Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Prussian military leader

• Born: December 16, 1742
• Birthplace: Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin (now in Germany)
• Died: September 12, 1819
• Place of death: Krieblowitz, Silesia, Prussia (now Katy Wrocławskie, Poland)

As a military commander, Blücher served the cause of Prussia well throughout his life, especially during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. He was not a great military strategist, but his undisputed ability as a leader of men and his strong support for military reforms following a defeat at Jena in 1806 enabled Prussia to play a major role in the final victory over France, thereby contributing to Prussia’s subsequent rise as a major power.

Early Life

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (BLEW-ker) was born the son of a former cavalry officer who had served in the armies of the duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Landgraf of Hesse-Cassell. The family was of old but poor East Elbian nobility and, at the time of Blücher’s birth, was nearly penniless. The young Blücher entered Swedish military service at the age of fifteen. He had been sent to live with his married sister on the island of Rügen, then a part of Sweden.

Early during the Seven Years’ War, Blücher joined a Swedish regiment of hussars as a cadet. Cavalry service was a well-established tradition in the family. In 1760, Blücher was captured by the Prussians, and, when he was offered a commission in the Prussian army, he joined the regiment that had captured him, after obtaining a formal release from Swedish service. Such shifts of allegiance were neither uncommon nor dishonorable prior to the age of nationalism.

In 1773, when Blücher was passed over for promotion in favor of a person of higher nobility, he resigned his commission. He was in part passed over because of his so-called wild life, primarily gambling, drinking, and reckless displays of horsemanship. For Blücher, gambling was a substitute for the excitement of war, and he frequently compared the skills of gambling to the skills of war. For the next fifteen years, Blücher pursued the life of a noble landlord, first in Prussian Poland and then on his own estate in Pomerania. He married and became the father of five children by his first wife. After her death, he married a second time. At heart, however, he continued to long for the life of a soldier and repeatedly requested reinstatement.

Life’s Work

Blücher’s efforts to return to military life finally succeeded in 1787, when King Frederick William II commissioned him as a major in his old regiment. In 1790, Blücher was promoted to colonel of his regiment. He saw action after the Battle of Valmy (September, 1792) and distinguished himself repeatedly during the 1793 and 1794 campaigns against revolutionary France. In 1795, he was promoted to major general (one star), and in 1801, to lieutenant general (two stars).

During the period of peace, Blücher, though primarily a soldier, served successfully as administrator of Münster, which had been annexed to Prussia in 1802. In this capacity, he worked together with Freiherr vom Stein, and the two developed respect for each other. Blücher was among those who advocated war against Napoleon I in 1805 and 1806, despite the fact that he recognized serious shortcomings in the Prussian army. “The army is good,” he told a friend, “but the leaders are not well chosen. They include too many princes and old wigs who have outlived their usefulness.” Blücher was also motivated by an ever-growing dislike for the French in general (he referred to them as “parlez-vous”) and Napoleon in particular.

When Prussia finally joined the war, though belatedly, Blücher participated in the disastrous Battle of Auerstedt (October, 1806). During the inglorious retreat following the humiliating defeat at Jena and Auerstedt, Blücher distinguished himself as commander of the rear guard, covering the flight of the army. While the bulk of the Prussian forces was captured by the pursuing French, Blücher’s troops finally retreated northward toward Lübeck, where he was forced to surrender, having run out of ammunition and provisions. Following the disastrous defeat of 1806 and the institution of military reforms, all Prussian officers who had been captured had to justify their action before a commission of inquiry. Blücher was the only one of the field commanders who had surrendered to pass that scrutiny. The commission concluded that “this surrender belongs to the very few which were justified.”

Blücher was soon exchanged and appointed governor general of Pomerania, a position in which he again held civil as well as military duties. The king was forced to dismiss him, however, in 1811, under French pressure. Napoleon had become fearful of Blücher’s proven ability and undisguised hatred for the French. As early as 1805, having come under the influence of the Prussian military reformers, Blücher advocated the establishment of a national army based on conscription according to the French revolutionary model, in place of the moribund army of unpatriotic mercenaries and impressed peasant boys. He also advocated more humane treatment of the soldiers, better pay, the establishment of self-contained divisions consisting of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and other military reforms that the French had introduced early in the revolution.

In 1809, Blücher and other progressive officers attempted to persuade Frederick William III to join Austria’s anti-French uprising, but they were unable to persuade the cautious and timid king to give the order. The king not only feared defeat but also was extremely distrustful of his subjects, and he did not like the idea of arming the masses. Blücher even considered leaving Prussian service and offering his sword to the Austrians. He spoke of forming a Prussian legion under Austrian command. As Napoleon’s empire began to weaken, Blücher and General August von Gneisenau, though not the Prussian military establishment, again advocated a popular uprising and guerrilla war, taking their inspiration from the successful Spanish uprising. In 1808, Blücher wrote to a friend, “I don’t know why we cannot display as much respect for ourselves as the Spanish do.”

In 1812, Blücher was forced into temporary hiding because Napoleon, preparing his Russian campaign, wanted to arrest him. During this period, Blücher suffered from a serious mental illness, which was a recurring problem, though it usually found expression only in depression and hypochondria. In 1813, Blücher was recalled to active duty, only one of two generals of the 142 in the Prussian army in 1806 who retained troop command. He commanded the joint Prussian-Russian “Army of Silesia” as a three-star general. In the summer of 1813, his army invaded Saxony and defeated the French in a series of engagements, including the Battle of Wahlstatt, and played a major role in the decisive allied victory in the Battle of the Nations (Leipzig), in October, 1813. For his part in this significant victory, he was promoted to field marshal. His impetuous and aggressive leadership earned for him the title “Marshal Forward” (Vorwärts), bestowed upon him by the Russians.

Blücher, in keeping with the new concepts of warfare, urged a continuous and unorthodox winter pursuit of Napoleon and with his forces crossed the Rhine River during New Year’s night of 1814. The Austrians, on the other hand, wanted to negotiate with Napoleon, their emperor’s son-in-law, and retain him on the throne of a reduced and chastened France as a counterweight to growing Russian power. Blücher, however, had no understanding of political considerations, seeing all matters solely from the military viewpoint.

Although the allies still suffered some defeats, Blücher urged them to maintain the pressure until the final capture of Paris and Napoleon’s abdication in March, 1814. Throughout this period, Gneisenau served as Blücher’s capable chief of staff, complementing Blücher’s daring and courage with competent staff work, the value of which Blücher fully and publicly recognized. Blücher, celebrated, decorated, and rewarded for his services, was always quick to praise others and give them credit. While accompanying the victorious monarchs during a visit to Great Britain, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford and later accepted a similar honor from the University of Berlin.

Ill health and his strong disagreement with the victorious coalition’s lenient treatment of defeated France caused Blücher to retire from military service. He was, however, immediately recalled as Prussia’s field commander when Napoleon returned from Elba in 1815. Blücher joined forces with the British under the duke of Wellington in the southern Netherlands (modern Belgium), moving his forces dangerously close to the French frontier. On June 16, 1815, the Prussian forces, on Wellington’s left flank at Ligny, were defeated by Napoleon’s surprise attack, which was designed to separate the two allied forces. Napoleon then turned northward against Wellington, hoping to force him to retire to England.

Although severely injured when he was pinned under his horse when it was killed during a French charge, Blücher managed to rally most of his disheveled army. However, instead of retreating along his line of communication toward Germany as conventional military doctrine would have dictated and as Napoleon expected him to do, Blücher retreated northward, slipped away from the pursuing Marshal Michel Ney, and joined Wellington at Waterloo on the evening of June 18.

Blücher’s timely arrival to assist the exhausted British turned a stalemate, or possibly a French victory, into a total French rout. For this victory, Blücher received a unique award, the “Blücher Star”—the Iron Cross superimposed on a golden star. Blücher had already received the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross in 1813 (awarded only seven times during the war). Following this final contribution to the allied cause, Blücher retired again and returned to his Silesian estates, where he devoted much time to his passion for gambling. He died in September, 1819, after a short illness, and his funeral became an occasion for great praise and more honors.

Significance

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher was a man of limited formal education, a fact he clearly recognized and often lamented. Although he did not understand the essence of the French Revolution—the emphasis on democratic reforms—he recognized the benefits that a national, patriotic army offered. Though he is not considered to have been a military genius or even a capable strategist, he did join others in promoting reforms that led to the creation of the Landwehr (Prussian militia) and a national conscript army, so important in subsequent German history. Blücher is frequently described as being impatient with maps but able and willing to delegate authority, accept advice, and make quick and sound decisions under the pressure of battle. “Gneisenau stirs and I move forward,” he said in reference to his chief of staff.

Blücher was one of the few German officers of the old order to make the transition from the organizational and strategic concepts of classical (limited) warfare to the new concepts of revolutionary-national warfare. His most important contributions to victory over Napoleon were his insistence on aggressive action, close pursuit, and, above all, his folksy manner and sincere feeling for his troops. His soldiers in turn repaid him with steadfast loyalty, devotion, and obedience, even when his demands were excessive. He saw matters only from the military viewpoint and was greatly opposed to the lenient postwar diplomatic settlement.

Blücher was also firmly convinced that the army, as well as the Prussian nobility, should occupy privileged positions within the state, though he demonstrated none of the arrogance so common among his fellow aristocrats. At no time did he accept military subordination to civilian authority. His forthright, honest, and earthy character and his physical attractiveness made him a natural, charismatic leader and war hero, much admired by the German population; he is probably the most popular hero in German military history. Blücher, along with Gneisenau, is considered by Marxists to have been among the progressive Prussian officers of the War of Liberation. Karl Marx described him as “the model of a soldier.”

Bibliography

Craig, Gordon A. The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640-1945. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1955. A general history, placing Prussian reforms into a broader context. Includes an index and a general bibliography.

Gneisenau, August Wilhelm Anton, Graf Neidhardt von. The Life and Campaigns of Field Marshal Prince Blücher of Whalstaff: From the Period of His Birth and First Appointment in the Prussian Service Down to His Second Entry into Paris in 1815. Translated by General Count Gneisenau and J. E. Marston. London: Constable, 1996. A reprint of a biography written by Gneisenau, Blücher’s chief of staff.

Henderson, Ernest F. Blücher and the Uprising of Prussia Against Napoleon, 1806-1815. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1911. A critical and balanced history of the period with primary emphasis on Blücher’s contributions to the allied victory. Some original sources are listed in the text. Very little is included on his early life and career.

Paret, Peter. Clausewitz and the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. Emphasizes military and civil reforms in Prussia with numerous references to Blücher. Includes a very comprehensive listing of primary sources and an extensive index.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Yorck and the Era of Prussian Reforms, 1807-1815. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966. After an introduction to warfare under the old order, this work concentrates on reforms and reorganization in state and army after Jena. Includes several appendixes pertaining to the reform movement, an index, and an extensive bibliography.

Parkinson, Roger. Clausewitz: A Biography. London: Wayland, 1970. A balanced treatment of Clausewitz’s life and work with detailed description of the battles and frequent references to Blücher as a military leader and a supporter of reforms. Includes a bibliography, an index, and illustrations.

Uffindell, Andrew. The Eagle’s Last Triumph: Napoleon’s Victory at Ligny, June 1815. London: Greenhill Books, 1994. Blücher is prominently featured in this military history of the battle at Ligny.