Alfred von Schlieffen
Prussian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff (1833-1913) · Died at 79
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Something wrong?A Prussian field marshal whose name became shorthand for catastrophic planning: the blueprint he left behind - a two-front war strategy banking on speed and encirclement - helped set the opening moves of World War I in motion.
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In their own words 6
, A man is born, and not made, a strategist.
The principles of strategy remain unchanged. The enemy's front is not the objective.
When you march into France, let the last man on the right brush the Channel with his sleeve.
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Alfred von Schlieffen was born on 28 February 1833 into the Prussian officer class and rose through the ranks to field marshal. He served as chief of the Imperial German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, spending those years wrestling with Germany's geographic nightmare: hostile powers on two borders. Between 1905 and 1906 he codified his answer in what was then called Aufmarsch I, a deployment plan and operational guide for a decisive initial offensive against France and Russia simultaneously. The logic was speed: knock France out fast through encirclement, then wheel east before the Russian Empire could fully mobilize. He retired in 1906; the plan stayed in the drawer. Schlieffen died on 4 January 1913, seven months before the war that would test his geometry.
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