“One must demand the impossible to ensure that the possible will be achieved.”

Field Marshal Helmut von Moltke (1800 to 1891)

Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf[ von Moltke was a Prussian field marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field. He commanded troops in Europe and the middle-east, commanding during the Second Schleswig War, Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War.

He is described as embodying Prussian military organisation and tactical genius. He was fascinated with railways and pioneered their military usage. He is often referred to as Moltke the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke, who commanded the German Army at the outbreak of World War I.