Scharnhorst, Gerhard Johann David Von

Scharnhorst, Gerhard Johann David von (gĕr`härt yō`hän dä`vēt fən shärn`hôrst), 1755–1813, Prussian general. A Hanoverian army officer, military writer, and director of the war college, he entered Prussian service in 1801. He fought in the disastrous war (1806–7) against Napoleon I, headed the commission for reorganizing the army, and controlled the war ministry from 1807. He resigned his posts early in 1812, when Prussia was forced into an alliance with Napoleon I against Russia. When the French defeat in Russia enabled Prussia to break its alliance with France and join the anti-French coalition (1813), Scharnhorst served as chief of staff to the commander of the army, Field Marshal Blücher. Scharnhorst transformed the Prussian army from a mercenary force into a people's army. Since the introduction of general conscription was impossible under Napoleonic rule, Scharnhorst invented the Krümpersystem under which a larger number of men than that allowed to Prussia could be trained in the use of arms; citizens were called to service for a short training period to be then replaced by another group. Although the system was highly acclaimed, in reality only a small number exceeding the 42,000 man limit were trained. The abolition of physical punishment and the admission of nonnobles into the officers' corps further helped to popularize the army's cause. General conscription, however, was introduced formally only in 1814 after Scharnhorst's death. His military reforms were aided by August Neithhardt von Gneisenau and Karl vom und zum Stein.

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Scharnhorst, Gerhard Johann David von

(born Nov. 12, 1755, Bordenau, Hanover—died June 28, 1813, Prague, Bohemia) Prussian general. He joined the Hanoverian army in 1778 and served with distinction in Belgium against the French in the 1790s. An officer in the Prussian army from 1801, he taught at the war academy and became chief of staff in the war against Napoleon (1806). As head of the army reform commission (from 1807), he developed the modern general staff system and reorganized the Prussian army; with August von Gneisenau he devised the system of rapid military training and use of army reserves. After a forced retirement, he became chief of staff to Gebhard von Blücher (1813) and died of a wound received in the Battle of Lützen.

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Scharnhorst, Gerhard Johann David Von 

Born Nov. 12, 1755, in Bordenau, Hanover; died June 28, 1813, in Prague. Prussian military figure. General (1807).

The son of a sergeant major, Scharnhorst entered the Hanoverian Army in 1777 and served in the artillery. After joining the Prussian Army in 1801, he became head of the German War College in Berlin in 1802 and was knighted in 1804. In 1806, during the war with France, Scharnhorst served as chief of staff to the commander in chief, the duke of Braunschweig, and fought in battles at Auerstedt and Preussisch Eylau. In July 1807 he was appointed director of the war department, head of the general staff, and chairman of the commission for the reorganization of the army. In 1808, Scharnhorst headed the newly re-created war ministry, although he did not hold the rank of minister.

Scharnhorst and A. Gneisenau significantly improved the army’s organization and its officer training. They made progressive changes in tactics, shortened the length of mandatory service (as a result of which a trained reserve was created), and prepared the way for military conscription, which was introduced in 1813. Because Scharnhorst supported war against France, he was forced to retire in 1811 at the insistence of the French government.

Serving in the war of liberation of 1813 as chief of staff to General G. Blücher in the Silesian Army, Scharnhorst was critically wounded in fighting near Lützen in May 1813.

REFERENCE

Usczeck, H. J. Scharnhorst: Theoretiker, Reformer, Patriot: Sein Werk und seine Wirkung in seiner und für unsere Zeit [2nd ed. Berlin, 1974].