Education
He studied at Erfurt.
He studied at Erfurt.
He entered the Austrian army, transferred to the army of Ansbach-Bayreuth, fought with the mercenary Hessian troops of England in the American Revolution, and in 1786 transferred to the Prussian army. He served in the Polish campaigns, 1793-1794, was a staff officer at the Battle of Jena, and later defended Kolberg successfully until the peace with Napoleon in 1807. He received the order Pour le mérite,merite, became chief of the corps of engineers, and was made a member of the reorganization committee of the army. After Stein's dismissal, Gneisenau went abroad but returned to Prussia and served as Blücher'sBlucher's chief of staff in the invasion of France in 1814 and in the Waterloo campaign. He became governor of Berlin in 1818, general field marshal in 1825, and in 1831 was made commander in chief of the four corps on the Polish frontier. Gneisenau was a military genius endowed with energy, wisdom, and leadership.