Bernhardi
FRIEDRICH VON, a German general and author, born Nov. 22, 1849. His early education was thorough, both in letters and in military science. His chief claim to eminence lies in a book written by him in 1911, entitled "Germany and the Next War."
Its importance has been minimized by the Germans themselves, but after the actual outbreak of the World War, it was more widely quoted from than any other German work and was accepted by the Allied nations as the most perfect embodiment of the callousness and cynicism of the German military clique that provoked the conflict . Bernhardi's book was characterized by keenness and ingenuity, and the course of the war showed that it contained some elements of prophecy, notably in the violation of Belgian neutrality and the extensive employment of the submarine. Other books by him are "How Germany Makes War," "Cavalry," and on "War of To-Day," but none of them attained the importance of the first. During the World War he commanded an army corps on the Bel- BERNHARDT gian front, but never rose above mediocrity as a military leader.