Kriegsspieler of the Month - Georg von Reisswitz (1794 - 1827)

by Jorit Wintjes

This months’s Kriegsspieler is Georg Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz, the actual inventor of what became known as the Prussian Kriegsspiel. Before turning to his career, it is useful to briefly reflect on the term “inventor” here. If one reads the introduction to the publication of his rules, one might get the impression that the actual inventor was his father, and that he only improved upon the latter’s invention. Yet while Reisswitz does indeed say so, it has a basis more in reverence towards his father than in actual fact. The Kriegsspiel published in 1824 differed dramatically not only from the game designed by Reisswitz’ father, it also broke with nearly all traditions of other similar games developed during the last decades of the 18th c. In a world where wargaming is instantly associated with hex grid maps it is easy to overlook that for the contemporaries, the square grid maps of pre-1824 Kriegsspiele were not a seen as a simplified version of a “proper” map but rather as evolving from chequerboards, just as many game mechanics from earlier wargames were based on chess. Indeed, the term “Kriegsspiel” itself was used in chess literature for games that were seen as variants, if highly evolved ones, of the game of chess.

By introducing true topographical maps for his Kriegsspiel, Reisswitz broke with that tradition completely, and using maps alone would have justified his claim to actual invention, as giving up a gridded map invariably required giving up all chess-based mechanisms as well and developing an entirely new system of movement and combat rules. Reisswitz however went one step further by introducing the “Vertraute”, a facilitator, thereby effectively eliminating direct interaction between participants. Introducing facilitators to the Kriegsspiel changed its entire character. Older Kriegsspiele, even when screens were used to mask initial deployments, lived as much from the decisions of the participants as from their social interaction; in the Prussian Kriegsspiel, as later rulesets would explicitly state, the participants were ideally in different rooms without any chance to directly interact with their opponents. In all, then, there is no reason whatsoever to doubt that Reisswitz deserves to be called the Prussian Kriegsspiel’s inventor.

Going back to his biography, he was born as the only son to Georg Leopold von Reisswitz, who embarked on a career as a Prussian official serving successively in Warsaw, Marienwerder and Breslau. Reisswitz entered service with the Prussian artillery in 1810 and was promoted lieutenant in 1813; for his actions during the siege of Glogau in the same year he was awarded the iron cross. In 1819/20 he was transferred to Berlin, joining the guards artillery brigade, and posted to the Artillerieprüfkommission, the body responsible for testing and developing new technology and tactics. In this position, Reisswitz had access to all the data collected in a number of test firings undertaken from the early 1810s onwards, some results of which had been published by Scharnhorst in 1813; the weapons effects calculations in his Kriegsspiel were therefore founded in actual, real-world data. Or so he claimed - it should be noted that the main contribution by a future Kriegsspieler of the Month, Carl von Decker, to Kriegsspiel history was the revision of the original rules, precisely because some of the weapons effects had been found straying too far from reality. The exact reason for the latter is unknown; the fault may have been with the test firings themselves, Reisswitz may have miscalculated or simply made up some of the numbers. However, by referring to test firings Reisswitz set a precedent for all future Kriegsspiel designers who tried to integrate, with mixed success at times, to implement real-world data.

While in Berlin, Reisswitz gathered around himself a small circle of young officers, regularly running Kriegsspiele and continuously improving his rules. An avid violine player, he also founded an orchestra where guards officers played together with civilian musicians. In 1824, his Kriegsspiel activities became known to the crown prince William, and he arranged a presentation game, during which last month’s Kriegsspieler, Carl von Müffling, was present. The rest, as they say, was history: the Prussian Kriegsspiel was introduced into the Prussian army, with one set of rules and gaming materials acquired for each regiment of the Prussian army. In 1824 and the following year, Reisswitz became somewhat of a celebrity, being invited to St Petersburg by Grand Duke Nicholas where he demonstrated his Kriegsspiel; apparently, he was a great success both on and off the wargaming table, making the rounds in the high society of the Russian capital.

One would assume that a great future lay before Reisswitz, but after his return from Russia his life fell apart. Although he was promoted captain in 1826, he was removed from Berlin and transferred to the 3rd Artillery Brigade in Torgau in Silesia. The exact circumstances are unclear: it was rumoured that younger officers for whom he was responsible behaved in some untoward manner, and that his transfer to Torgau was a punishment for his failure to keep them in order. Human nature may also have played a role - older officers may have envied the prominence to which Reisswitz, a fairly young lieutenant, had suddenly risen; that Reisswitz seems to have been quite a headstrong character will not have been helpful either. Whatever the precise reasons for his removal from Berlin, he apparently took it quite badly. Given that it was only a few years after 3rd Artillery Brigade had weathered a considerable scandal - it had been revealed that some soldiers had formed a secret society - it was probably not seen as the most desirable of postings at the time.

Nothing is known about Reisswitz’ activities there, but barely a year had passed when he visited his father in 1827 and shot himself on September 1. It is unknown whether his suicide was the result of a personal crisis that had developed only after his arrival in Torgau, or whether he was still resenting his fall from grace, as he apparently interpreted his transfer to the Silesian province; the few existing accounts - nearly all of them based on an article written by one of his friends, Ernst Dannhauer, about whom more in next month’s instalment - certainly all suggest so.

Reisswitz’ importance for the history of the Prussian Kriegsspiel requires little explanation. While Müffling, for whom see last month’s instalment, was key to its success and history, the history of the Prussian Kriegsspiel would obviously not have taken place without Reisswitz. Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his death he was remembered down to the end of the 19th c. as the inventor of the Kriegsspiel.

There is no biography of Reisswitz extant, and unless substantial new material surfaces it is unlikely that there will ever be one. No papers are known to exist, and the main source for Reisswitz’ life and the early history of the Kriegsspiel is an article published in 1874 on the 50th anniversary of the Kriegsspiel’s introduction to the Prussian army (E. H. Dannhauer. 1874. Das Reißwitzsche Kriegsspiel von seinem Beginn bis zum Tode des Erfinders 1827. Militär-Wochenblatt 56, 527-532).

So much for this month’s Kriegsspieler. Next month we will look at Ernst Heinrich Dannhauer, a member of the circle of friends around Reisswitz, without whom much less would be known about the early history of the Kriegsspiel. For more on him see next month’s instalment of Kriegsspieler of the Month.