Book Review: Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years War

Cover Art 

Dear Reader,

Today, I am writing a review of Katrin and Sascha Möbius' new book: Prussian Army Soldiers and the Seven Years War: The Pyschology of Honour. This brief book, published by Bloomsbury Academic, provides the first major analysis of Prussian common soldiers in the era of the Seven Years War available in English. The married authors have brought their considerable linguistic and academic talents to the study of the army of Frederick II ("the Great"). By examining the considerable body of writings that Prussian soldiers left behind, in addition to those of elites such as Feldprediger Karl Daniel Küster, the authors manage to provide a much needed overhaul of the image of the Prussian common soldier. In doing so, they follow the path begun by Michael Sikora, Ilya Berkovich, Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, in their own research. 

Treading little of the same ground as Sascha's 2007 book Mehr Angst vor dem Offizier als vor dem Feind, (highly recommended for German readers) Prussian Army Soldiers explores the concept of honor, and its psychological underpinnings in the Prussian Army during the Seven Years War. The authors correctly assert, ""This book is the first in-depth investigation of the long-dismissed idea of a characteristic sense of honour held and shared by common... Prussian soldiers and their families, based upon their own accounts."[1] Their exploration is highly rewarding and successful for students of old-regime armies. 

The 220-odd pages of main text are broken down into three main chapters and two useful appendices. The first chapter addresses the origins and structure of the Prussian Army, the second explores common soldiers emotional responses to combat, and the third examines the various factors, when which taken together, constituted Prussian soldiers' sense of honor. The various contemporary  reglements and military treatises are outlined in appendix I, while English language translations of twelve Prussian soldiers' letters are included in appendix II. The second appendix makes this book a vital source for popular enthusiasts (such as wargamers and reenactors) who are interested in this era but do not have German language skills. 

As a specialist in this field, reading this book was a true delight, and I am in the debt of Katrin and Sascha for producing such a fine manuscript. Two minor criticisms: 1) the order of the chapters is not intuitive,  it might have made more sense to place the chapter explaining the constituent parts of honor before the chapter examining that honor on the battlefield. 2) The book uses non-period images of fine artistic value, but perhaps questionable historic value. These minor complaints in no-way detract of from an admirable and enjoyable study of soldiers in the Seven Years War era.

Katrin and Sascha have forcefully demonstrated that the Prussian soldier of the eighteenth century was not a "clockwork soldier" or "automaton... but a human being[.]"[2] Instead, the authors provide a persuasive case that "we must refute the image of the machine-soldiers beaten into battle by their officers. Instead, we encounter men of flesh and blood with human emotions, who wanted to defend their honour, serve their God and stay alive for their families."[3] This book will become required reading for specialists of eighteenth-century Prussia, and vital reading for historical enthusiasts who desire a more realistic picture of the Prussian Army of Frederick the Great. Highly Recommended. 

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Thanks for Reading, 

Alex Burns

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[1] Möbius and Möbius, Prussian Army Soldiers, 2.

[2]Ibid, 169.

[3]Ibid, 172.