Clausewitz Composes Three Courses of Action

In response to a simple leadership problem

Some time ago, on the website of the library of the University of Münster, I ran into a one-page document called Solution to the 6th Small Problem (Auflösung der 6. kleinen Aufgabe). Signed by Carl von Clausewitz and dated 31 January 1803, this appeared to be a response to a problem posed to the future Philosopher of War (and, I presume, his classmates) while he performed ‘duty under instruction’ at the school that would eventually become the Kriegsakademie.

Months before making this discovery, I had found, in a printed collection of documents written by Clausewitz, a longer solution to a larger problem. Indeed, a paraphrase of both the exercise and the course of action chosen formed one of the first decision games to be published in The Tactical Notebook.

Unfortunately, I found it very hard to read the hand in which the document had been written … to the point where I imagined that, had he not chosen the way of the sword, he would have made a fine physician.

I thus put the document aside, waiting for the day when – please don’t laugh – I would find the time needed to decipher it. However, before that happy day arrived, I decided give an AI program a crack at cracking the code.

Marvelous to say, Perplexity turned the Clausewitzian chicken scratch into readable prose. Better yet, the text provided matched perfectly with those bits of handwriting I could read. And so, without further ado, I present, in both the original German and my own translation, the fruit of this investigation.