Derrière tout grand homme il y a une femme d'exception
dit-on ? Je ne sais si c'est vrai dans la plupart des cas mais dans celui-là,
cela parait évident. Marie von Brühl fut l’épouse de Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clausewitz apporta
support et fut aux côtés de son mari dans la transcription de nombre de pages
du prussien. Elle sut aussi apporté sa réflexion et joua plus qu’un rôle de
secrétaire particulier pour amener toute son intelligence aux travaux de son
mari.
Après sa mort elle mis un point d’honneur à rassembler les
travaux de Clausewitz pour les publier.
La proximité de ce couple m’a touché et j’ai voulu ici
rendre hommage à cette femme d’exception qui a dans l’ombre de son mari apporté
une contribution importante et totalement occultée pour la reconnaissance des
travaux du stratège prussien.
Voici une biographie issue d’un texte original allemand que
nous avons traduit pour vous :
Marie Sophie von Clausewitz (née Marie
Sophie Gräfin de Brühl le 3 juin 1779 à Varsovie; morte le 28 janvier 1836) fut
l'épouse du général prussien et théoricien militaire Carl von Clausewitz. Elle
est la fille du général saxon Karl von Brühl et de Sophie Gomm, fille d’un
diplomate anglais exerçant à l’époque à Saint-Pétersbourg,
La famille, probablement protestante,
appartenait aux familles saxonnes nobles les plus en vue.
Ainsi, le grand-père de Marie, Heinrich von
Brühl, fut chancelier de Saxe pendant la guerre de 7 ans et un des adversaires
les plus résolus de Friedrich II.
Son père a d’abord été précepteur avant son
avènement au rang d’Intendant de Friedrich Wilhelm III. C’est ainsi qu’il fut
appelé en 1786 à Berlin où les «Brühl» occupèrent bientôt une place
prépondérante.
La maison Brühl devint le lieu de rencontre
des personnalités de la politique, militaires et de la cour.
Après la mort du père en 1802, la famille
perd la plus grande partie de ses revenus, mais pas son influence.
Marie doit alors se soumettre à sa sévère
mère tandis que sa benjamine Franziska échappe à ce joug grâce à son mariage
avec le baron Friedrich August Ludwig von der Marwitz (1777-1837).
Marie fut la demoiselle d'honneur de la
reine mère. (Cette situation cessa en 1805 après la mort de cette dernière.).
En décembre 1803, elle fait la connaissance, lors d’un dîner donné par le
prince Louis Ferdinand au château Bellevue, de son futur époux Carl von
Clausewitz (1780-1831).
Dès le début, leur relation connut la
difficulté. Non seulement Marie était plus âgée d’un an que l’alors simple
lieutenant, en outre, la famille Brühl appartenait à la haute noblesse saxonne
tandis que Carl peinait à prouver la sienne. De plus, les guerres
napoléoniennes l’éloignaient régulièrement.
Malgré tout, les fiançailles furent
célébrées en août 1810 puis le mariage le 17 décembre suivant.
Pendant les années qui suivirent, Marie
occupa une place et un rôle de premier ordre à la cour de son Altesse royale la
princesse Wilhelm.
Durant les 21 ans que dura leur mariage,
les époux furent souvent séparés de longues périodes.
Reste de ces dernières l’abondante
correspondance échangée par le couple. Laquelle nous donne un précieux aperçu
de la vie privée, la pensée et l'action de Clausewitz.
Marie von Clausewitz soutiendra sans cesse
l’œuvre de Carl donnant, ainsi, à celle-ci un écho appréciable.
Ses encouragements continuels ont
probablement beaucoup contribué à l'apparition du livre De la guerre.
En outre, après la mort de son mari, en
novembre 1831, elle devint l'éditrice (1832-1834) des ouvrages qu’il lui a
légués, parmi lesquels l’œuvre maîtresse, le livre De la guerre, pour laquelle elle rédigea aussi la préface.
Le 28 janvier 1836, Marie von Clausewitz
décéda des suites d'une fièvre et fut inhumée aux côtés de son époux au
cimetière militaire de Breslau. L’épitaphe de sa pierre tombale dit :
« Amara Mors Amorem non seperat.» (La mort
amère ne sépare pas l'amour.)
Pour ceux qui sont
capables de lire l’allemand voici un livre qui traite de cette relation
particulière de Carl et Marie von Clausewitz : Otto Heuschele
(Hrsg.): Carl und Marie von Clausewitz - Briefe, Verlag für Kulturpolitik,
Berlin 1935.
Lorsque vous aurez entre les mains ce Tome 4 de la
Collection Réussir en Chine, vous aurez l’occasion de lire en détail les Book 1
et 2 (Livres 1 et 2) de l’ouvrage complet de Carl von Clausewitz*
*Je vous rappelle ici que je vous donne toutes les
traductions essentielles nécessaires et en français des points importants à
prendre en compte pour vos missions Chine. Vous n’avez pas besoin de lire l’anglais
dans le texte si cela vous gêne. De plus vous aurez tous les autres livres (3 à
8) de De la guerre traduit par le lieutenant-colonel De Vatry et dans son
format original et originel (Théorie de la grande guerre) en trois volumes. J’ai
voulu vous transférer non pas le texte retapé de ces trois volumes mais le
document paru en 1886 dans sa forme d’époque. Je suis sûr que vous apprécierez.
C’est une page de notre histoire qui se tourne et tout cela fait partie finalement
du patrimoine mondial.
Tout confondu vous aurez plus de 1100
pages de documents.
Gardez à l’esprit que sans le dévouement, le rôle
particulier de Marie auprès de son mari et sa volonté de faire paraître les œuvres
de Carl von Clausewitz, ce dernier serait certainement resté inconnu.
Préface à la
première traduction de la main de Marie von Clausewitz
IT will naturally excite surprise that a preface by a
female hand should accompany a work on such a subject as the present. For my
friends no explanation of the circumstance is required; but I hope by a simple
relation of the cause to clear myself of the appearance of presumption in the
eyes also of those to whom I am not known.
The work to which these lines serve as a preface
occupied almost entirely the last twelve years of the life of my inexpressibly
beloved husband, who has unfortunately been torn too soon from myself and his
country. To complete it was his most earnest desire; but it was not his
intention that it should be published during his life; and if I tried to
persuade him to alter that intention, he often answered, half in jest, but
also, perhaps, half in a foreboding of early death: "Thou shalt publish
it." These words (which in those happy days often drew tears from me,
little as I was inclined to attach a serious meaning to them) make it now, in
the opinion of my friends, a duty incumbent on me to introduce the posthumous
works of my beloved husband, with a few prefatory lines from myself; and
although here may be a difference of opinion on this point, still I am sure
there will be no mistake as to the feeling which has prompted me to overcome
the timidity which makes any such appearance, even in a subordinate part, so
difficult for a woman.
It will be understood, as a matter of course, that I
cannot have the most remote intention of considering myself as the real
editress of a work which is far above the scope of my capacity: I only stand at
its side as an affectionate companion on its entrance into the world. This
position I may well claim, as a similar one was allowed me during its formation
and progress. Those who are acquainted with our happy married life, and know
how we shared everything with each other--not only joy and sorrow, but also
every occupation, every interest of daily life--will understand that my beloved
husband could not be occupied on a work of this kind without its being known to
me. Therefore, no one can like me bear testimony to the zeal, to the love with
which he laboured on it, to the hopes which he bound up with it, as well as the
manner and time of its elaboration. His richly gifted mind had from his early
youth longed for light and truth, and, varied as were his talents, still he had
chiefly directed his reflections to the science of war, to which the duties of
his profession called him, and which are of such importance for the benefit of
States. Scharnhorst was the first to lead him into the right road, and his
subsequent appointment in 1810 as Instructor at the General War School, as well
as the honour conferred on him at the same time of giving military instruction
to H.R.H. the Crown Prince, tended further to give his investigations and
studies that direction, and to lead him to put down in writing whatever
conclusions he arrived at. A paper with which he finished the instruction of
H.R.H. the Crown Prince contains the germ of his subsequent works. But it was
in the year 1816, at Coblentz, that he first devoted himself again to
scientific labours, and to collecting the fruits which his rich experience in
those four eventful years had brought to maturity. He wrote down his views, in
the first place, in short essays, only loosely connected with each other. The
following, without date, which has been found amongst his papers, seems to
belong to those early days.
"In the principles here committed to paper, in my
opinion, the chief things which compose Strategy, as it is called, are touched
upon. I looked upon them only as materials, and had just got to such a length
towards the moulding them into a whole.
"These materials have been amassed without any
regularly preconceived plan. My view was at first, without regard to system and
strict connection, to put down the results of my reflections upon the most
important points in quite brief, precise, compact propositions. The manner in
which Montesquieu has treated his subject floated before me in idea. I thought
that concise, sententious chapters, which I proposed at first to call grains,
would attract the attention of the intelligent just as much by that which was
to be developed from them, as by that which they contained in themselves. I
had, therefore, before me in idea, intelligent readers already acquainted with
the subject. But my nature, which always impels me to development and
systematising, at last worked its way out also in this instance. For some time
I was able to confine myself to extracting only the most important results from
the essays, which, to attain clearness and conviction in my own mind, I wrote
upon different subjects, to concentrating in that manner their spirit in a small
compass; but afterwards my peculiarity gained ascendency completely--I have
developed what I could, and thus naturally have supposed a reader not yet
acquainted with the subject.
"The more I advanced with the work, and the more
I yielded to the spirit of investigation, so much the more I was also led to
system; and thus, then, chapter after chapter has been inserted.
"My ultimate view has now been to go through the
whole once more, to establish by further explanation much of the earlier
treatises, and perhaps to condense into results many analyses on the later
ones, and thus to make a moderate whole out of it, forming a small octavo
volume. But it was my wish also in this to avoid everything common, everything
that is plain of itself, that has been said a hundred times, and is generally
accepted; for my ambition was to write a book that would not be forgotten in
two or three years, and which any one interested in the subject would at all
events take up more than once."
In Coblentz, where he was much occupied with duty, he
could only give occasional hours to his private studies. It was not until 1818,
after his appointment as Director of the General Academy of War at Berlin, that
he had the leisure to expand his work, and enrich it from the history of modern
wars. This leisure also reconciled him to his new avocation, which, in other
respects, was not satisfactory to him, as, according to the existing
organisation of the Academy, the scientific part of the course is not under the
Director, but conducted by a Board of Studies. Free as he was from all petty
vanity, from every feeling of restless, egotistical ambition, still he felt a
desire to be really useful, and not to leave inactive the abilities with which
God had endowed him. In active life he was not in a position in which this
longing could be satisfied, and he had little hope of attaining to any such
position: his whole energies were therefore directed upon the domain of
science, and the benefit which he hoped to lay the foundation of by his work was
the object of his life. That, notwithstanding this, the resolution not to let
the work appear until after his death became more confirmed is the best proof
that no vain, paltry longing for praise and distinction, no particle of
egotistical views, was mixed up with this noble aspiration for great and
lasting usefulness.
Thus he worked diligently on, until, in the spring of
1830, he was appointed to the artillery, and his energies were called into
activity in such a different sphere, and to such a high degree, that he was
obliged, for the moment at least, to give up all literary work. He then put his
papers in order, sealed up the separate packets, labelled them, and took
sorrowful leave of this employment which he loved so much. He was sent to
Breslau in August of the same year, as Chief of the Second Artillery District,
but in December recalled to Berlin, and appointed Chief of the Staff to
Field-Marshal Count Gneisenau (for the term of his command). In March 1831, he
accompanied his revered Commander to Posen. When he returned from there to
Breslau in November after the melancholy event which had taken place, he hoped
to resume his work and perhaps complete it in the course of the winter. The
Almighty has willed it should be otherwise. On the 7th November he returned to
Breslau; on the 16th he was no more; and the packets sealed by himself were not
opened until after his death.
The papers thus left are those now made public in the
following volumes, exactly in the condition in which they were found, without a
word being added or erased. Still, however, there was much to do before
publication, in the way of putting them in order and consulting about them; and
I am deeply indebted to several sincere friends for the assistance they have
afforded me, particularly Major O'Etzel, who kindly undertook the correction of
the Press, as well as the preparation of the maps to accompany the historical
parts of the work. I must also mention my much-loved brother, who was my
support in the hour of my misfortune, and who has also done much for me in
respect of these papers; amongst other things, by carefully examining and
putting them in order, he found the commencement of the revision which my dear
husband wrote in the year 1827, and mentions in the Notice hereafter annexed as
a work he had in view. This revision has been inserted in the place intended
for it in the first book (for it does not go any further).
There are still many other friends to whom I might
offer my thanks for their advice, for the sympathy and friendship which they
have shown me; but if I do not name them all, they will, I am sure, not have
any doubts of my sincere gratitude. It is all the greater, from my firm
conviction that all they have done was not only on my own account, but for the
friend whom God has thus called away from them so soon.
If I have been highly blessed as the wife of such a
man during one and twenty years, so am I still, notwithstanding my irreparable
loss, by the treasure of my recollections and of my hopes, by the rich legacy
of sympathy and friendship which I owe the beloved departed, by the elevating
feeling which I experience at seeing his rare worth so generally and honourably
acknowledged.
The trust confided to me by a Royal Couple is a fresh
benefit for which I have to thank the Almighty, as it opens to me an honourable
occupation, to which I devote myself. May this occupation be blessed, and may
the dear little Prince who is now entrusted to my care, some day read this
book, and be animated by it to deeds like those of his glorious ancestors.
Written at the Marble Palace, Potsdam, 30th June,
1832.
MARIE VON CLAUSEWITZ, Born Countess Bruhl,
Oberhofmeisterinn to H.R.H. the Princess William.
Quoi que l’on puisse penser de l’auteur, du sujet, de la stratégie, en lisant
ces lignes, le seul sentiment qui nous reste est la tristesse que l’on peut
ressentir en perdant un Etre cher. Un Etre avec lequel on a partagé amour,
amitié, respect mutuel, projet commun et un chef d’œuvre sans âge en
particulier.
Bonne lecture.
Adrien
L'histoire du livre 