On War of the Future, in Light of the Lessons of the World War

Friedrich Adolf Julius von Bernhardi (November 22, 1849 – December 11, 1930) was a Prussian general and military historian. He was a best-selling author prior to World War I. A militarist, he is perhaps best known for his bellicose book Deutschland und der Nächste Krieg (Germany and the Next War), printed in 1911. He advocated a policy of ruthless aggression and complete disregard of treaties and regarded war as a “divine business”.

In this volume, published just after the collapse of the German war effort in the First World War, von Bernhardi draws together the tactical and strategic lessons from the brutal battlefields of France and Belgium. There is also a subtext in the book as the author predicts and advocates the re-emergence of German militarism and German domination of Europe.