Hughes Daniel J. Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings

Presidio Press, 1995. — 288 p.Count Helmuth von Moltke is most famous for his accomplishments as a field commander during the Prussian army’s victories over the Austrians in 1866 and, with other German contingents, over the French in 1870–71. His celebrated victories have been the subject of numerous studies, including at least two of the best single-volume campaign studies ever written. Moltke’s other dimension has been relatively neglected since the Second World War. In addition to being one of the most successful field commanders of the nineteenth century, Moltke was a military intellectual of great importance to Prusso-German military theory. Termed “the ablest military mind since Napoleon” by David Chandler, Moltke laid much of the institutional and theoretical foundation of the modern German military system. Gunther Rothenberg argued that Moltke “may be considered the most incisive and important European military writer between the Napoleonic era and the First World War.” Moltke’s influence extended far beyond his own times. Although the army of Molkte’s lifetime was a royal Prussian rather than an imperial army, its power was at the core of Prussian dominance of the German Empire and its influence extended to the other armies (those of Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg) of Bismarck’s federal state. The subsequent armies of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany were truly “German.” The continuity in personnel, military thought (much of which was Moltke’s), and institutions from the Prussian to the German armies justifies the common reference to a single Prusso-German approach to warfare. This volume has the purpose of making Moltke’s thoughts on the art of war available in English to a wider audience.