The object of the War School is to give Officers of all arms an education for higher duties, especially for those of the Staff and of the Upper Adjutant Department.[55]
Any Subaltern Officer of the active army, without distinction of arms, may claim admission into the War School, provided he is above twenty-one and under twenty-six years old, is unmarried, and has served as Officer uninterruptedly and with distinction two years at least with the troops, and, provided, finally, he has passed the prescribed preliminary examination.
For admission to the examination, registration, to be obtained in the usual form from the War Department, is requisite.
The examination is conducted between October 10th and 20th, in the War School buildings; the registered candidates will be summoned to Vienna at the beginning of October; traveling expenses will be paid by the Treasury. The subjects are—
1. Algebra and Geometry, including Plane and Spherical Trigonometry. 2. Geography. 3. History. 4. Arms and Munitions. 5. Field and Permanent Fortification. 6. Pioneer Service. 7. Rules of Drill and Exercise (in detail, for the arm in which the candidate has served, and generally for the other arms.) 8. Manœuvring. 9. Military drawing, tested by the production of a drawing of the candidate’s own doing. 10. Military Composition, tested by working out an exercise in the presence of the Commission. 11. French. And finally, 12, the candidate must be able to speak one of the national languages of the Austrian Empire, Slavonic, Hungarian, or Italian, and must write a good current and legible hand.
The amount of knowledge required in these subjects will be regulated by the range of the text-books prescribed for use in the Academy at Neustadt. Regard, however, will not so much be given to the minutiæ of knowledge possessed by the candidate, but rather to the evidence of his having a correct judgment and quick apprehension, and the power of expressing himself both orally and in writing.
Upon the results of the examination, formally drawn up by the authorities of the school, recommendations for admission will be submitted to the sanction of His Majesty.
The number of attendants in the War School is fixed at thirty, and the length of course is two years.
The attending pupils receive, in addition to their ordinary pay, a monthly allowance of twenty florins, rations, and allowance for two horses; when employed in taking surveys and reconnoitring, they have an extra allowance of thirty florins monthly.