History of the German General Staff, 1657-1945. [Hardcover]

walter goerlitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 1975 | ISBN-10: 0837180929 | ISBN-13: 978-0837180922

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Acknowledged to be the standard work on its subject.”–New Yorker

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 508 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint (August 11, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837180929
• ISBN-13: 978-0837180922
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,174,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The German General Staff, August 5, 2000

By 

j. copper (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of the German General Staff, 1657-1945. (Hardcover)

"The History of the German General Staff" by Walter Goerlitz is a concise and well written account of that greatest of war planning and making bodies, the Prussian and German General Staff.

Goerlitz begins his history in the days of Federick the Great, tracing the origins of the staff to the supply officers and royal aides attached to the royal person. Goerlitz continues through the 1700's, tracing the rivalries between royal offices tasked to supply and direct the royal army.

Goerlitz gives excellent attention to the creators of the modern General Staff, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and the philosopher of war, von Clauswitz. He describes the early efforts at reform, and the eventual reaction, culminating in the revolution of '48.

Next, the author writes on the Age of Bismarck, and the wars of unification. Von Moltke, von Waldersee, and the sucession to the German throne are all put together to describe the byzantine political world of Imperial Germany.

World War I and Hindenburg and Ludendorff come next. The author describes the roles the two generals played in the war, as they became virtual dictators of Germany. Also described is the unique relationship between the figurehead Hindenburg and unstable Ludendorff. Goerlitz talks about the war and its effects on the Army. This leads to the formation of the Republic and the creation of the new 100,000 man army under von Seeckt. Then come the Nazis and the General Staff's war to survive in the "gangster" world of Hitler. Finally, World War II and the destruction of the General Staff.

Goerlitz concludes that the German General Staff, having learned the lethality of a two front war in World War I, was not responsible for World War II.

Goerlitz's history is well written and well documented. The text is replete with anecdotes and period facts that add extra weight to the military history itself. I highly recommend this book to any student of German, military, or world history.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Great German General Staff, June 11, 2001

By 

Kevin F. Kiley - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of the German General Staff, 1657-1945. (Hardcover)

This is the standard study of the German General Staff and it has stood the test of time. It is a solid history of this famous military organization, that has been made the bugaboo of much of Germany's twentieth century misdeeds, but was (is), in fact, just another army staff, albeit probably better trained both individually and as a group.

This work takes the reader from the beginnings in the seventeenth century through its rudimntary development and use under Frederick the Great, to its renovation and use after the reform of the Prussian army after Jena, and to its final form under the elder Moltke until its demise, after it sold its soul to Hitler by way of the infamous 'Hitler oath', at the end of World War II.

The story is fascinating, is great history, and the book is a good read. It is easy to follow, the author's references are impeccable, and it is a thorough history of the general staff. The weaknesses, though, tend to hurt to overall presentation and are at the beginning of the book. The early, formative beginnings of the staff are actually glossed over, and there is little substantive information given for this period. The critical portion of the development of the general staff, in my opinion, during the Napoleonic period, both before and after Jena debacle in 1806, are done too quickly, and the origins and influences for the staff, particularly the French ones used by Scharnhorst from 1800 onwards, are not chronicled in any detail, and there is only one brief reference to Napoleon's very capable chief of staff, Berthier, in the book. Some of his early staff work and innovations were liberally borrowed by the Prussians, and this important influence by the first great chief of staff in modern military history is unfortunately overlooked.

However, this is an important work and is highly recommended.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CAPTURES ALL THE 'IRON CROSS' AND RED & GREEN OF THE STAFF., October 4, 2008

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: History Of The German General Staff, 1657-1945 (Paperback)

Since reading military history in the early 1960s I've heard of this book, remember when it was a selection in various book clubs. Yet I never ordered a copy, not did I seek to find one. So, perusing the books at our local Goodwill recently found this unlikely book among the selections for a very, very low price.

I've come to feel that if one reads on German military history, this book is somewhat of a mandatory book for the home library shelves. My hardcover copy is a 17th printing by Frederick A. Praeger Publishers originally published in 1953, with reprints up through the middle 1960s. The dust jacket is black with a large iron cross on the spine. I suspect my copy to be a book club edition as its binding is in black and gold, while the publisher's I believe were bound in red and green. Truly resembling the colors of the generals of the German General Staff.

The book opens with 8 pages of paintings or pictures of the various members of the German General Staff from the beginning down through WWII. The various chapters are as follows:

The Beginnings
The Fathers: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
The Philosopher of War: age of Clausewitz
The Man of Silence: Helmut Von Moltke
Preventive War or Coup D'tat: Waldersee
The Master Plan: Schlieffen
War Without Generals: The Younger Von Moltke and Falkenhayn, 1906-16
The Silent Dictatorship: Hindenburg and Ludendorff, 1916-18
The Sphinx: Seeckt and the 'Truppennamt'
The Kingmaker: Kurt Von Schleicher-Hammerstein-Equord
The Uneasy Partnership: Ludwig Von Beck-Reichnau
The Struggle Against War: Fritsch-Blomberg-Brauchitsch
Hitler Triumphant
The Beginning of Captivity
The Revolt
Gotterdammerung
Index

Overall the book contains 508 pages easy to digest, interesting, and informing information; my copy was translated by Brian Battershaw and I feel he did a very credible job. Though I have much Germanic background concerning ancestors who left Germany after the 1848 revolutions only to arrive here just in time for most to perish in our Civil War, I was born much too late to have German as a spoken language in the home, a fact as I grow older, I much regret.

From my reading of this book I find it to be a valuable addition to my military library and would give it a positive rating for anyone involved with the military history of Germany from 1657 down through 1945. Low priced copies can yet be obtained from Amazon dealers.

Semper Fi.