Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (German: [ˈhɛlmuːt fɔn ˈmɔltkə]; 26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) was a Prussian field marshal.[1] The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field and one of the finest military minds of his generation. He commanded troops in Europe and the Middle East, in the Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War. He is described as embodying "Prussian military organization and tactical genius".[2] He was fascinated with railways and pioneered their military use.[3][4] He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke), who commanded the German army at the outbreak of the First World War. He is notably the earliest-born human to have been audio-recorded, being born in the last year of the 18th century (1800). He made 4 recordings, 2 of which are preserved to this day, that were recorded in October 1889.
Helmuth von Moltkethe Elder
Position established
Himself (as Chief of the German General Staff)
26 October 1800
Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Holy Roman Empire
24 April 1891 (aged 90)
Berlin, Prussia, German Empire
Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (nephew)
_1851.PNG){kind=small}
Moltke the Elder (Moltke der Ältere)
The Great Taciturn (Der große Schweiger)
1819–88
Second lieutenant (Danish Army)
Generalfeldmarschall (German Army)
see below
Early life[edit]
Moltke was born in Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, son of the German Generalleutnant in Danish service, Friedrich Philipp Victor von Moltke (1768–1845). In 1805, his father settled in Holstein, but about the same time was left impoverished when the French burned his country house and plundered his townhouse in Lübeck, where his wife and children were during the War of the Fourth Coalition of 1806–1807. At nine he was sent as a boarder to Hohenfelde in Holstein, and at age twelve went to the cadet school at Copenhagen, being destined for the Danish army and court. In 1818 he became a page to the king of Denmark and a second lieutenant in Oldenburg's Infantry Regiment.[5] At twenty-one, Moltke resolved to enter the Prussian service, despite the loss of seniority. In 1822 he became a second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry Regiment stationed at Frankfurt an der Oder. At twenty-three he was allowed to enter the general war school (later called the Prussian Military Academy), where he studied the full three years, graduating in 1826.[6]
Personal life[edit]
In April 1842, aged 41, Moltke married his 16-year-old step-niece Bertha Maria Wilhelmine Burt, known as Marie. She was the daughter of John Heyliger Burt, a member of a wealthy slave-owning planter family in the British West Indies. Her father married Moltke's sister Auguste after the death of his first wife, who was also a German.[31] They remained married until Marie's death on 24 December 1868, although they had no children. He was devoted to his wife, and long after her death still daily visited the chapel where she and her sister were buried to meditate.[32][33]
Wagner, Arthur Lockwood (1899). The Campaign of Königgrätz: A Study of the Austro-Prussian Conflict in the Light of the American Civil War.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the .
