# Is "Vom Kriege (On War)" by Carl von Clausewitz a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Vom Kriege (On War) by Carl von Clausewitz (Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin, 1832) is identified by: The first edition is the Berlin printing by Ferdinand Dümmler, issued posthumously by Clausewitz's widow Marie von Clausewitz. The German Berlin first of 1832-34 is the true first and the census claim is confirmed, with two refinements.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition is the Berlin printing by Ferdinand Dümmler, issued posthumously by Clausewitz's widow Marie von Clausewitz
- Vom Kriege is not a standalone book: it occupies volumes 1-3 of "Hinterlassene Werke des Generals Carl von Clausewitz über Krieg und Kriegführung," with volume 1 dated 1832, volume 2 dated 1833, and volume 3 dated 1834
- The complete Hinterlassene Werke extends to ten volumes published 1832-37, volumes 4-10 containing the campaign studies; a set called "complete" must have all ten
- Format is octavo (about 202 x 120 mm), and the full set includes two folding engraved maps and one folding table
- The print run of the Hinterlassene Werke was 1,500 copies
- Reference: Printing and the Mind of Man 297
- Publisher imprint reads Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Carl von Clausewitz |
| Publisher | Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin |
| Year | 1832 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition is the Berlin printing by Ferdinand Dümmler, issued posthumously by Clausewitz's widow Marie von Clausewitz |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first edition is the Berlin printing by Ferdinand Dümmler, issued posthumously by Clausewitz's widow Marie von Clausewitz. Vom Kriege is not a standalone book: it occupies volumes 1-3 of "Hinterlassene Werke des Generals Carl von Clausewitz über Krieg und Kriegführung," with volume 1 dated 1832, volume 2 dated 1833, and volume 3 dated 1834. The complete Hinterlassene Werke extends to ten volumes published 1832-37, volumes 4-10 containing the campaign studies; a set called "complete" must have all ten. Format is octavo (about 202 x 120 mm), and the full set includes two folding engraved maps and one folding table. The print run of the Hinterlassene Werke was 1,500 copies. Reference: Printing and the Mind of Man 297. There is no edition statement and no number line — identification is by the Dümmler Berlin imprint with the volume dates 1832 / 1833 / 1834. The decisive textual point: the 1832-34 first is the only uncorrupted text. The second German edition (Zweite Auflage, 1853) introduced editorial alterations to Clausewitz's text, carried forward into the third edition and thus into every English translation made before 1976.

## Is this the true first?
The German Berlin first of 1832-34 is the true first and the census claim is confirmed, with two refinements. First, the first English translation in book form is J.J. Graham's "On War," London: N. Trübner & Co., 1873, in three volumes — but it is not the first English appearance of Clausewitz: an earlier partial English translation ran serially in 1835 in The Metropolitan Magazine and in The Military and Naval Magazine of the United States. Second, and importantly for collectors, Graham 1873 was translated from the corrupted third German edition (1867-69), not from the 1832-34 first, so it transmits the altered text; the Howard & Paret translation (Princeton, 1976) was the first English rendering made from a restored text. Both the German 1832-34 and the Graham 1873 are collected, the former as the true first, the latter as the English first in book form. Print-run figures reported for the 1873 Trübner conflict between sources and are omitted here.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition — the date precludes it. Reprint tells are imprint- and statement-based: later Dümmler printings carry "Zweite Auflage" (1853) or "Dritte Auflage" (1867-69) and are not the first. Any single-volume or three-volumes-in-one "Vom Kriege" is a later edition; the first is inseparable from the Hinterlassene Werke series title and its 1832/1833/1834 volume dates. Twentieth-century German scholarly editions that restore the original 1832-34 text are separate editions, not printings.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Vom Kriege (On War)* by Carl von Clausewitz a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/vom-kriege-on-war
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.