2
Prussian–German Operational
Art, 1740–1943
Dennis E. Showalter
INTRODUCTION: MATRICES‘Operational art’ is usually and reasonably defined in general terms as the
intermediate area between tactics and strategy, involving the use of large military
forces to decide campaigns in the context of a theatre of war. Along with counter-
insurgency, its mastery is a contemporary touchstone of military effectiveness. 1
And operational art is also linked inextricably with Prussia and Germany. 2
The Western world has developed three intellectual approaches to war. The first
is the ‘scientific’. The scientists interpret war as subject to abstract laws and
principles. Systematically studied and properly applied, these principles enable
anticipating the consequences of decisions, behaviours—even attitudes. The
Soviet Union offers the best example of a military system built around the
scientific approach. Marxism–Leninism, the USSR’s legitimating ideology, was a
science. The Soviet state and Soviet society were organized on scientific princi-
ples. War making too was a science. The application of its objective principles by
trained and skilled engineers was the best predictor of victory.
The second approach to war is the ‘managerial’. Managers understand war in
terms of organization and administration. Military effectiveness depends on the
rational mobilization and application of human and material resources. Battle
does not exactly take care of itself, but its uncertainties are best addressed in
managerial contexts. The United States has been the most distinguished, and
successful, exemplar of managerial war. In part, that reflects its underlying
pragmatism: an ethic of getting on with the job. In part, it reflects a historical
geography that since the revolution has impelled America to export its conflicts—
in turn, making administration asine qua non. From the disasters suffered by
Harmar and St. Clair in the 1790s to the catastrophe of Task Force Smith in Korea
in 1950, without effective management successful fighting has been impossible.
The Germans, for their part, have understood war as fundamentally an art form.
Though requiring basic craft skills, war defied reduction to rules and principles. Its
mastery demanded study and reflection, but depended ultimately on two virtually
untranslatable concepts:Fingerspitzengefu ̈hlandTuchfu ̈hling. The closest English