Friedrich von Bernhardi

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Friedrich von Bernhardi, 1910 or before

Friedrich Adam Julius von Bernhardi , (born November 22, 1849 in Saint Petersburg , Russia , † December 11, 1930 in Kunnersdorf bei Hirschberg ) was a Prussian general of the cavalry and one of the most famous German military historians , who was also known internationally through his book Germany and the Next war on the eve of World War I attracted attention.

Life

origin

Bernhardi came from the old Estonian aristocracy and was born in Saint Petersburg, as the family did not move back to Germany until 1851. His father Theodor von Bernhardi was a respected Prussian historian and diplomat with good connections to the highest Prussian aristocracy and military circles, his paternal grandparents were Sophie Tieck , the sister of Ludwig Tieck , and August Ferdinand Bernhardi . The mother was a daughter of the Russian admiral Krusenstern . The family's estate was in Kunnersdorf in Silesia.

Early military career

Bernhardi chose the military career in the Prussian Army and became an officer in the 2nd Hessian Hussar Regiment No. 14 in Kassel . He served as second lieutenant in the war against France in 1870/71, was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class and had the honor of riding at the head of the victory parade through the triumphal arch in Paris.

After the war he was at the War Academy from 1875 to 1878 , from 1879 to 1881 in the topographical department of the Great General Staff, and from 1882 to 1886 he was assigned to Greece for topographical tasks . After his return, Bernhardi was used as first general staff officer in the 15th division . From February 21, 1891 to May 13, 1894 he served as a military attaché in Bern . Then he was appointed commander of the 1st Badischer Leib-Dragoons Regiment No. 20 . From 1898 to 1901 he headed the War History Department in the Great General Staff and was involved in drawing up the Schlieffen Plan , d. H. in planning an attack on France, deliberately disregarding Belgium's neutrality along the supposedly weakest point by "crescent-shaped" advance along the coast and then south. The model for Bernhardi was the crooked order of battle of Frederick the Great near Leuthen . From April 18, 1901, he was in command of the 31st Cavalry Brigade in Strasbourg ; From April 24, 1904 he commanded the 7th Division in Magdeburg and from December 12, 1907 the VII Army Corps in Münster. On August 11, 1909, he said goodbye to become a writer and traveled around the world (Egypt, East Asia, USA) in 1911/12.

Military literacy

From 1892, like his father Theodor von Bernhardi, he was previously involved in the so-called "strategy dispute" among German military historians, which had its origins in the theses of Hans Delbrück on the classification of the strategy of Frederick the Great. Delbrück saw it as a "strategy of exhaustion" arrested at the time, while his critics saw a "strategy of prostration" in anticipation of Napoleon. At that time, the dispute was at times very polemical, with Friedrich von Bernhardi being a spokesman against Delbrück, although he took a position that approximated Delbrück compared to his predecessors.

In his book Vom heute Kriege from 1912 (the title is based on Clausewitz's main work) he advocates strategic flexibility and approaches alternative to conventional doctrines and also criticizes Alfred von Schlieffen's view of the war to follow , without mentioning them by name would degrade to mere craft. While Schlieffen advocated an encircling attack à la Cannae, Bernhardi emphasized that, depending on the circumstances, breakthrough strategies also offer a chance of success, citing the battle of Gravelotte as an example , despite the high losses of the Prussian guards .

In 1912 he published his book Germany and the Next War , which was published in its 6th edition in 1913 and was translated into English and French soon after it was published (in 1914 the 9th edition in the United Kingdom). However, despite the large number of editions, the total number of copies sold in Germany until 1914 was only 7,000 copies. The book was supported by the Pan-German Association . As he makes clear in the foreword, Bernhardi was under the impression of the Second Moroccan Crisis (panther leap to Agadir) of 1911, which many saw as a humiliation of the empire. Bernhardi saw the future of Germany in the alternatives world power or decline, as the title of the fifth chapter reads. For the path to world power, he sees three points as necessary: ​​1. The overthrow of France, 2. The establishment of a Central European confederation under German leadership, 3. The acquisition of new colonies. In order to achieve these goals, a war should also be accepted. As he explains in the introduction, however, the fact that the Germans have recently become a peace-loving people, which is why he first explains the necessary role of war in the chapter entitled The Right to War , and cites economic and social Darwinist arguments, contradicts this.

The book and the fact that he had belonged to the General Staff (he had been dismissed from the General Staff by Schlieffen in 1901) served the French and English during World War I as evidence of German intentions to aggression behind the outbreak of the war, although his views did not even have a majority on the General Staff were. According to the historian Fritz Fischer , who sees himself in disagreement with the historical opinion prevailing at the time, however, with his book he met "with great precision the intentions of official Germany".

Role in the First World War

With the outbreak of the First World War, Bernhardi was reactivated and appointed deputy commanding general of the V Army Corps . On September 4, 1915, he was appointed commander of the 49th Reserve Division on the front in Galicia . On June 4, 1916, he became the leader of an army group named after him in the central section of the Eastern Front . As part of Army Group Linsingen , he played a key role in the defense against the Brusilov offensive in the summer of 1916. For the stabilization of the front line in the Pinsk swamps, which lasted until the end of the war, he received the order Pour le Mérite on August 20, 1916 . This was followed on October 1, 1916, the appointment as commanding general of the General Command, for example V. 55 , which he was to lead beyond the end of the war.

Relocated to the Western Front at the beginning of 1918 , General Command 55 was involved in the “ Georgette Offensive ” in Flanders during the 1918 spring offensive . Used in the center of the 6th Army , the General Command was involved in the Battle of Armentières, along with the XIX. Army Corps under General von Carlowitz succeeded in breaking through the front on April 10 and taking Estaires . On May 15, 1918, Bernhardi had also received the oak leaves for the order Pour le Mérite. His mobilization provision was lifted on November 23, 1918 and Bernhardi was retired.

Bernhardi remained active as a writer even after the First World War and died in December 1930 at his family home near Kunnersdorf.

Awards

Works

  • Videant consules: nequid res publica detrimenti capiat. Published by Theodor Kay, Kassel 1890 (published anonymously).
  • Delbrück, Friedrich the Great and Clausewitz. Highlights on the teachings of Prof. Dr. Delbrück on strategy. Leist, Berlin 1892.
  • Our cavalry in the next war. Considerations on their use, organization and training. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1899.
  • Germany and the next war. Cotta, Stuttgart 1912.
  • From today's war.
Volume 1: Foundations and elements of today's war.
Volume 2: Combat and Warfare. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin, 1912.
  • The army in: Philipp Zorn , Herbert von Berger (editor): Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Ed. By Siegfried Körte, Friedrich Wilhelm von Loebell and others 3 volumes. R. Hobbing, Berlin 1914.
  • The training to become a cavalry leader. Skopnik, Berlin-Zehlendorf 1914.
  • (Ed.): How heroes die. Experiences on the Eastern Front August / September 1915. By Mrs. CL Hirzel, Leipzig 1917.
  • A world tour 1911-1912 and the collapse of Germany. Impressions and reflections from the years 1911-1914 with an afterword from 1919. Hirzel, Leipzig 1919.
  • From the war of the future. After the experiences of the world war. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1920.
  • Memories from my life. According to simultaneous records and in the light of memory. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1927.
  • Germany's hero struggle 1914-1918. JF Lehmann, Munich 1922.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Friedrich von Bernhardi  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Tuchman: August 1914. Chapter 1
  2. ↑ Delbrück goes into this in his History of the Art of War , Volume 4
  3. ↑ Military History Research Office (Ed.) German Military History 1648-1939. Volume 6, Part IX, Volker Regling: Basics of land warfare in the time of absolutism and in the 19th century. Pawlak, 1983, pp. 138f.
  4. ↑ Schlieffen The War in the Present. Deutsche Revue 1909, also in Gesammelte Werke, 1913.
  5. ↑ Military History Research Office (Ed.) German Military History 1648-1939. Volume 6, Heinz Ludger Borgert: Basics of land warfare from Schlieffen to Guderian. Pawlak, 1983, p. 465ff.
  6. ↑ Michael Balfour: The Emperor. Propylaea 1964, p. 364.
  7. ↑ Fischer: The grip on world power. Droste Verlag 1967, p. 31.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1909, p. 72.
  9. ↑ "Make sure, consuls, that the state is not harmed", old Roman authorization formula that gave consuls dictatorial powers in state crises
personal data
SURNAME Bernhardi, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhardi, Friedrich Adam Julius from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the cavalry and military historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1930
Place of death Kunnersdorf near Hirschberg