ABSTRACT
Von Manteuffel was very much a man of von Ruchel’s stamp, and Carl von Clausewitz might well have said of him, as he did say of Ruchel, that he was like an acid concentrate of pure Prussianism. Helmuth von Moltke’s thin, refined and almost delicate features, high forehead, thin lips and curving nose suggested a lack of robustness, while his quiet, measured and controlled manner had too much of the classical about it to be really Prussian. It has been said that a man’s taste in music and tobacco are good indications of his character, and for what that somewhat jejune observation is worth, Moltke loved Mozart, and was fond of smoking a good cigar in solitude. Moltke was at that time a Staff officer on the Rhine—and the revolution was for him first and foremost a danger to Prussia’s preparedness.
