It should be mentioned before quitting the subject, that all the officers of the artillery and engineers are bound, in consideration of three years’ maintenance in the school, to serve a period of six years, before they can exercise the usual privilege allowed to Prussian officers of withdrawing from the service.
[A particular account of the Course of Instruction in this School will be given in a separate article under the title of the Institution.]
[VI. SCHOOL FOR STAFF OFFICERS AT BERLIN.]
The War School (Kriegs-Schule) in Berlin has undergone many changes since its foundation in the time of Frederick the Great. It is now the Staff School of Prussia, i.e., the only, or almost the only, means of obtaining a staff appointment is by passing through it, and the education given is particularly intended to form staff officers. Its plan and methods of teaching differ, indeed, from the very commencement from the French Staff School, and bear much more resemblance to the senior department at Sandhurst, with the exception that the senior department is not at present a necessary means towards a staff appointment.
Thus the Kriegs-Schule does not take young men of twenty-one or twenty-two and educate them (like the French Staff School) for the staff and the staff alone. Its pupils are men of twenty-five or twenty-six, officers of three years’ standing, or five years’ service since their first entering the army. At this comparatively ripe age they become candidates for entrance to the Staff School, and, if admitted, they spend there three years of laborious study, with no very brilliant prospects to crown it, as only a very small number obtain what may be called the lowest prize, admission to the Topographical Department; and out of these only two or three yearly of the most distinguished pupils gain the Staff. The rest return to their regiments, and are employed as adjutants or as teachers in the Division Schools.
The process of entrance is as follows:—An officer of three years’ standing desires to go to the Staff School. Any one may send in his name as a candidate for the entrance examination to the minister of war, having obtained a certificate from his superior officer that he understands his regular duty, has no debts, and is capable, both as regards his abilities and bodily strength, of making a good staff officer. Little difficulty is made about admission to become a candidate, nor is there any regulation to limit the number from any one corps or regiment, so that there may be often found in the Staff School more in proportion from the infantry than the cavalry, and vice versâ. Some regiments, we heard, hardly ever send officers to the school. Practically, indeed, the regulation requiring three years of active service bears hard upon the artillery and engineers in comparison with the other services; for, as the officers of these two corps only enter their own school after they have been near a year in the service, and spend three years there, they must have been in the army nearly seven years before they can enter the Staff School.
The candidate for the Staff School is examined in the capital of the province in which his corps is stationed. The examination is early in April, and it is held at the provincial town instead of Berlin, in order to diminish expense. But the questions are sent from the board of examiners in Berlin, and the same are given in the different provincial towns at one and the same time. The examination is much on the same subjects, and requires about the same actual knowledge as that which was passed at least three years before for a lieutenancy, but owing to the difference of age, the questions are put and are expected to be answered in a much more scientific form than on the first occasion. Thus, we were told, such an essay as “Give an account of the wars of Francis I. and Charles V.,” would at the Kriegs-Schule Examination rather be stated thus: “What was the influence of these wars on the policy and religion of Europe?”
The examination is entirely upon paper; it occupies from ten to twelve days of about five hours daily, the superintending staff officer in the province presiding over it. But his business is limited to reading out the questions sent to him, and taking care that no books are brought in, or any improper means used. The answers to the questions have to go through a double ordeal, the military ones being first examined by some of the staff of the general commanding in the province, and afterwards by the commission of examiners at Berlin. The final decision rests with the chief of the Prussian staff, who recommends the successful officers to the minister of war.