Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz was born in 1780 in Burg, near Magdeburg, in Prussia. He joined the Prussian army at the age of twelve and first saw combat against the French in 1793. He studied at the military school in Berlin under Gerhard von Scharnhorst, who became his mentor, and was captured by the French after the Prussian defeat at Jena in 1806. With Scharnhorst and others he worked to reform the Prussian army. When Prussia allied with Napoleon in 1812, Clausewitz joined the Russian army and helped negotiate the Convention of Tauroggen, which took Prussian troops out of the French alliance. He served in the campaigns of 1813–1815, including the Waterloo campaign. From 1818 he directed the war college in Berlin and wrote his great study On War, which argues that war is a continuation of politics by other means and stresses chance, friction and the 'fog' of uncertainty. He died of cholera in Breslau in 1831, and his wife, Marie, published On War after his death.

Carl von Clausewitz is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Raised in a Lutheran Protestant family; his personal beliefs are not well documented. Source: Wikipedia