Germany And The Next War

by Friedrich Von Bernhardi

Overview

"Germany and the Next War" was written by Friedrich Von Bernhardi, a Prussian soldier and military theorist. The book outlines Bernhardi's views on why conflict is necessary for and unavoidable in order for Germany to continue to aspire to global supremacy. In the book, Bernhardi argues that conflict is a necessary and natural part of human evolution and that Germany has to struggle to keep her place in the international arena. In addition, he argues that Germany must constantly improve its military technology and tactics since it depends on them for its continued success. Military and political elites studied and discussed Bernhardi's book "Germany and the Next War" in great detail during the years leading up to World War I, which was greatly influenced by his beliefs. The book is often cited as an example of the aggressive and expansionist mentality that sparked the outbreak of World War I.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789358711257
Publisher:	Double 9 Books
Publication date:	05/01/2023
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Friedrich von Bernhardi, a Prussian soldier, military theorist, and author, was born in Estonia in 1849. He attended the Berlin Military Academy for his studies and participated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 as a soldier for Germany. Later on, in Germany and East Africa, he had a variety of military and executive jobs. His most well-known book, "Germany and the Next War," which was released in 1911 and quickly gained popularity in Germany, promoted the idea that conflict was a necessary and natural element of human development. The book argues that in order to maintain its position in the globe, Germany had every right and need to go to war. This book had a big influence on how militaristic and expansionist Germany was in the years before World War I. Bernhardi participated in the occupation of Belgium and France as a general in the German army during World War I. He was temporarily detained by the Allies for his role after the war, but he was finally freed in 1920. Other publications on military tactics and strategy by Bernhardi include "Cavalry in War and Peace" and "How to Become a War Lord." After World War I, he lived in exile in Switzerland, where he died in 1930.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER I THE RIGHT TO MAKE WAR Since 1795, when Immanuel Kant published in his old age his treatise on "Perpetual Peace," many have considered it an established fact that war is the destruction of all good and the origin of all evil. In spite of all that history teaches, no conviction is felt that the struggle between nations is inevitable, and the growth of civilization is credited with a power to which war must yield. But, undisturbed by such human theories and the change of times, war has again and again marched from country to country with the clash of arms, and has proved its destructive as well as creative and purifying power. It has not succeeded in teaching mankind what its real nature is. Long periods of war, far from convincing men of the necessity of war, have, on the contrary, always revived the wish to exclude war, where possible, from the political intercourse of nations. This wish and this hope are widely disseminated even to-day. The maintenance of peace is lauded as the only goal at which statesmanship should aim. This unqualified desire for peace has obtained in our days a quite peculiar power over men's spirits. This aspiration finds its public expression in peace leagues and peace congresses; the Press of every country and of every party opens its columns to it. The current in this direction is, indeed, so strong that the majority of Governments professoutwardly, at any ratethat the necessity of maintaining peace is the real aim of their policy; while when a war breaks out the aggressor is universally stigmatized, and all Governments exert themselves, partly in reality, partly in pretence, to extinguish the conflagration. Pacific ideals, to be sure, are seldomthe real motive of their action. They usually employ the need of peace as a cloak under w...