Hans Delbrück Hans Delbrück ( November 11 , 1848 – July 14 , 1929 ) was a German historian . Delbrück was one of the first modern military historians , basing his method of research on the critical examination of ancient sources , the use of auxiliary disciplines , like demography and economics , to complete the analysis and the comparison between different epochs to trace the evolution of military institutions . Delbrück ' s writings are chiefly concerned with the history of the art of war , his most ambitious work being his " Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte " ( History of warfare in the framework of political history , four volumes , third edition published in 1920 ) . Other works are " Die Perserkriege und die Burgunderkriege " ( The Persian and Burgundian Wars , 1887 ) , " Die Strategie des Perikles erläutert durch die Strategie Friedrichs des Grossen " ( The strategy of Pericles described through the strategy of Frederick the Great , 1890 ) and " Das Leben des Feldmarschalls Grafen Neithardt von Gneisenau " ( Life of Marshal Count Neithardt von Gneisenau , 1894 ) . Biography . Delbrück was born in Bergen on the island of Rügen , and studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn . As a soldier , he fought in the Franco - Prussian War , after which , in 1874 , he became for some years tutor to Prince Waldemar of the German imperial family , a brother of the future emperor , Wilhelm II . He served in the Reichstag from 1882 to 1883 , and afterward , in 1883 , he became an editor of the " Preussische Jahrbücher " , a noted political magazine . He assumed charge of this publication in 1889 , and kept working on it in that capacity until 1920 . In 1885 , he became professor of modern history in the University of Berlin , where his lectures were highly popular . He was a member of the German Reichstag from 1884 to 1890 . Delbrück vigorously opposed the policy of the Prussian government in dealing with the Danes and the Poles , with the result that he was twice subjected to disciplinary penalties as a professor and therefore , in Prussia , a civil servant . At an early stage of World War I , he became pessimistic regarding the possibility of any real success for Germany except by military and political strategy and tactics of a purely defensive character . He was , on tactical rather than on moral grounds , a strenuous opponent of intensified submarine warfare , and did not conceal his conviction that the result of this method of warfare would ultimately be the intervention of America . He was a member of the German Delegation during the Versailles Peace Conference that ended World War I where he mainly endeavoured to prove that Germany could not be made solely responsible for the outbreak of war . He died in Berlin . He was the father of Max Delbrück , who did pioneering work in physics and also won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969 . Hypotheses . Overall , Delbrück ' s works tried to place military history in the framework of general history . He regarded warfare as a cultural feature of societies , subject to evolution and influenced by the economy and the political system . His works , however , were not translated into English for some time , hence the reputation of him held by professional military theorists in English - speaking countries has not reached the significance of Clausewitz , for example . Ancient warfare . Delbrück ' s conclusions regarding ancient warfare were questionable . in that he tried to show that the figures for armies in antiquity were inflated in the original sources , and that , contrary to what is stated in most writings , the winner in a battle usually had more troops than the loser . Consequently , he gave completely different interpretations to some of the most famous battles in history , like Marathon , Gaugamela , and Zama by concluding that the advantage the Roman armies had over the " barbarians " rested , not so much in their discipline and refined tactics , but rather in their superior logistical support . The Romans were able to raise and maintain huge armies on the field , while the " barbarians " were unable to match their numbers . The theory aimed to criticize Germany ' s political class and practice of warfare which were under the heavy sway of nationalistic ideas at the time . Medieval warfare . Regarding medieval warfare , Delbrück ' s findings were more controversial . He made a distinction between knights ( mounted warriors ) and cavalry ( an organized mass of mounted troops ) , and regarded the medieval warrior as an independent fighter , unable to join others and form units with tactical significance . This conclusion was contested by later scholars , in particular the Belgian historian J . F . Verbruggen . Modern warfare . When moving into modern warfare , Delbrück showed his intellectual roots in Clausewitz as he made a distinction between two possible strategies in war : attrition and annihilation ( in German , " Ermattungsstrategie " and " Niederwerfungsstrategie " , respectively ) . These were derived from Clausewitz ' s distinctions between strategies seeking limited objectives and strategies aimed at rendering one ' s opponent militarily helpless , the latter often confused with the concept of " Total War " advocated by Ludendorff and rejected by Delbrück during WWI . The choice depended on the nature of the political objectives and existing political and economic limitations , as well as on the correlation of forces . He applied this analytical tool to the wars of Frederick the Great , concluding that , due to their numerical inferiority , the Prussians had pursued a strategy of attrition . His overall treatment of this era was , however , disappointing , in part because Delbrück overlooked the Spanish wars . Delbrück was also very critical of his country ' s strategy during World War I . He said it would have been much better to seek victory in the Eastern front , gain minor objectives on the West and then seek peace . This was one example of the general principle , Delbrück maintained , that military and political maneuvers should be integrated . In fiction . In Mel Brooks ' s comedy " Young Frankenstein " , Doctor Frankenstein sends his assistant , Igor , to retrieve the brain of Hans Delbrück for transplant into Frankenstein ' s monster . The tag on the tank containing the brain reads " scientist and saint " , so it is debatable whether Brooks intended this or a fictional Delbruck . In a clearer reference to the historical figure , in Mel Brooks ' s comedy " The Producers : The Movie Musical " , Hans Delbrück is the name of the man to whom Franz Liebkind sends a letter by carrier pigeon . In Victor Serge ’ s novel " Unforgiving Years ( Les Années sans pardon ) " the character Herr Schiff - an old German professor loyal to the Nazi regime , demoralized and disoriented in war - ravaged Berlin in the closing days of the Second World War – rereads Hans Delbrück ’ s " The History of Warfare " : “ Lately , it was true , the sense of most of what he read escaped him ; but being incapable of inattention , the mechanical act of reading acted upon him like a sedative . His cheek cupped in his hand , he reread the works he admired out of duty . ” Hans Delbrück appears in the professor ’ s thoughts again while contemplating the meaning of the war as American soldiers overtake Berlin : “ The Second World War was already down as a great historical tragedy – a quasi - mythological one – which nether Mommsen , Hans Delbrück , Gobineau , Houston Stewart Chamberlin , Oswald Spengler , or " Mein Kampf " could elucidate entirely … ” Works . Among the other works of Delbrück , besides those mentioned above , are : In his book " Regierung und Volkswille " ( 1914 ) , Delbrück attempted a defence of the old system of government in Germany and Prussia with particular reference to its “ dualism , ” that is parliamentary representation and simultaneously a certain degree of autocracy on the part of the sovereign in Prussia and of the federated government in the empire . A succinct statement of Delbrück ' s views on Germany ' s responsibility for World War I and an English reply can be found in articles by Delbrück and J . W . Headlam - Morley in the " Contemporary Review " ( March 1921 ) .