[These two examinations], for the grade of Portepée-fähnrich and for the officer’s commission, are either conducted or controlled by the Supreme Military examinations Board, (Ober-Militair-Examinations-Commission) in Berlin, a body partly composed of military officers, partly of eminent civilians.
The various examining boards, the central and the local ones, which conduct these two examinations, are quite independent of the military schools, and were formerly presided over by a different head; but in order that the system should be uniformly carried out, and as Colonel von Holleben expresses it, that “the examinations should exercise a salutary influence on education, and that their standard should be adjusted to the capacities of the schools,” they have now been placed under the same control as the military schools.
[The whole department] of military education is therefore now under the control of a single high functionary, bearing the title of the general inspector of the military schools, military education, and military studies (das Militair Erziehungs-und-Bildungswesen,) who reports direct to the king on all subjects relating to examination and instruction. He submits his proposals on matters of administration to the minister of war, who issues the necessary orders to the boards charged with the financial control of the various schools.
The general inspector is assisted by a supreme council or board of military studies, composed of field officers of the general staff and of the special arms, the directors of the war school, of the supreme board of military examinations, of the artillery and engineers school, the commander of the cadet corps, some of the consultative assessors (Vortragenden Räthen,) of the minister of worship, and of individuals selected from the general body of learned men (professors.)
[The principal military schools] of Prussia may be divided into five classes:—
I. Those which give a good general education to the sons of meritorious officers, but which are open to others, such as—
1. The Cadet Houses or Cadet Schools (Cadetten-Häuser,) which supply a certain amount of instruction in military professional subjects.
II. Such as supply professional instruction to young men who are candidates for the rank of officer in the Prussian army. These are—
2. The Division Schools (Divisions-Schule,) nine in number, one for each army corps.
3. The artillery and engineers schools in Berlin.