[PRUSSIAN MILITARY EDUCATION IN 1869-70.]
[CHANGES SINCE 1856.]
The following remarks are gathered from the “Report of the Military Education Commission presented to both Houses of Parliament,” in 1870, in continuation of the Report submitted in 1856, on the Systems of Military Education in France, and Prussia.
1. The chief alterations that have taken place in the system of military education in Prussia since 1856, are as follows:—
(a.) All the educational establishments have been very much enlarged, owing to the increase in the army which has taken place since 1866.
(b.) The educational requirements for a commission remain in principle the same as they were—the double examination for the rank of officer, and the exaction from every candidate for a commission of proof of both general and professional knowledge being still the peculiar feature of Prussian military education. There has been, however, a constant tendency to raise the standard of the preliminary examination in subjects of general knowledge, and to insist more strongly upon a sound liberal education as a condition of obtaining a commission. The number of Abiturienten, or men who have passed through the complete course at a public school, entering the army annually is now four times as great as it was in 1856, and there is the strongest wish still further to increase their number.
(c.) The Cadet Schools in their general character are unaltered; the introduction of the peculiar class of the Ober-prima in the Upper Cadet School at Berlin is the most important modification made in their organization. The proportion of officers supplied by the Cadet Schools continues much the same as it was in 1856. The feeling in the army, however, against preparatory military schools appears to be increasing; a strong opinion is entertained as to the narrowing effects upon the mind of exclusive class education; and a preference is very generally exhibited for officers who have had the ordinary education of civil schools. At the War Schools (Diossi, on Schools in 1856), the Artillery and Engineer School, and the War Academy (Staff School in 1856), a decided opinion was expressed as to the intellectual superiority of the Abiturienten over those who have been educated in the Cadet Corps.
(d.) The arrangements for the professional instruction of officers of corps have been very much altered. These officers now have their education up to the time of obtaining their commissions in common with candidates for the line; their special instruction does not commence at the Artillery and Engineer School until they have been in the service three or four years. For the Artillery, the course at this school has been reduced to one year, and made strictly practical in character.
(e.) The course of instruction at the War Academy, or Senior Department, has been considerably modified; though still comprising many subjects of an entirely unprofessional character, their number has been reduced; the attention of the students is more concentrated upon military studies than formerly, and a larger amount of time is devoted to practical work. In short, the object has been to render the instruction less purely theoretical than it formerly was.