Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) was a Prussian officer and military theorist, author of the unfinished treatise On War. Born near Magdeburg, he joined the army at twelve and entered the Berlin War Academy in 1801. Captured at Jena-Auerstedt in 1806 and held until 1808, he returned to help Scharnhorst reform the army.

Unwilling to support Napoleon's war on Russia, in 1812 he entered Russian service, fought at Borodino and helped arrange the Convention of Tauroggen; branded a deserter, he was taken back only in 1814. In 1815 his outnumbered corps delayed Waterloo-bound reinforcements at Wavre.

From 1818 he directed the Berlin War Academy, though he was not allowed to teach. In 1831, when Gneisenau died of cholera on the Polish border, he took over and died of the same disease. His widow Marie published it from 1832; its best-known line calls war the continuation of policy by other means.