Moltke and the German Wars

Resumen del libro

The Prussian army invented modern war processes, and Bucholz argues that Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891), was the first modern war planner. His accomplishment was to develop, bring to fruition and validate in the three wars of German unification against Denmark, Austria and France the war processes invented during his lifetime. These processes have been used in all modern 20th century wars because they respond to the size, space, time and technology mandates of industrial mass warfare.

Bucholz describes and analyzes these developments by using organizational, knowledge and learning theory, by looking closely at Moltke's life as a professional officer and by using original sources which include work on these wars by Theodor Fontane, the premier German novelist between Goethe and Thomas Mann.