Five things you didnt know about carl von clausewitz

His most notable work, Vom Kriege "On War " , though unfinished at his death, is considered a seminal treatise on military strategy. Clausewitz was a realist in many different senses, including realpolitik , and while in some respects a romantic, he also drew heavily on the rationalist ideas of the European Enlightenment. Clausewitz's thinking is often described as Hegelian because of his dialectical method; but, although he was probably personally acquainted with Hegel, there remains debate about whether Clausewitz was influenced by him.

He stressed the dialectical interaction of diverse factors, noting how unexpected developments unfolding under the "fog of war" i. He saw history as a vital check on erudite abstractions that did not accord with experience. In contrast to the early work of Antoine-Henri Jomini , he argued that war could not be quantified or reduced to mapwork, geometry, and graphs.

Clausewitz had many aphorisms , of which the most famous is "War is the continuation of policy with other means.

Carl von clausewitz book

He spelled his own given name with a "C" in order to identify with the classical Western tradition; writers who use "Karl" are often seeking to emphasize their German rather than European identity. Clausewitz was born on 1 July in Burg bei Magdeburg in the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg as the fourth and youngest son of a family that made claims to a noble status which Carl accepted.

Clausewitz's family claimed descent from the Barons of Clausewitz in Upper Silesia, though scholars question the connection. His grandfather, the son of a Lutheran pastor, had been a professor of theology. Clausewitz's father, once a lieutenant in the army of Frederick the Great , King of Prussia , held a minor post in the Prussian internal-revenue service.