Georg Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz (1794–1827) was a Prussian army officer. Reisswitz is regarded by many as the father of

wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

, as he developed the first wargaming system to be widely used as a serious tool for training and research. The particular genre of wargaming he developed is known in the English-speaking world as ''

Kriegsspiel ''Kriegsspiel'' is a genre of wargaming developed by the Prussian Army in the 19th century to teach battlefield tactics to officers. The word ''Kriegsspiel'' literally means "wargame" in German, but in the context of the English language it ref ...

''. It is characterized by high realism, an emphasis on the experience of decision-making rather than on competition, and the use of an umpire to keep the system flexible.

Biography

Reisswitz's father was George Leopold von Reisswitz, a Prussian baron. In 1810, Reisswitz was a volunteer in an artillery unit in

Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (german: Lausitzer Neiße; pl, Nysa Łużycka; cs, Lužická Nisa; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.Glogow, Reisswitz was promoted to second-lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. By 1819, he was a first-lieutenant in the Guard Artillery Brigade in Berlin. Reisswitz was a skilled fencer and a skilled violinist.

The wargame designer

In 1812, Reisswitz's father developed a wargaming apparatus which he presented as a gift to the Prussian king, which the royal family embraced and regularly played. The father hoped that wargaming would eventually become a regular tool of instruction and training for army officers, but he never perfected the system, probably because of the upheavals caused by the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. By 1816, Reisswitz's father seemed to have lost interest in wargaming altogether, and his son decided to continue the development of the game. Reisswitz steadily developed his father's game with the help of his fellow junior officers. His project caught the attention of Prince Wilhelm, who joined Reisswitz's gaming circle. In 1824, the prince invited Reisswitz to demonstrate his wargame to the king and his chief of staff, General von Müffling. They were all impressed and officially endorsed Reisswitz's game as a training tool for the army. Reisswitz established a workshop to mass-produce and distribute his game. The king awarded Reisswitz the Order of St John as a reward. Reisswitz frequently hosted wargaming sessions for senior officers, and once for the Russian court.

Exile and death

In 1826, Reisswitz was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred from Berlin to the provincial city of

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

. This posting was interpreted as a banishment from the Prussian court. Allegedly, Reisswitz had made offensive remarks about his superiors. According to an 1874 article by Reisswitz's friend and fellow officer Heinrich Ernst Dannhauer, there were people in the Prussian court who were jealous of the attention and honors that this junior officer was attracting from the elite circles, and they sabotaged him by misreporting innocent remarks as insults. Reisswitz fell into depression, and on 1 September 1827, he shot himself. Reisswitz's father died a year later, and they were buried in the same cemetery. Reisswitz's disgrace and suicide hampered the progression of his wargame for obvious reasons, but it was kept alive by a small number of wargaming clubs, and in later decades it was widely played by the officer corps. Reisswitz's name was rarely mentioned, however, in subsequent literature on ''kriegsspiel''. In 1874, his old friend and fellow officer Heinrich Ernst Dannhauer, now a general, rehabilitated Reisswitz's name in an article published in ''Militär-Wochenblatt'' #56.

Reisswitz's wargame

Reisswitz invented professional wargaming. ''Kriegsspiel'' was the first wargaming system that was embraced as a serious tool for training and research by an army. Previous wargames were dismissed as mere toys because they were not realistic enough. Reisswitz took advantage of new advances in

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

and

probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set o ...

to create a battle simulator that was sufficiently realistic for instructional use. Reisswitz did not like calling his system a "game", but he could not find a better term for it.:
"The one thing which did not satisfy Von Reisswitz was the word "game;" but not finding anything to take its place he retained it." Reisswitz's wargame was designed to simulate battles at the tactical level (it did not concern itself with operational matters such as training and logistics). It was played on a paper map which represented the battlefield, and the troops were represented by little blocks of lead placed on the game map. The game was played by two teams, each commanding an imaginary army of little lead blocks, and was overseen by an umpire. The game was turn-based. Each turn, a team would give written orders for their troops to the umpire, who would then move the little blocks across the game map according to how he judged the imaginary troops would interpret and execute the orders. Each turn represented two minutes of time, and during a turn the troops would do only as much as they realistically could in two minutes. Reisswitz's manual provided tables denoting exactly how far the troops could move in two minutes, according to the type of troop and the terrain they crossed (cavalry moved faster than infantry, marching uphill was slower than downhill, etc.). When the two armies engaged each other, the umpire would use dice rolls and simple arithmetic to compute how many casualties they inflicted upon each other, and when a troop formation was defeated he would remove its block from the game map.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reisswitz, Georg von 1794 births 1827 deaths Prussian military officers