The Clausewitz Museum in Burg


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It will cost you only one euro.

This is the humble entrance fee for Burger Clausewitz Erinnerungsstätte, as the museum in Clausewitz parents house is called officially in German.

I admit that when I left Berlin to visit Burg bei Magdeburg, a town approximately 2 hours west, I had very low expectations for the exhibition. It was a pleasant surprise.

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Clausewitz family house, nowadays Burger Clausewitz Erinnerungsstätte

 

 

You might think that you know a lot about Clausewitz. Until you meet the museum curator Klaus Möbius who is a walking Clausewitz encyclopedia. Herr Möbius is actually a retired bio teacher. Yet his real passion is the history of his town and its famous son.

 

 

 

 

 

The museum itself is rather small but an excellent example what enthusiasm and ideas could do. It doesn’t have fancy showcases or many expensive artifacts.

The family coat of arms

The family coat of arms

 

 

 

But Herr Möbius has stories. About the Huguenots whose ideas and culture influenced enormously Burg and its citizens. About its long history as a garrison town. About Burg’s eerie towers. And about an overly ambitious local tax collector called Friedrich von Clausewitz who pushed his sons to dream big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever wondered where Clausewitz learned to speak so well French? What was the influence of Pietism over his ideas? Was his family really from the nobility? Why the confusion with Carl’s birthday date and names? What is the connection between Clausewitz family and the legendary Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia?  What happened with Clausewitz’s three older brothers? And how and why Carl and Marie’s remains were moved in 1971 from Wroslaw (Breslau) to a new gravesite in Burg? 

 

The memorial site in the museum's garden

The memorial site in the museum’s garden

 

Well, then you have to visit the Burger Clausewitz Erinnerungsstätte.

 

Carl and Marie von Clausewitz's gravesite in Burg

Carl and Marie von Clausewitz’s gravesite in Burg

 

More information about Burger Clausewitz Erinnerungsstätte and contact can be found here

 

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  1. #1 by Johannes Allert on 1 August 2013 - 10:52 am

    Great start to a great blog & book Vanya !

  2. #2 by Kathy Bellinger on 2 August 2013 - 2:51 pm

    This is great Vanya!!

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