Preliminary Programme

Through the Mémorial de Saint-Hélène of Las Casas a very moving story has found its way into historiography: the French authorities took care of wounded and sick soldiers which the Russian general Suvorov had left in Switzerland when he was forced to leave the country. They were released in a Russian uniform, specially made for them. Allegedly the Russian Emperor was so moved by this treatment that he advocated a rapprochement with France. My paper explores the fate of the soldiers and officers of the corps of Suvorov and Rimsky-Korsakov, captured in Switzerland and finally transferred to Russia. The key issue of my paper is the question how chivalrous treatment of prisoners of war, typical for the Swiss campaign, was subsequently replaced by a much more rigid approach, which culminated in the campaign of 1812 (Show less)

Carl von Clausewitz became a prisoner of war in French captivity in the aftermath of Prussia’s crushing defeat at Jena and Auerstedt in 1806. Prussian defeat and captivity had a deeply personal impact on Clausewitz: on the one hand, he strongly identified with the Prussian state and its public humiliation, on the other captivity separated Carl from his fiancée Marie and cast the future of their courtship into further doubt. As ADC for prince August, Clausewitz had to accompany the prince into captivity in Soissons near Paris. Carl’s letters to Marie reveal curiosity and admiration for the French achievements in the aftermath of the revolution. At the same time they reflect a strong urge to demarcate ‘German’ identity against what Clausewitz perceived as the superficial and frivolous national character of the French. On their way back to Berlin, prince August and Clausewitz spent two months at Mme de Staël’s Coppet residence in the early autumn of 1807. Clausewitz further consolidated his comparative study of the Germans and the French in discussions with Staël and her house tutor, August Wilhelm Schlegel, a well-known romantic literary critic. Clausewitz’s experiences and French captivity and his stay at Coppet provided the intellectual foundations of what was to become his major contribution to the Prussian reform movement after his return to Berlin in 1807. (Show less)