In the arrangements for the lessons, the very temperate or even timid use of the stimulus of competition deserves to be noticed. It appears, however, to have been lately employed with advantage in the highest class. At the same time, the provision made for giving really good instruction, and for placing all the boys in close relation with their teachers, can not but excite admiration. The small numbers of which the classes consist, and the care which seems to be taken in providing good teachers, both deserve attention.
The domestic arrangements, without being remarkable for the scrupulous cleanliness or the magnitude of the new institutions in Austria, certainly in some respects are more in accordance with English feelings. The greater privacy afforded by the use of rooms where few live together, is certainly more analogous to what has been found most desirable for English boys in large English schools, though most likely the contrary system is not less well-adapted to the national character in France and in Austria.
There are nine Division Schools for the whole army, one for each army corps, and they are placed at the following towns:—
Potsdam, Königsberg, Stettin, Frankfort on the Oder, Erfurt, Glogan, Neisse, Münster, and Trèves.
Here the young aspirant finds himself with nine or ten companions and a body of teachers amounting to about half that number, appointed by the commanding officer of the army corps, and differing considerably in different districts in their talents and ideas of education. They are often, though not always, selected from officers who have been at the Staff School, and afterwards at the Topographical Bureau. Their additional pay for teaching is uncertain; it depends upon the surplus remaining after the expenses of the household, and the money paid in purchasing books, instruments, &c., is deducted from the yearly allowance made to the school by the government. At best it is not high. It is calculated by the number of lectures, and at the most amounts to something more than 4l.10s.(30 thalers) for the lectures on a single subject, given, it must be remembered, during the course of little more than six months in the year. The highest pay given in the Potsdam School to any one professor amounted to something more than 15l.(100 thalers) yearly for lectures on three subjects, averaging ten or twelve lectures weekly for about six months. This must be estimated by a Prussian, not an English standard, being nearly equivalent to five-twelfths of the annual pay of a second lieutenant in that service.Still the sum is very low; and this, with some other obvious deficiencies, injures the working of the schools.
The young candidate for a commission begins a course of Tactics, Fortification, theory of Drawing and Surveying, Military Literature, Artillery, &c., Military Essays, and Drawing of Plans, which must be finished at the school in nine months, although it may be continued longer in private if the candidate is not prepared to pass his examination. As long as it lasts, twenty-three hours a week are devoted to study, besides the time occupied by questions, which the teachers are required to set from time to time, in order to keep up the pupil’s previous knowledge of French and Mathematics. The course is divided into the purely theoretical and practical divisions, the first of six and a half months, the latter of two and a half. We have already given a very full account of the studies in p. 188.
The arrangement of studies is systematic, and the number of hours devoted each week to lectures on the various subjects of study and to gymnastic riding and fencing, is as follows:
WEEKLY:
The subjoined plan gives the exact employment of time for each day during the week :—
PLAN OF LECTURES AT THE DIVISION SCHOOL IN POTSDAM, 1855-6.
Military Literature.
Instruction on Military duties.
Artillery, &c.
Plan drawing.
Military Surveying (theoretically.)
Plan drawing.
Military Surveying (theoretically.)
Plan drawing.
Dinner time, 3 o’clock. Time for studying, from 6 till 8 o’clock, or from 7 till 9 o’clock every evening.
The lecturer has to draw up what is called the thread of the lecture (leitfaden,) a sort of programme containing its leading heads, intended to assist the memory of the pupils in giving a full account of it afterwards; and the contents of the different lectures on Tactics, Arms and Munitions, Fortifications, &c., are written out very minutely by the students. Ten pages of close print are devoted to these programmes in Helldorf; and the translation already given (pp. 188-194) will show that the list of military subjects adverted to is considerable.
At the end of the nine months spent at the Division School, the “Officier Aspiranten” go to Berlin for the examination for their commission. If they can not pass this, they return to study by themselves for their second trial. Unless by special permission from the King, they can not try more than twice.
The examination is conducted by the Supreme Commission for Examinations at Berlin, and has been already described.
The Division Schools were founded at the end of the great War. Their germ appears in Scharnhorst’s general order in 1810, which, among other things, instituted three War Schools for the candidate for commissions (Portepée-fähnriche.) These three War Schools seem to have been changed into the Division Schools in 1813 and 1816. At first, indeed, they were much more numerous than at present, as their name implies, there being two Divisions to each Army-Corps. There are now, as we have mentioned, nine; and Corps School or Army-Corps School would be the more correct designation.
Their importance as the institutions for special military instruction to all “Officier-Aspiranten” of the army led us to inquire carefully with regard to their efficiency, and in particular from two distinguished officers, on whose judgment and scientific experience great reliance might be placed. One of these, it may be added, possessed constant means of knowing all the details respecting them.
I. Formerly, it appears, it was not possible to limit these schools to their true object, purely military instruction. This was the special object of their creation; but owing to the defectivegeneraleducation which candidates often brought with them into the army, the Division Schools were too much used as a means of meeting this deficiency.
II. The opinions we obtained were certainly not favorable with regard to the present efficiency of these schools. It seemed to be agreed, that from various reasons, the military education given wassusceptible of much improvement; that some of the Division Schools were really defective in teaching, whilst none could be pointed to as strikingly good. But it was also admitted that these blemishes arose from remediable defects in the working of the schools; that their principle was in itself sound, and capable of being carried out more perfectly, and excellently adapted to the object of giving some military instruction to all desirous of becoming officers of the infantry and cavalry.
III. The causes assigned for the present defects in the efficiency of the Division Schools were chiefly the following:—
(a.) That they were far too numerous.
Educated and scientific as Prussia may be called, it is not found practicable to supplyninearmy schools with exactly the sort of men fitted for the work of education. The pay, it must be added, is insufficient to attract many, and thus (as we were informed,) although many officers of intelligence are sometimes not unwilling to leave the life of drill for the life of education for a year or two, few do so with the serious purpose of doing itwell. Neither the position nor the emoluments tempt them to make it a profession. Officers in command of the district have made the appointments, and often have “good-naturedly,” as it was said, appointed unfit persons, known as studious men.
(b.) The small number of pupils in each school was also spoken of as a very great disadvantage, as doing away with all emulation amongst themselves.
(c.) The independence which each school has enjoyed, and the want of any central body to watch its working and regulate its system, is also said to have had bad results. The teaching has been far from uniform,—in one school energetic, in another lax; in one school the most important subjects taught, in another, a little of everything; in a third, some special crotchet of a teacher. This has acted badly on the examinations, since it was thought hard to reject an “aspirant” who had done parts of his work well, and had been evidently ill taught or superficially instructed in others.
The remedies suggested were,—
(1.) Considerably to diminish the number of these schools. This, we were told, was about to be done by reducing them fromninetothree. Such a course would obviously tend to remedy two of the evils complained of. It would give a larger choice of teachers, and afford more liberal means of remunerating them, and a larger attendance and competition of pupils.
(2.) To place the schools under the more direct regulation andmanagement of the Central Educational Department at Berlin. This step would improve their teaching by subjecting it to constant inspection and reports. It would insure uniformity in the system of instruction and subjects of study; and, when combined with the presence of able teachers, it would enable the Board of Examiners at Berlin to pursue a more strict and unvarying course in rejecting ill-qualified candidates. By these means the teaching in the school would probably become more definite and higher.
One other point was mentioned to us as doubtful. It was thought that the time for attending the Division School came too soon after a young man’s entrance into the army, when he had but recently obtained his liberty, and was likely to be much more unwilling to be sent to school again than might have been the case a year or two later. General von Willisen, who urged this objection to us, was consequently for deferring the attendance at the Division Schools several years in an officer’s life.
We should add, however, that as in Prussia a youngOfficier-aspirantis still partly a private soldier, we were told that many were glad to exchange the severity of regimental discipline for the Division School.
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, theSelectaof 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 theAspirantenin 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 thegrade 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, theirVocation-trialorBerufs-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.
If a student fails in his last examination at the close of the third year, he may be allowed, in like manner, under favorable circumstances, to re-enter the third year’s classes, and try to qualify himself by an additional year of study, losing, of course, his seniority. Otherwise, he joins the corps as a supernumerary, with the pay of an infantry officer, and waits till he can obtain a commission in the line.
Candidates for commissions in the engineers enter the corps, it should be observed, originally as volunteers, finding their own clothing, and receiving no pay; but as soon as they enter the school they are regularly paid by the state, and receive their pay in the usual course of the service from the division to which they belong.
The studies of the three years are arranged in accordance with the system that has just been described. Those of the first year are common to the two arms, and correspond, in a general way, with what is taught in the Division Schools or in the highest class of the Cadet House. Those of the second year are devoted to the special arm subjects. In Mathematics, Artillery, and Fortification, the lectures are common to the artillery and engineers; in drawing they are divided.
In the third year a considerable separation takes place. Mathematics are still taught, and there is a special class of the most advanced students in the Differential and Integral Calculus, the Higher Geometry, and in Analytical Mechanics and Hydraulics; this, however, is purposely restricted to about one-third of the class, by raising the requirements, if necessary.
The course is divided in each year into the theoretical and the practical part. The year commences in October with the former, and the studies for the nine months succeeding are for the most part theoretical only. In June the examinations take place. July, August, and a part of September are given up to practical exercises. Something like the last three weeks of September are allowed for a vacation.
The general control of the school is in the hands of the General Inspectors of the two services, the artillery and the engineers. These two are theCuratorsof the school and form theCuratorium. They make their reports to the General Inspector of Military Education, of whom mention has already been made. The immediate management is intrusted to a director, who is a field officer of artillery or engineers, of the rank of commandant of a regiment, and he has a captain, appointed by theCuratoriumas his assistant.
There is a Board of Studies, of which the Director is chairman, consisting of the Senior Professor of Mathematics, of the Instructors of Artillery and Engineering in the third Cœtus, and of an equal number of officers of the two services named by the Curators.
Four officers, three from the artillery and one from the engineers, acting under the captain, are charged with the care of discipline and order; these are theDirectionOfficers.
There are twelve military and eleven civilian professors andteachers.Among the military professors and teachers may be included any of the direction officers.
The examinations of the first year are conducted by the usual Board, the Supreme Military Examinations Board; but for those of the second and of the third year, there is a separate board, chosen from the two services by the Curators, and otherwise unconnected with the School.
The numbers in the school vary from 216 to 240. In time of peace about five are yearly admitted for each regiment of artillery, and two or three for each division of engineers. The great majority have entered the army from the usual places of civil education, a few from the Prima of the Cadet House, on the same terms as the others, and a small number, who are usually among the best pupils in the school, from the Selecta, who come as officers, and after a short service with the troops, enter the second year’s classes, provided there is room, preference being always allowed to the students already belonging to the school, who have succeeded in passing the examination of the first year.
The Artillery and Engineers’ School buildings stand in Berlin itself, in the principal street,Unter den Linden, No. 74, near the Brandenburg Gate. They bear the following inscription:Artillerie und Ingenieur Schule. Stiftung Friedrich WilhelmsIII. M.DCCC.XXII.
On the occasion of our visit to the school, we were allowed by the kindness of the authorities to be present at some of the lectures. The students of the second year were attending the course on the History of the Art of War, and the immediate subject was an account of and criticism on the battle of Blenheim. The young men, about forty-five in number, were ranged in desks facing the Professor, but not in the manner of an amphitheater. The lecture was interesting, animated, and generally instructive; it was perfectly professorial in character, and the young men took notes. A class of the students of the first year, thirty-five in number, were engaged in topographical drawing. The artillery division of the third year students were in another room, listening to and busily taking notes upon a lecture (also professorial) on the construction of gun-carriages: the number was about forty-five.
Only the students of the first year are lodged in the building; and owing to the unusually large number lately admitted, an adjoining house has been taken to afford additional room. The accommodation in general is rather limited. Two stories in the upper part of the building are occupied by the somewhat scantily furnishedchambers; there appeared in some cases to be two young men in one room, in other cases four, or as many as six or seven to a bedroom and sitting-room. The students who lodge in the building dine together in a mess-room; and there is a billiard-room, with coffee-rooms adjoining it, for the general use, looking out from the ground floor front into the Unter den Linden. There is a library, a small laboratory attached to the lecture-room employed for the subjects of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, and a small collection of apparatus required for illustration on the latter subject.
On quitting the school, the engineer students, as soon as they obtain their commissions, are employed for three years with a Division of Engineers; then for three years in a fortress to superintend buildings; and then again with a Division of Engineers. They are then eligible to promotion as first-lieutenants.
The artillery students, in like manner, join and serve with their regiments.
Promotion in the artillery is by regiments, in the engineers it is general throughout the whole corps.
We should not omit to call attention to the fact, that the only instance which has come to our knowledge of the promotion ofofficers in their own arm of the service, being made contingent on their passing an examination, is to be found in the Prussian Artillery and Engineers. First-Lieutenants belonging to those corps must pass an examination before they can be promoted to the rank of captain. This regulation does not exist for any other part of the Prussian service, and it is considered a great grievance by the officers of those corps, as it may be exacted at the age of forty, from the most highly educated officers of the Prussian army.
The pay of subaltern of engineers is somewhat higher than that of the artillery, infantry, and cavalry. Above the rank of subaltern, the pay of the artillery, cavalry, and engineers, is on an equality, but superior to that of the infantry. The engineers have, moreover, a prospect of employment of a civil nature when they return from active service; to lucrative positions of this kind they are not unfrequently appointed.
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.]
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 theKriegs-Schuledoes 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, andvice 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 theKriegs-SchuleExamination 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.
There is an average of sixty or seventy candidates yearly. Only forty of these can be taken. If some additional case seems meritorious, the officer may obtain a promise of appointment, but his entrance is deferred. It is not uncommon to try more than once.
The entrance examination passed, the school opens on the 1st of October, to continue its lectures, with a fortnight’s break at Christmas and at Easter, till the first of June. It has its 120 pupils, divided into their three classes, one for each year, working (with only little of practical work) under professors, military for the lectures of a military, and civil for those of a non-military character. No difficulty, we understood, is found here, as we had heard to be the case at St. Cyr, in enforcing the fullest attention to the lectures of the civilian professors; each is respected according to his knowledge of the subject, and it would be thought as absurd for a military professor to undertake a non-professional subject, asvice versâ.
The method of working is that so commonly followed in thePrussian universities of listening to numerous lectures, and taking copious notes upon them. Nearly five hours daily, from eight in the morning till one, are often continuously occupied in this manner; for although only twenty hours of attendance are absolutely exacted weekly (an amount which to our own students would seem more than ample) ten more are said to be necessary to enable an officer to do any justice to the various subjects of which he is expected to show some knowledge at his examinations.
These lectures are usually read aloud; there is no questioning and answering. The student, after five morning hours, must spend at least five or six more in copying them out, or in writing an essay on the subject of some of the lectures. Of these one is given about every three weeks, but only on military subjects. They are carefully corrected and sent back to the student with the notes of his teacher, and their merit influences the final estimate of his whole work.
Besides this daily work, the examinations are at once a stimulus and a means of testing proficiency. These occur every three months, but the yearly ones are the most important. They are entirely upon paper. In the quarterly ones the papers are only given for two hours at a time daily, and take the place of two common lectures; in the other examinations they are daily for four or five hours. They are entirely essays upon the numerous subjects lectured on in the school, History of War, Philosophy, Tactics, &c.
Perhaps there is no better way of giving an idea of the mode of studying than by a statement of some of the subjects of these essays. They have been supplied to us by the kindness of Lieutenant Berger, of the 28th Infantry, from whom we have received much valuable information on the subject.
General Essays.
On Tactics:—I. A Prussian Division, added to which is,—1 Regiment of Infantry,1 twelve pounder Battery,1 Cavalry Regiment,is in retreat from Goldberg to Jauer (in Silesia.) The enemy is following. A position is to be taken up to stop his advance, whatever his numbers may be.A map of the position being given:—(a.) Describe the position.(b.) Draw up the troops.(c.) Write an explanatory criticism.(To be worked at home in two days.)Three Corps d’Armée march against Berlin from different points. The army in Berlin is ordered to meet them. (To be done in five hours.)Permanent Fortification. For what purpose are the fortifications in the main ditch intended, and how are they to be constructed? (Five hours.)Military Geography. The Saxon land between the Elbe and Saale, and its influence upon the operations of war in North and South Germany. (Five hours.)Criticism on the organization of the French Battalion. (At home in one day.)Examination Essays, Staff School.—Military History, Tactics and Administration.1. In what respects did the earlier form of military art, strategetically and tactically, favor defensive warsgenerally, and in particular assist Frederick II. in the Seven Years’ War? (Two hours.)2. The duties of the Staff in time of peace. (Two hours.)3. Position of Landwehr Officers on and off duty. (Two hours.)4. What is the value of the Cavalry formationen échelon, with particular reference to the Austrian mode? (Two hours.)5. Is only one sort of Infantry necessary, or is Light Infantry essential? (Two hours.)6. How may the mobilizing of an Army be best expedited? (Five hours.)7. Describe the different sorts of field works particularly used in war. (Two hours.)8. How is the Artillery of a Corps d’Armée to be used in the different emergencies of battle? (Five hours.)Literary and Scientific.1. The Geological characteristics of the country between the Carpathian Mountains and the Vistula on one side, and the Yaldai Mountains and the Dnieper on the other. (Two hours.)2. By what political conjunctures was the power and influence of England peculiarly advanced in the 18th century? (Five hours.)3. On the magnetic effects of the electric stream. (Two hours.)4. Characteristics of Greek literature, and its chief authors in the time of the Peloponnesian War. (Two hours.)
On Tactics:—I. A Prussian Division, added to which is,—
1 Regiment of Infantry,1 twelve pounder Battery,1 Cavalry Regiment,
1 Regiment of Infantry,
1 twelve pounder Battery,
1 Cavalry Regiment,
is in retreat from Goldberg to Jauer (in Silesia.) The enemy is following. A position is to be taken up to stop his advance, whatever his numbers may be.
A map of the position being given:—
(a.) Describe the position.(b.) Draw up the troops.(c.) Write an explanatory criticism.
(a.) Describe the position.
(b.) Draw up the troops.
(c.) Write an explanatory criticism.
(To be worked at home in two days.)
Three Corps d’Armée march against Berlin from different points. The army in Berlin is ordered to meet them. (To be done in five hours.)
Permanent Fortification. For what purpose are the fortifications in the main ditch intended, and how are they to be constructed? (Five hours.)
Military Geography. The Saxon land between the Elbe and Saale, and its influence upon the operations of war in North and South Germany. (Five hours.)
Criticism on the organization of the French Battalion. (At home in one day.)
Examination Essays, Staff School.—Military History, Tactics and Administration.
1. In what respects did the earlier form of military art, strategetically and tactically, favor defensive warsgenerally, and in particular assist Frederick II. in the Seven Years’ War? (Two hours.)
2. The duties of the Staff in time of peace. (Two hours.)
3. Position of Landwehr Officers on and off duty. (Two hours.)
4. What is the value of the Cavalry formationen échelon, with particular reference to the Austrian mode? (Two hours.)
5. Is only one sort of Infantry necessary, or is Light Infantry essential? (Two hours.)
6. How may the mobilizing of an Army be best expedited? (Five hours.)
7. Describe the different sorts of field works particularly used in war. (Two hours.)
8. How is the Artillery of a Corps d’Armée to be used in the different emergencies of battle? (Five hours.)
Literary and Scientific.
1. The Geological characteristics of the country between the Carpathian Mountains and the Vistula on one side, and the Yaldai Mountains and the Dnieper on the other. (Two hours.)
2. By what political conjunctures was the power and influence of England peculiarly advanced in the 18th century? (Five hours.)
3. On the magnetic effects of the electric stream. (Two hours.)
4. Characteristics of Greek literature, and its chief authors in the time of the Peloponnesian War. (Two hours.)
The knowledge required is seen in the account of the Staff School, (p. 395) and in the list of the Lectures given above. Besides militarysubjects, it includes a very full course of Ancient and Modern History, an addition to the History of War (which last alone occupies seven hours weekly for the last year,) a good deal of Logic and Philosophy of Art and Literature, and of Political Economy. Some of these lectures have probably been introduced from the school, having a double object, that of giving a diplomatic as well as a military education. This was the original idea of Frederick the Great, who, in all his plans of military teaching, laid a great stress on the general literature which he himself valued so highly. This diffusive study is a strong contrast to the principle of “little, but well,” and to the constant practical exercises in the laboratories insisted on by the early teachers of the Polytechnic School in France.
The following is the plan of the lectures for the three years. Twenty lectures a week are the minimum:—
Course of First Year.
Numbers printed as shown.
Course of Second Year
Course of Third Year.
It will be seen that the above course is entirely theoretical; no practical work (as in France) relieves the sedentary labor of tenhours daily for more than eight months of the year. But as soon as the first year’s course is ended, all the officers who are supposed to know drawing before coming to the school, are sent into the country for three weeks to practice military drawing and surveying; and those of the third year go through (also for the same period) a similar course of staff duty. These last are sent under the direction of the officer who is Professor of Staff Duty at the School; each student officer gets his separate orders, and they meet and are told off every morning for their day’s work, reconnoitering fortresses, surveying the frontiers between Austria and Prussia, &c., &c. During the remaining three summer months the students are sent in successive classes to those arms of the service which are not their own, and after the usual military exercises are completed they must bring back with them a certificate of proficiency from the commanding officer. This amount of time was spoken of as being too little.
If we are surprised at not finding a greater amount of practical work included amongst the labors of the school, we must remember that it is chiefly postponed to a later period of the officer’s career, when the probability of his being required to use it on the staff is greater. This is when he has gained his place in the Topographical Department, and is working there upon trial to test his fitness for the actual staff. He is then employed during winter in working on the Theory of War, and during summer in military surveying and drawing.
Such is the method and extent of the officer’s work at the Staff School; a few more words are needed on the character of his examinations, which here as everywhere else must greatly influence the character of the work.
There are no less than nine examinations during the three years, one for every three months, but the final one at the end of each year is the more important, as a sort of summing up of the year’s work. In marking for this the merit of the essays done at home is taken into account. The result in each branch of work and on every examination is entered by the several professors in a book kept at the directory, and the pupils have a right to inspect the report of their own work. The net result of his own three years’ work is also sent to the officer after leaving the school through the authorities of his regiment. The certificate of this contains the criticism on each branch of his work in detail.
The subjects given for essays will show the nature of the chief examinations (i.e.those at the end of each year;) four or five hoursis the time generally allowed to a difficult subject, the examination stretching over a number of days, in proportion to the subjects taken up. The pupil may bring in his notes of lectures, on which extraordinary care is bestowed, and which must contain everything that can be said on the subject. Much value is said to be attached to the rapidity with which an essay is worked, as showing a quality valuable in an officer. There is, as we have observed, novivâ voceof any kind in this School. Some competition exists in the Staff School, (and it is almost the only Prussian school where we find it,) for the knowledge that only eight or ten out of the forty pupils can obtain the Topographical Department, and only two out of these eight or ten, the staff, acts as a competitive stimulus. We must add, however, that although a minute account of thepositivemerits of the pupils is drawn up and sent to them at the end of their career, they have no means of ascertaining theirrelativepositions; and this may always leave room for doubt, whether the places in the Typographical Department and on the Staff are strictly given by merit, or whether patronage does not here step in. Another ambiguity may be remarked in the fact that the relative importance of the subjects of study is not known. It may of course be surmised, that a knowledge of the Peloponnesian War is not marked so highly as that of the Seven Years’ War; but any indefiniteness as to what is or what is not important, will generally lead to an attempt to know somethingof allthe subjects mentioned, and it would undoubtedly be better to affix its definite value to every subject. It would prevent what seem to us valid objections to the present system of the Staff School, the attempt to crowd in too many subjects, instead of mastering thoroughly a few.
The final examination having been completed in June, the student goes through the three weeks of staff duty we have described, and finishes his last three summer months in that branch of the army in which he has not yet served. He then returns to his regiment, where he receives the certificate of his three years’ work. But no list is published of the order of merit in which the officers stand. If the certificate is satisfactory, he forwards it to the Chief of the Prussian Staff, with a request to be employed in the Topographical Department of the Staff. If this is granted, he receives an order to join it in about two years,i.e.about nine or ten years after first entering the service.
About eight officers are yearly sent to the Topographical Department, and serve there for two or three years, surveying and drawing in summer, working at military science in the winter. Thecorrection of the Topographical Map of Prussia is in their hands. Finally, two out of these are selected for the Staff; the remainder return to their regiments, to become adjutants or to teach in the Division Schools.
The most immediate advantage of being in the staff corps is promotion to a captaincy at any age, which, considering the extreme slowness of promotion in Prussia, may be termed an early one. This is generally gained within two or three years after joining the corps,i.e.at thirty-three or thirty-four. In other corps hardly any one has a chance of becoming captain till after forty.
We may add, that the number of officers in the Topographical Department is about forty, on the staff itself sixty-four. No one belonging to the staff is below the rank of captain, or above that of colonel. Every general of division has one officer of the staff attached to him, and two adjutants, the first nominated by the chief of the staff, the two last by the king, and these two belong rather to the officer than to the general. They are not removable with him. The adjutants are not officers of the staff, though they are often chosen from amongst those who have been at the Staff School. They are nominated by the king upon reports sent into him by the generals of division, and the appointment is not considered a great prize, as it implies neither extra pay, promotion, nor permanency; the adjutants are promoted in the usual course, and then, upon promotion, return to their regiments. The adjutants of battalions and regiments are appointed, like our own, by the officers commanding. The name of aide-de-camp does not exist in the Prussian service, but that of adjutant is used in its place.
There are three Military Orphan-Houses in Prussia for the children of soldiers, two for boys, one at Potsdam, and the other at Annaburg, and one for girls at Pretzch. Although intended for orphans, they receive children whose parents are too poor to provide for them. They receive a good elementary education and are brought up for trades, and can make their selection between a civil and a military career. The English Commissioners report that they found 800 pupils in the Orphan-House at Potsdam, of whom 200 were under the charge of female teachers; 520 were in the senior department, including thirty-six in the music class, who will go into the Regimental Bands, and about twenty who formed a separate military class, who would probably enter the Artillery School.