The Brain of an Army: A Popular Account of the German General Staff

by Spenser Wilkinson

The distinctive feature of the regeneration by which modern Prussia was raised up, after the Prussia of Frederick the Great had been shattered in the first conflict with Napoleon, was the effort to lay a solid foundation in healthy institutions and especially in a sound education. The work which was done for Prussian institutions by Stein and for liberal education by Humboldt, was done for the army by Scharnhorst, to whom military education was the corner-stone of army reform. The University of Berlin began its work on October 15th, 1810, and on the same day[[1]] was opened the War School for officers, the great military high school of Germany, now known as the War Academy. It was the creation of Scharnhorst, whose greatness is nowhere more conspicuous than in his educational work.

As early as 1792, before he had ever seen a battle, he had published a Soldier's Pocket-book, in which the principles and details of field service were explained and illustrated by examples from then recent wars. The experiences of his first campaigns in 1793 and 1794 led him during his last years in the Hanoverian service to draw up a series of memoirs in which military education occupies a prominent place, and when in 1801 he joined the Prussian service, one of his first appointments was that of lecturer to the classes of young officers which had been instituted by Frederick the Great and still continued to be held. Scharnhorst rearranged and extended the courses of instruction, and himself as "Director of the Academy" taught to the higher class the important subjects of tactics and strategy. The lectures which he gave between 1801 and 1805 have been preserved in a fragmentary state, and show that he was the first to concentrate the attention of his pupils on the conduct of the operations of war, instead of merely busying them with the details of the several technical arts and sciences which subserve that end. The regulations for the Academy which he drafted in 1805 contain the outlines of the system which in a more developed form is still characteristic of the highest Prussian military education. Scharnhorst's best pupil at this time was Carl von Clausewitz, who in after years attributed to these early lessons the intellectual impulse which produced his masterly essays, and the historical method in which all his theory has its roots. Lectures and classes were abruptly ended by the mobilization of 1805, which was followed in 1806 by the great catastrophe.

The War School of 1810 aimed at the higher training of selected officers whose ability gave promise of a career in the superior ranks. It was distinct from the lower schools intended to give a professional training to young men preparing to become officers, and was closely connected with the general staff, in which Scharnhorst, at this time its chief, paid great attention to the instruction of the younger members. One of the first professors appointed was Clausewitz.

The wars of liberation practically dissolved the War School, which, however, after the peace of 1815 was re-established without substantial modification, though it was placed in the department, not of the chief of the staff, but of the inspector-general of military education. During the subsequent long period of peace, the Academy had the services of many distinguished men. From 1818 to 1830 Clausewitz was its director. The great geographer Karl Ritter was from 1820 to 1859 one of its professors. In 1859 the title of War Academy was definitely adopted, and in 1872 the institution was again placed under the superintendence of the chief of the general staff.

The regulations at present in force, though of recent date, are little more than a codification of the system which has been gradually developed on the foundations laid by Scharnhorst, and their value and the authority which attaches to them are in great measure due to the long and unbroken tradition which they represent.

They are embodied in two short codes entitled respectively "Order of Service," and "Order of Teaching of the War Academy." A concise account of these documents will best explain the workings of this institution.

The Order of Service is one of the few results of the brief reign of the lamented Emperor Frederick, whose signature it bears. It begins in true German fashion with a definition: "The object of the War Academy is to initiate into the higher branches of the military sciences a number of officers of the necessary capacity belonging to the various arms, and thus to enlarge and extend their military knowledge and to clear and quicken their military judgment.

"Side by side with this direct training for their profession, they are to endeavour, in proportion to the requirements of the army, to penetrate deeper into certain departments of formal science, and to acquire mastery in speaking and writing one or two modern foreign languages."

The Academy in its scientific working—as an institution for teaching and study—is under the chief of the general staff of the army, who is responsible for the appointment of the teachers, for the selection of officers as students ("the call to the Academy"), for their dismissal in case of need, and for the permission to attend a particular course occasionally granted to officers not "called." For the discipline and management of the Academy, the director, a general, is responsible. He is assisted by one or two deputies and by a Board of Studies, over whose nomination the chief of the staff has a controlling influence. The duties of the board are to approve of the programmes of the several professors' courses, and to conduct the examinations at the beginning and at the end of the course. The complete course lasts three years, with a long vacation of three months each summer. The appointment or "call" of students is in each case only for a year, its renewal depending upon diligence and good conduct. Any officer of five years' service not yet within four years from his turn of promotion to captain may apply for admission to the Academy, which is regulated by examination.

"The object of the entrance examination is to ascertain whether the candidate possesses the degree of general education and the knowledge requisite for a profitable attendance at the lectures of the Academy. The examination is also to determine whether the candidates have the power of judgment, without which there could be no hope of their further progress." The questions set are to be such as cannot be answered merely from knowledge stored up in the memory, and should test the capacity for clear, collected, and consistent expression. The military subjects required are tactics, formal and applied, the nature and construction of firearms, fortification and surveying. The general subjects are history, geography, mathematics, and French. The paper in applied tactics must be as simple as possible. It must consist of a problem for solution, so as to oblige the candidate to make a decision and give his reasons for it. Each candidate must send in an essay written at home on one of a list of subjects announced some months beforehand. This is particularly intended to test his power of judgment and the degree of general education he has attained. It may be either in German or French. "Of those officers whose work is judged the best (by the Board of Studies) the director may submit to the chief of the general staff of the army, with a view to their being called to the Academy, the names of any number not exceeding a hundred. The chief of the staff communicates his decisions to the generals commanding army corps, who inform the officers concerned."