We should add, however, that as in Prussia a young Officier-aspirant is still partly a private soldier, we were told that many were glad to exchange the severity of regimental discipline for the Division School.
[3. The United Artillery and Engineers’ School at Berlin.]
Young men desirous of obtaining commissions in the Artillery or Engineers follow the course which has already been described. They join either with a nomination from a colonel of artillery or engineers, or as scholars from the Cadet House. They submit themselves for examination for the grade of Ensign (Portepée-fähnrich); they serve their time with the troops, they go through a course of professional study, and are examined in it for their officer’s commission by the Board at Berlin. If they come from the highest class, the Selecta of the Cadet House, they have the privilege of joining the corps with the rank of officer.
In these respects the system is the same for them as for the Aspiranten in the other arms of the service.
The distinctions are, that first, in the preliminary or Ensign’s Examination, a somewhat greater acquaintance with mathematics is required from them; secondly, that they prepare for the Officer’s Examination, and follow their professional studies, not in the Division Schools, but in a separate Special Arm School at Berlin. Moreover, nine months’ service with the troops, instead of six, is required before they can enter the Special Arm School. They enter it also with the rank only of corporal, and are not eligible to the grade of Swordknot Ensign until they have passed three months at least in the school.
Their Officer’s Examination before the Supreme Board at Berlin takes place after nine months more, at the end of the first year at the school, and after passing they are eligible to the rank of officer.
When a vacancy occurs their claim to an actual commission is considered, and the usual formalities are fulfilled. Their names are submitted for approval to the officers of the corps, and with that approbation laid before the King; and they thus in due time obtain their rank as Sub-Lieutenants respectively of Artillery or of Engineers.
This rank, however, is provisional, and their position is that of supernumeraries. Their education as officers may be complete, but their education as officers of Artillery or of Engineers has scarcely in fact commenced. They have before them a third examination, that of the Special Arm, their Vocation-trial or Berufs-prüfung. Or, more correctly speaking, they have not one but two to pass, for the third examination is divided into two stages, one to be passed at the end of each of the two years which yet remain of the course. It is only when these are completed, after a three years’ stay, that the young man is finally allowed to join his corps as a second-lieutenant.
Failure in the officers’ examination at the close of the first year is attended with the penalty of returning to the corps and resuming service in the ranks with the troops. Whether or not the rejected student may be permitted to return after an interval to join again the classes of the first year, or after passing, upon a second trial, the officers’ examination, to enter the classes of the second year, will depend upon the extent of his failure.
Failure in the examination at the close of the second year is similarly visited with the punishment of return to the corps. As they have already passed the officers’ examination, they may endeavor to effect a transfer to a regiment of the line; or, under certain circumstances, they may be permitted to study privately in preparation for the third year’s course, and may offer themselves for a second trial.