Friedrich von Bernhardi

Born in 1849 in the Russian Empire, he built his career in the Prussian Army and fought in the Franco-Prussian War. He later rose to senior command, including leadership of the Seventh Army Corps, and also served as a corps commander during World War I.

He is best remembered as a military historian and public writer rather than simply as a soldier. His book Germany and the Next War, published in 1911, became a bestseller and argued that war could serve national destiny and expansion; later readers often treated it as a striking example of the aggressive militarism associated with prewar Germany.

For modern readers, his importance lies less in literary style than in what his work reveals about the era. Bernhardi’s writing helps illuminate the ideas, anxieties, and ambitions circulating in Europe just before the First World War.