Biography of Clausewitz

Author: William Ritter von Schramm
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-12-01
Features: The famous German military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780—1831) is not unfamiliar to a broad audience in China. His masterpiece On War has long been translated and published in China, gaining widespread recognition. The publication of the Chinese translation of A Life of Clausewitz will help Chinese readers further understand his life and career. Readers familiar with On War will also learn about Clausewitz's military thought and the formation process of the book from this biography. The book narrates the extensive historical background of Europe at the time and the foreign policies of the European countries in his era, particularly the complex struggles between reformers and conservatives in Prussia in terms of domestic politics, foreign affairs, and military matters. This holds academic reference value for the study of Chinese historiography and military academia in this regard. Here, we wish to provide a brief introduction to Clausewitz, his military thought, this book, and its author, which may be helpful to readers. The era in which Clausewitz lived was one of great transformation and upheaval in modern Europe. The young Clausewitz witnessed the progress of the French bourgeoisie revolution that began in 1789. Following the French Revolution came the Napoleonic Wars, which shook the entire continent. Napoleon's French army occupied most of the German territories, placing them under domination and subjugation. Although the French army, wherever it went, swept away feudal obstacles like a whirlwind, advancing inexorably to consolidate and develop the capitalist system, its policy of national oppression and plunder inevitably met with strong resistance from the occupied countries and their people, ultimately leading to a complete military defeat and demise. During this historical period, the scale of war and methods of combat underwent significant changes, giving rise to many new phenomena and issues in warfare that demanded understanding and theoretical clarification. Clausewitz's theories on war emerged in response to these objective circumstances and subjective needs, gradually forming a systematic framework and fulfilling this historical mission. Like most Germans of his time, Clausewitz, driven by patriotic fervor and unable to tolerate foreign oppression and plunder, actively participated in the liberation wars of 1813–1815. Based on his own war experiences, he meticulously examined various war phenomena, studied over one hundred battles of varying sizes in history, critically read contemporary military theory literature, systematically summarized war experiences, and established a unique and comprehensive military theory, writing the immortal work On War. This monumental work, published in 1832, has been reprinted twenty times and translated into various universal languages, spreading widely and being revered as a major classic of bourgeois military theory. Clausewitz himself is recognized as the founder of bourgeois military theory. Clausewitz's greatest contribution to military theory lies in his ability to propose some incisive insights with certain materialist elements. He correctly and profoundly elucidated the relationship between war and politics, famously stating, "War is nothing but the continuation of policy by other means (i.e., violence)." He also discussed the "small wars" of the masses and guerrilla warfare, emphasizing that "although people's armed forces and uprisings have shortcomings and imperfections in some aspects, they can play a significant role overall," and that "the will of the people is a crucial factor in national strength, military strength, and combat power." He also clearly pointed out that material and spiritual factors mutually influence each other, believing that "when we destroy the enemy's army, we do not merely eliminate their material strength but also destroy their spiritual strength." He similarly applied military dialectics to other important issues of war, proposing a series of important military principles, such as using military forces to the greatest extent possible, concentrating as many forces as possible on the main thrust direction, leveraging the suddenness, speed, and decisiveness of military actions, and effectively utilizing gains from battles, etc. While analyzing defense, he also noted that defense itself is a more powerful form of combat than offense, advocating for it to gain time so that, once an advantage is achieved, one can switch to offense. This biography vividly and concretely describes the formation of these military thoughts and principles. The revolutionary leaders of the proletariat have always attached great importance to Clausewitz's military thought and writings, positively evaluating the incisive insights and correct military principles he proposed. However, Clausewitz's understanding of war, overall, could not escape the confines of idealist thought. When asked, "What is war?" he defined it as "nothing but an enlarged struggle." His important theoretical proposition that "war is nothing but the continuation of policy by other means" aligns with the Marxist perspective on the relationship between war and politics in broad terms, but some of the connotations of the concepts involved differ. In Clausewitz's view, politics is the personified wisdom of the state, "the representative of all the interests of society," and the diplomatic relations between one government and another. He failed to recognize that politics is the concentrated expression of the economy, could not see that the basis of war is the conflict of economic interests, and that war is a manifestation of class struggle, thus unable to reveal the essence of war or clearly distinguish the class nature of just and unjust wars. A Life of Clausewitz was originally titled The Life and Work of Clausewitz. This book is rich in content, with reliable historical sources and a vivid, fluent writing style, considered an authoritative work on Clausewitz in the contemporary era. It presents readers with the roads of Clausewitz's life, offering a comprehensive and profound understanding of him. The book begins by introducing Clausewitz's background. He was born into a minor noble family, but the noble title of his family could not withstand scrutiny. In reality, his family belonged to the close to the common people. At the age of twelve, he joined the feudal army and spent nearly forty years in military service. Although his original education was limited, he was diligent in his studies throughout his life, reading extensively. He attended the philosophy lectures of the Kantian Kiesewetter, studied the works of the famous philosophers of the time, Fichte and Hegel, loved the literary works of the great poet Schiller, which reflected German national consciousness and were full of patriotic passion, and also read the works of French Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu. Despite being entrenched in the camp of the feudal ruling class of the Prussian Kingdom, in terms of his political stance and ideological tendencies, he had already stood with the emerging bourgeoisie. It was no coincidence that he later became one of the core figures of the Prussian military reform movement led by Gneisenau. His close friendships with the main members of the reform movement and their military reform activities and struggles are fully reflected in the book. This book also provides a rich historical background for a deep understanding of many of Clausewitz's original arguments in military theory, detailing in detail the Battle of Mainz in 1793, where Prussian forces resisted the French, the devastating defeat of Prussian forces against the French near Jena in 1806, the Russian war against Napoleon in 1812, and the series of liberation wars of 1813–1815. From his personal experiences, he realized that war arises under certain political circumstances and is caused by certain political motives, concluding that politics permeates the entire conduct of war and continuously influences it. From Prussia's military failures, he recognized that to liberate themselves from Napoleon's subjugation, they must revitalize the nation, making military reform imperative. Clausewitz traveled to countries such as France, Switzerland, Russia, and Poland, fighting east and west, studying foreign languages, and carefully observing the characteristics of different peoples and the customs of foreign lands. He not only recorded wars and historical events like a historian but also, like a philosopher, sought to elucidate the causes of these events. He personally participated in the Battle of Borodino and the Battle of Smolensk, where the Russian army decisively defeated Napoleon's forces, summarizing the experience of retreating into the enemy's interior, exhausting and depleting the enemy's living forces before ultimately defeating them, which became an important part of his active defense thinking. He also foresaw that Napoleon would inevitably be defeated and that Russia was unconquerable. Clausewitz yearned for the unification of Germany and opposed the feudal monarchy of divided rule. At the time, he proposed: "If there is any form of government that would not provoke opposition from the Germans, it is a republic."