Alfred Graf von Schlieffen

Alfred Graf von Schlieffen (February 28, 1833 - January 4, 1913), German field marshal and strategist, served as Chief of the German Imperial General Staff from 1891 to 1905. His name lived on in the meticulously conceived Schlieffen Plan for the defeat of France and Russia.

The son of a Prussian general, he entered the army in 1854. Quickly moving to the general staff, he participated in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. In 1884 Schlieffen became head of the military history section of the general staff, replacing Count Waldersee as chief of the German General Staff in 1891.

'Colonel Alfred von Schlieffen' appeared in How Few Remain, by Harry Turtledove, a work of alternate history set in 1881 and assuming a Confederate victory in the American Civil War. Part of the story was told from Von Schlieffen's viewpoint, serving as German military attache to the US government.