1 “ the Marine Service.[33]
Under the general term of School Companies the School Squadrons (for the Cavalry) are included. The term Scientific[34] School Companies applies only to those of the Artillery, Engineers, Pioneers, Flotilla, and Marine.
The scholars in the School Companies are either pupils or attendants[35] The pupils are taken, as already described, from the Upper Houses of Education, after the close of their fourth year’s course, (or, in the case of the Marine School Company, after that of the second,) or they come direct from places of private education.
The conditions for gratuitous admission from private educational institutions into the School Companies are similar to those for admission into the Houses of Education, with the difference, that in the School Companies the sons of officials in the civil service, who have served long and meritoriously, and are ill-provided for, may also claim military places.
The candidates must be not under fifteen and not above eighteen years of age; in the Marine School Company not under thirteen and not above fourteen.
The Attendant pupils (frequentanten) come from the soldiers of the Standing Army.[36] They exist only in the School Companies of the Artillery, Engineers, Pioneers, and Flotilla; to be admissible, they must, as a rule, have passed with credit through the Non-commissioned Officer Schools of the Artillery or Engineer regiments, or of the Pioneer Corps or Flotilla Corps; they must have been not more than two years in the service; and not at the utmost be above the rank of an Upper Cannoneer, an Exempt, or an Upper Pioneer.[37]
The admission of Attendants (frequentanten) can only be allowed without prejudice to the claims of candidates from the Upper Military Houses of Education and from places of private education.
Pupils who come direct from private education must, if they propose to enter one of the Scientific School Companies, be at least 4 feet 10 inches;[38] if one of the other School Companies, at least 4 feet 8 inches high. And these and the Attendant pupils alike must at their entrance into the School Companies pass an examination in the subjects of instruction taught in the Upper Houses of Education.
A perfect knowledge of German is accordingly an indispensable condition for reception into the School Companies, and can only in the single case of the Marine School Company be under certain circumstances overlooked.