February 13th, 2008
My friend Robert Messenger has written a brilliant piece about “The German Way of War.” Here’s a short excerpt:
The history of the Prussian and German state through 1945 is one in which war is the main outcome of national policy. It was the country’s principal export over two centuries. War was more than just “politics by other means”; it was, as the Comte de Mirabeau noted in 1788, “the national industry of Prussia.” Though he formulated it most neatly with his quip that: “Where some states possess an army, the Prussian army possesses a state.”
The operational excellence of the German and Prussian general staffs is the stuff of hundreds of excellent military histories. But this brilliant style of war, shaped by geographic and historical circumstance, masked an unhealthy strategic shortcoming: an inability to see national war as the last resort, sometimes even an unnecessary one.
But as wonderful as Robert’s piece is, I think he overlooks one crucial factor in Germany’s attraction to war: their early access to half-price barracks improvements. Its an advantage that practically begs for militarism.
Mind March 23, 2010 at 5:53 am
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