The upper or central cadet school is in the older part of Berlin, in the Neue Friedrichs Strasse, where on the pediment surmounting the gateway the inscription, MARTIS ET MINERVÆ ALUMNIS M.DCC. LXXVI, records the erection by Frederick the Great, ten years before his death, of the large and stately quadrangle which formed the original house. Here the pupils are quartered, and in the great court within, they go through their exercises. There are several houses on both sides of the street attached to the service of the institution, and buildings are in course of erection to accommodate additional numbers.
A large separate building contains the present class-rooms. In the first of these which we visited, thirty cadets were engaged in military drawing; in another, twenty-four of the second class, the Secunda, were busy at their Latin lesson.
The room was fitted up on what appears to be the usual plan, with a series of parallel desks on the same level, ranged along the outer wall, and a sufficient space between them and the inner wall for the teacher to pass freely up and down. His desk was at one end in front of the boys. The lesson was in Quintus Curtius. The teacher (a civilian) made them construe each a sentence, and asked questions in parsing, &c., &c., much in the English manner. There was no taking places. This in German schools appears to be confined to quite the lower classes. There is a separate lecture-room here again for lessons on Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, with a small gallery of models, instruments, &c., attached to it.
A large hall is used on state occasions, and serves the purpose also of an examination-room; it is called the hall of the Field Marshals, and is adorned with portraits of the sovereigns of Prussia from the Great Elector downwards, and of the field marshals both of the time of Frederick the Great and of more recent date, among whom is the Duke of Wellington. Here also is kept Napoleon’s sword taken at “La Belle Alliance,” and presented by Marshal Blucher.
Passing to the first floor of the great quadrangular building, we found ourselves in one of the sitting-rooms of the cadets. Seven boys had a couple of rooms, consisting of a common sitting-room, and a common bed-room. Five is the number for which this amount of accommodation was intended, and to five the number will be reduced when the new buildings are completed. In a second and larger pair of rooms we found twelve boys.
Here also is the library, containing 10,000 volumes, and comfortable apartments occupied by the various superintending officers.
The boys, their morning lessons completed, had been going through their military exercises under the superintendence of their officers; but they were now collected in their studying-rooms, and were seen forming at the doors, each small party under the command of its senior, ready to march into the large and handsome dinner-hall.
Into this the whole body of young men presently moved by companies, proceeding to station themselves in front of the tables. The tables are ranged in parallel lines on each side of the central passage, and accommodate each of them ten, four sitting at each side, and a senior at each end. The order was given by the officer on duty for “prayer” (Nun beten wir,) and a short silent grace was followed by the immediate occupation of the seats, and the commencement of the meal. The arrangements in general appeared to be excellent.
The number in the school during the past year had been 420. The four companies into which the whole body of the pupils is divided, each contain a certain proportion from each of the three classes; the senior in each company being invested with the charge of the juniors; those who are in the Selecta taking rank as under officers. In every room (Stube or Wohnzimmer) there is one Selectaner, who is responsible. The ordinary ages are 15, 16 in the Secunda; 16, 17 in the Prima, and as far as 19 in the Selecta. No one is, as a rule, allowed to pass more than one year in a class; if in that time he can not qualify himself for advancement, he is dismissed. The rule does not, however, appear to be strictly enforced. The general preservation of discipline appears to be a good deal intrusted, as in English public schools, to these senior pupils of the age of eighteen or nineteen. There are Resident Tutors (Erziehers or Gouverneurs) as at Potsdam, who see a good deal of the pupils, especially in the evenings, when they go into the sitting-rooms, sit with them, help them in their work, play at chess with them, &c., &c. But they do not sleep close at hand between the sets of rooms, as at Potsdam, but at some little distance off.