east facing the potential Russian threat moving against
Germany’s eastern border. When the time came, Moltke
altered the plan even further, withdrawing six whole divi-
sions from the western attack to concentrate on what he
saw as a growing Russian threat. Moltke’s changes to the
plan were its undoing: Because the right wing’s approach
through Belgium did not hit French forces strongly
enough, the French army rallied some 30 miles east of
Paris, forcing them to dig in for the beginning of the
horrific trench warfare that left hundreds of thousands
dead. Further confusing decisions made by Moltke led
to more upheaval, including allowing the German com-
mander General Karl von Bulow, already in command of
the German Second Army, to command the First as well
when he did not have the experience. Historians blame
Moltke’s orders directly for the German defeat at the first
battle of the Marne (20–24 August 1914).
By 3 November 1914, Moltke’s plans for a quick
French defeat lay in ruins, and his health was failing. In
December, he was replaced as chief of the General Staff
by General Erich von Falkenhayn and shifted to chief of
the home general staff in Berlin, a tremendous demo-
tion. On 19 June 1916, the 68-year-old Moltke suffered
a fatal heart attack while in the Reichstag building in
Berlin; he was in the midst of a tribute to a Marshal von
der Goltz when he collapsed. Kaiser Wilhelm II stated:
“I have just received the overwhelming news of the sud-
den death [of Moltke]. Words fail me to give full impres-
sion to my feelings. I recall with deep emotion his illness
at the beginning of this war, the brilliant preparation of
which was the object of his untiring activity as Chief of
the General Staff of the Army. The Fatherland will not
forget his great services. So long as I shall live I shall
gratefully remember what this upright and wise man
with a character of gold and a warm and loyal heart was
to me and the Army.” In the years after Moltke’s death,
two works written by him were posthumously published:
Erinnerungen, Briefe, Dokumente, 1877–1916 (1922)
and Aufzechnungen, Briefe, Schriften, Reden (1923).
References: “Moltke, Gen Helmuth von, ‘the Younger,’ ”
in The Oxford Companion to Military History, edited by
Richard Holmes (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001), 596; Mombauer, Annika, Helmuth von Moltke
and the Origins of the First World War (Cambridge, U.K.:
Cambridge University Press, 2001); “Von Moltke’s Death.
A Sudden Heart Seizure,” The Times (London), 20 June
1916, 8.
Moltke, Helmuth Karl Bernard, count von
Moltke (1800–1891) Prussian general
Although he was not a field commander, Helmuth Karl
Bernard Moltke’s contributions to military logistics,
equipment, and organization are some of the most im-
portant in the field. He is better known to historians and
laymen as Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, to distinguish
him from his nephew, known as the Younger. Coming
from two families of nobility, the elder Moltke was born
in Parchim, in the state of Mecklenburg (now in Ger-
many), on 26 October 1800. In 1805, his father took
the family from Mecklenburg, emigrating to Holstein,
then a possession of Denmark, and they became Danish
citizens. Moltke completed his education in Copenha-
gen with service in the Royal Cadet Corps; after gradu-
ating, he joined the Danish infantry. However, in 1821,
he visited Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, and imme-
diately transferred to the Prussian army. The following
year, he received a commission in the 8th Infantry Regi-
ment with the rank of second lieutenant.
In 1823, Moltke was sent to the General War Col-
lege in Berlin to augment his military education and
training. However, after only two years, ill health, which
had plagued him since childhood, forced him to travel
to the sanatorium at Bad Salzbrunn to recuperate. There,
he attended a gymnasium, or school, where he studied
modern languages. In 1826, he returned to Frankfurt,
where he took up writing to earn some money; his novel
Die beiden Freunde (The Two Friends, 1827), was fol-
lowed by an essay, Holland and Belgium in their Mutual
Relations (1831) and a more substantial paper, Darstel-
lung der inner Verhäktnusse und des gesellschaftlichen
Zustandes in Polen (An account of the internal circum-
stances and social conditions of Poland, 1832). He con-
tracted to translate Edward Gibbons’s landmark Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire into German for a pay-
ment of £75, but he never finished the project. In 1828,
he was sent to the Topographical Bureau of the German
General Staff located in Berlin.
In 1832, Moltke was attached to the Prussian Gen-
eral Staff, and the following year he was promoted to the
rank of first lieutenant. In 1835, when he was promoted
to captain, he was given six months’ leave, during which
he traveled through Constantinople and advised Sultan
Mahmud II on the transformation and modernization
of the Turkish army. Moltke eventually spent two years
in Constantinople, where he learned to speak Turkish
and traveled through southern Europe for the Sultan. In0 moltke, helmuth kARl beRnARD, count von moltke