Didrik Thomas Johannes Schnitler (9 September 1833 – 15 December 1888) was a Norwegian military officer and war historian.
Personal life edit
He was born in Østre Toten, as the son of military officer Balthasar Schnitler (died 1840) and Bolette Rogneby.[1] He married Nanni Cathrine Sidonia Gudmundson (1833–1901) in 1859,[1] and was the father of military officer and historian Gudmund Schnitler.[2]
Career edit
Schnitler graduated from the Norwegian Military Academy in 1854, and went on to study at the Norwegian Military College, where he graduated in 1858.[1] His first assignment was at the Bergenhusiske gevorbne Musketerkorps in Bergen.[3] He served at the 2nd Akershusiske Brigade, and then at Kanalvæsenet. From 1859 he was assigned to the General Staff, where he had the title of Adjoint from 1864.[3] He gained the rank of captain in 1872,[1] and was given a special post as military historian in 1876.[3] He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1882. He was a teacher of military history at both of his alma maters, the Norwegian Military Academy and the Norwegian Military College.[1]
His main work is the four-volume series Almindelig krigshistorie ("General War History"), published between 1878 and 1885.[4] The series is an expanded version of works originally written for his lectures at the Military Academy. Volume I covered the Ancient Greek and Macedonian period, volume II covered the Roman period, volume III covered Medieval warfare, and volume IV covered the period up to 1650.[5] A fifth volume, based on his manuscripts,[6] covering the period from 1650 to 1792, was completed and published by his son, Gudmund, in 1905.[2]
He was a member of the editorial board of the periodical Norskt militært Tidsskrift. He was the secretary of the Military Commission of 1869, a member of the Military Education Commission from 1870 to 1872, and a member of the Commission of 1884, which had been given the mandate of preparing for the reorganization of the Norwegian Army.[1]
A selection of his articles originally published in various magazines was published in 1895 as Blade af Norges krigshistorie.[7] He was decorated as a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1880, and was also a Knight of the Swedish Order of the Sword and Order of the Polar Star, and the Prussian Order of the Crown.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g Amundsen, O. Delphin (1947). Den kongelige norske Sankt Olavs Orden (in Norwegian). Oslo: Grøndahl. p. 210.
- ^ a b "Gudmund Schnitler". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ a b c Schnitler 1895: p. VI
- ^ "Didrik Thomas Johannes Schnitler". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ Schnitler 1895: pp. VII-VIII
- ^ Schnitler 1895: p. VIII
- ^ Schnitler, Didrik (1895). Blade af Norges krigshistorie. Kristiania: Aschehoug.