Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz
(01.07.1780 - 16.11.1831)
place of birth:  Burg, Provinz Sachsen  (Prussian Saxony)
Königreich Preußen:  Generalmajor

                            

Prussian general and one of the most profound military theorists ever. He wrote the definitive work on military strategy - "On War" (Vom Kriege). He entered the Prussian Army in 1792 and first saw action in the Rhineland (1793-94). In 1801 Clausewitz was accepted as one of the first class at Scharnhorst's new military school in Berlin. 

The young Clausewitz fought at Auerstädt and was captured in 1806. After his release, he helped Scharnhorst and Gneisenau reorganize the army (1807-11) and was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm's military instructor. He also penned "Principles of War" during that time. He resigned his commission in 1811 to protest Prussia's role as a French puppet and fought with the Russian's against Napoleon's invasion. He then persuaded General Yorck to agree to the Convention of Tauroggen and to desert the French Army with his entire corps. 

Carl von Clausewitz returned to the Prussian Army in 1815 as chief of staff of Thielmann's III. Army Corps, attached to Field Marshal von Blücher's army. He saw action at Ligny and Wavre. In 1819, he began to write Vom Kriege (On War), a manuscript which included the dictum that "war is the continuation of politics by other means." In 1830, serving as chief of staff to the Prussian Corps of Observation during the Polish Revolution, he was exposed to cholera and died shortly upon returning to Breslau in 1831.