Karl von Raumer: a pioneer of German military geology

Napoleon Bonaparte was in 1798 the first general to involve geologists as such in a military campaign. But geologists were attached to his army as civilians, without military rank or command function. In contrast, the Prussian general (later Field Marshal) Gebhard von Blücher has generally been credited with first making use of a geologist in military uniform: Professor Karl von Raumer, during the 1813–14 war of German liberation from French Napoleonic domination. Authors have claimed that Blücher consulted Raumer for information on the terrain of Silesia before triumphing over the French at the Battle of the Katzbach in 1813, and that Raumer was therefore the first geologist to help plan a military operation. But is this true? Did Raumer in effect initiate German military use of geology – pioneering the widespread use of geologists, many of them professors, in the 20th century German army?