Gerhard von Scharnhorst

Gerhard Johann David Graf von Scharnhorst
(12.11.1755 - 28.6.1813)
place of birth: Bordenau, Provinz Hannover

Prussian general and War Minister who first served in the Hannoverian Army as an artillery officer. Fought alongside the Duke of York in the Netherlands at Hondshoote and Menin (1793). Commissioned in 1801 as a lieutenant colonel in the Prussian Army, he taught at the Berlin War Academy (one of his students was Clausewitz). Scharnhorst was wounded at Auerstadt (1806) where he was serving as the Duke of Brunswick's chief of staff, and then he was captured one month later alongside Field Marshal von Blücher at Ratkau.

General von Scharnhorst was appointed Prussian Minister of War and Chief of General Staff in 1808, and immediately he began to rebuild the army with Gneisenau's help. Napoleon's edict against foreigners serving in the Prussian Army (1810) forced him into retirement, but he was recalled in 1812 as von Blücher's chief of staff. He fought and was wounded at Lützen in 1813, succumbing one month later to his wounds. Von Scharnhorst's writings and reforms infused the Prussian Army with a sense of national pride, and his work greatly influenced subsequent military development.