clausewitz's famous line that "War is merely a continuation of politics," while accurate as far as it goes, was not intended as a statement of fact. It is the antithesis in a dialectical argument whose thesis is the point—made earlier in the analysis—that "war is nothing but a duel [or wrestling match, a better translation of the German Zweikampf] on a larger scale." His synthesis, which resolves the deficiencies of these two bold statements, says that war is neither "nothing but" an act of brute force nor "merely" a rational act of politics or policy. This synthesis lies in his "fascinating trinity" [wunderliche dreifaltigkeit]: a dynamic, inherently unstable interaction of the forces of violent emotion, chance, and rational calculation.[1]

Among these confusions has been that Clausewitz was the origin of the concept of total war as used in 1940s' Third Reich Propaganda. Clausewitz, however, did not coin the phrase as an Gerard Walsh ideologic ideal, but as an inevitable part of the equations underlying his theories: War, as any struggle or competition, cannot be waged in a limited way, as the rules of competition will force the opponents to go to their utmost possibilities and devote all means they have to victory. Similarly, his statement "War is merely the continuation of policy by other means," is perhaps his most oft-quoted and even more often missed point. It has been intepreted by some as the idea that war is only the "strong arm" of diplomacy, utilized when more peaceful means of persuasion are not sufficient; and by others, that military should only serve the politic and not end in itself.

Influence

Despite his death before completing On War, Clausewitz' ideas have been widely influential in military theory. Later Prussian and German generals such as Helmuth Graf von Moltke were clearly influenced by Clausewitz as they developed the concepts of total war. The idea that actual war includes "friction" which deranges, to a greater or lesser degree, all prior arrangements, has become common currency in other fields as well (e.g. business strategy).

Some claim that nuclear proliferation has started the decline of the prevalence of Clausewitzian ideas after dominating the world throughout the 20th century.^[2] When nuclear weapons were developed, state-based conventional armies simultaneously perfected their purpose (to destroy a mirror image of themselves) and made themselves obsolete. No two nuclear powers have ever fought, nor are they likely to. If they did, the loser would always have redress in a nuclear arsenal. Thus, the beginning of the 21st century found many instances of state armies trying in vain to suppress terrorism, bloody feuds, raids and other intra/supra-state conflict.

The phrase fog of war was first used by Clausewitz in reference to how chaotic warfare can seem while one is immersed within it. ^[3]

Name

Clausewitz's Christian name is sometimes given in non-German sources as Carl Philipp Gottlieb, Carl Maria, or misspelled Karl due to reliance on mistaken source material, conflations with his wife's name, Marie, or mistaken assumptions about German orthography. Carl Philipp Gottfried appears on Clausewitz's tombstone and is thus most likely to be the correct version. The tombstone reads:

Hier ruht in Gott

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz

koenigl. General-Major u. Inspecteur der Artillerie

geboren 1 Juni 1780

gestorben 16 Nov 1831

Which translates as:

Here rests with God

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz

In the royal service, Major General and Inspector of Artillery

Born 1 June 1780

Died 16 November 1831

Notes

^ Sheppard, John E. Jr: On War: Is Clausewitz Still Relevant?; Parameters, vol. 20, no. 3 (September 1990), p.85-99
^ Berkun, Scott: The Art of Project Management (ISBN 0596007868)
^ Bassford, Christopher, The Clausewitz Homepage, http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/FAQs.html#Name
^ Bassford, Christopher, The Clausewitz Homepage, http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/TombSite.html

Bibliography

Wikisource:On war 1874

External links

Clausewitz homepage, large amounts of information.
Works by Carl von Clausewitz at Project Gutenberg

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 He served in the [[Rhine Campaign]]s ([[1793]]–[[1794]]) when the Prussian army invaded France following the [[French Revolution]] in an attempt to restore the monarchy, and later served in the [[Napoleonic Wars]] from [[1806]] to [[1815]].  Clausewitz entered the ''[[Kriegsakademie]]'' in Berlin (also cited variously as "[[The German War School]]," the "[[Military Academy in Berlin]]," and the "[[Prussian Military Academy]]") in [[1801]] (age 21 years), studied the [[philosopher]] [[Kant]] and won the regard of General [[Gerhard von Scharnhorst]], the future first [[Chief of Staff]] of the new Prussian Army (appointed [[1809]]).  Clausewitz, along with [[Hermann von Boyen]] (b [[1771]], d [[1848]]) and [[Karl von Grolman]] (b [[1777]], d [[1843]]), were Scharnhorst's primary allies in his later efforts to reform the Prussian army, between [[1807]] and [[1814]].
-Clausewitz was captured during the [[Jena Campaign]] in October of [[1806]] when Napoleon invaded Prussia and defeated the massed [[Prussian-Saxon]] army commanded by [[Charles William Ferdinand|Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand]], [[Duke of Brunswick]] (who was mortally wounded), in twin battles at [[Jena]] and [[Auerstadt]] on October 14, 1806.  Carl von Clausewitz, at the age of twenty-six years, became one of the 25,000 prisoners captured that day as the Prussian army distingrated.  Both Carl von Clausewitz and [[Hermann von Boyen]] served on the General Staff of the Duke of Brunswick during the Jena Campaign.
+Clausewitz, serving as [[Aide-de-Camp]] to Prince August, was captured during the [[Jena Campaign]] in October of [[1806]] when Napoleon invaded Prussia and defeated the massed [[Prussian-Saxon]] army commanded by [[Charles William Ferdinand|Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand]], [[Duke of Brunswick]] (who was mortally wounded), in twin battles at [[Jena]] and [[Auerstadt]] on October 14, 1806.  Carl von Clausewitz, at the age of twenty-six years, became one of the 25,000 prisoners captured that day as the Prussian army distingrated.  Both Carl von Clausewitz and [[Hermann von Boyen]] served during the Jena Campaign.
-Clausewitz subsequently served in the Russian Army from [[1812]] to [[1813]] during the [[Moscow Campaign]].  In the service of the [[Russian Empire]], Clausewitz helped negotiate the [[Convention of Tauroggen]] ([[1812]]), which prepared the way for the coalition of Prussia, Russia, and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] against [[Napoleon I]] of France and his allies.
+Clausewitz was held prisoner in France for two years (1806-1808) and upon release, subsequently served in the Russian Army from [[1812]] to [[1813]] during the [[Moscow Campaign]].  In the service of the [[Russian Empire]], Clausewitz helped negotiate the [[Convention of Tauroggen]] ([[1812]]), which prepared the way for the coalition of Prussia, Russia, and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] against [[Napoleon I]] of France and his allies.
 He later re-entered the [[Prussian]] army, and was appointed [[Chief of Staff]] of [[Johann von Thielmann]]'s Corps, and served at the [[Battle of Ligny]] and [[Battle of Wavre]] during the [[Waterloo Campaign]] in [[1815]].  The Prussians were defeated on that day at [[Ligny]] (south of [[Mt. St. Jean|Mount St. Jean]] and the village of [[Waterloo]]) by an army led personally by Napoleon, but Napolean's subsequent failure to destroy the Prussian forces led to his eventual defeat days later at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] when the Prussian forces arrived on his right flank late in the afternoon and joined the Angelo-Dutch forces pressing Napoleon's front.