Chapter 31

1. Analytical Geometry and Higher Analytical Mathematics. 2. Mechanics and the Elements of the Study of Machinery. 3. Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. 4 Military Composition. 5. French. 6. Military Drawing, tested by the production of a Drawing of their own doing.

Candidates for the Artillery will be, moreover, examined in the Tactics of the three Arms, and in Artillery; and those from the Engineers, in the Art of Fortification and in Civil Architecture, both Plain and Ornamental.

The text-books used in the Academies of the Artillery and Engineers will serve as a measure for the range of attainment required. Pupils who passed with distinction through these Academies will thus be specially fitted for admission into the Higher Course after they have proved, during their time of service, their diligence in bringing the knowledge they have acquired into actual application.

On the close of this preliminary examination, the results will be submitted to the Supreme War Department, and the recommendations for admission laid before His Majesty.

A superior Field Officer, either of the Artillery or the Engineers, will be intrusted with the charge of the united course. The lectures will be given by the Professors of the Academy of the Artillery and Engineers. From the nature of the duties, partly common and partly distinct, which devolve upon the two corps, it follows that the course of the studies (which will be carried on during two years) will in like manner be partly common and partly separate.

The subjects of common instruction will be—

1. Mechanics in application to Machinery, combined with Machine Drawing. 2. Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, combined with practice in manipulation, in making experiments, and in analyzing. 3. Theory of Artillery, in reference to the constructions that occur in Artillery. 4. Higher Tactics. 5. Principles of Strategy, illustrated by the representation of campaigns, with special attention to the use of Artillery, as well in Attack and Defense of fortified places, as in the field.

Separate instruction will be given to Artillery Officers in—

1. Service in Workshops, Depôts, and Arsenals. 2. Knowledge of Foreign Artillery, of the requisites (ausrüstungen) for Field service and Sieges, and for furnishing fortified places.

To Engineer Officers, in—

1. Ornamental Architecture, combined with Architectural Drawing. 2. The Art of Fortification, special attention being given to working out projects.

The pupils receive in addition practical guidance and supervision in all subjects of a scientific nature connected with the Art of War.

The pupils of the second year undergo an examination in October. Upon the results of the examination the War Department decides on their promotion for the rank of Second to that of First Lieutenants.

3.The War or Staff School.

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.

The War School is commanded by a General or Superior Field Officer.

Five Field Officers or Captains, taken as a rule from the Staff, give lectures on the prescribed scientific subjects. One Field Officer or Captain of Cavalry takes the duty of riding-master; and one civil Professor that of instruction in the French language and literature. Necessary officers, attendants, and servants take the duty of adjutants, of the internal management, of the service, and of attending to the thirty horses.

The first year’s subjects of instruction are—

1. Military Drawing and the study of Ground and Positions. 2. Higher Tactics. 3. Staff and Superior Adjutant Duty. 4. French Language and Literature. 5. Riding.

Those of the second year,—

1. Military Drawing, Ground and Positions. 2. Military Geography. 3. Principles of Strategy, illustrated by representations of some of the most instructive campaigns. 4. French Language and Literature. 5. Riding.

The course begins on the 1st of November, and lasts to the end of September.

The Attendants at the War School must be practiced in those arms in which they have not served. They are for this purpose distributed into the various bodies of troops forming the garrison of Vienna, go through the exercises and manœuvres of these troops—in the first year with one, and in the second with the other arm. At the termination of these periods of practice, they will be called upon to undertake the command of a Battery, of a Squadron of Cavalry, and of a Division of Infantry.

In the month of May, the attendant pupils of the first year will go out upon a course of practical surveying; those of the second year will be similarly employed in reconnoitring, choosing sites for encampment, discovering, judging of, and describing proper points for taking up positions, formingtêtes-de-pont, entrenched camps, and the like, and in performing other duties falling within the service of the Staff.

At the beginning of October, the pupils of the second year will undergo an examination, which will be conducted, both orally and by papers.

Upon the results of this the Supreme War Department will determine upon their promotion to the rank of First Lieutenants (if they are not already of that rank,) and this without any reference to their previous position, their position henceforth being simply determined by their merit.

The same grounds determine the cases of those who are admitted to the Staff, or who return to their respective arms.

Those who, after a satisfactory completion of the course, return to service with the troops, will, after three years’ meritorious service, be specially recommended for extraordinary promotion.

Control of the Institutions.

The Upper and Lower Houses of Education, the Infantry School Companies, the Cavalry School Squadrons, and the Frontier School Companies, are under the orders of the Commanders of the Army, the Army Corps, or the military government in whose district they are situated. The Artillery and Engineer School Companies are under the orders of the General Artillery and Engineer Departments; the Pioneer and Flotilla School Companies, under those of the Quartermaster-General’s Department; the Marine School Company, under those of the Admiralty. Which functionaries, however, receive from the Supreme War Department all directions relating to organization and instruction.

The Cadet Schools, the Academies, the Military Teachers’ School, the Upper Artillery and Engineer Course, and the War School, are immediately under the orders of the Supreme War Department.

The general organization of all the military schools and places of instruction is once for all established by the regulations sanctioned by His Majesty. These regulations contain all that concerns the physical, moral, and intellectual training of the pupils, and all have the one object of rearing them up as worthy members of the Austrian army, and faithful supporters of the throne and of the honor of their country.

The English Commissioners in their General “Report on the Education and Training of Officers for the Scientific Corps” hold the following language:—

The magnitude of the Military Education of Austria entitles it to rank among the chief Institutions of the Empire. It has been remodeled since the wars of 1848, 1849. It is now centralized, and wholly directed by one of the four Co-ordinate Sections of the WarOffice, which is independent of the others, and reports directly to the Emperor. This Educational or “Fourth” Section has the control of between 300,000l.and 400,000l.yearly. It provides for the free or nearly free education of more than 5,000 pupils. The extent and completeness of the system will be best understood by a reference to the clear and valuable official account of the schools.56

The military schools are divided by this document into (1) those which educate pupils forNon-commissioned Officers, (2) those which educate forOfficers, (3) and thoseSenior Schoolswhich complete the education and extend the instruction of both classes. The method of training Non-commissioned Officers is a peculiar and remarkable part of the system.

1. No less than 5,730 pupils are in process of being educated for Non-commissioned Officers. They are received into a Military School at seven years old, and at that early age are devoted to the army, with a kind of solemnity, by their fathers, somewhat similar to the practice at Woolwich Academy :—“I hereby pledge myself to surrender up my son to the Imperial Military Service, in case of his being admitted into a Military Educational Institution, and I will under no pretext require his return.” This promise, as the official document states, may no doubt be recalled if the youth finds that he has mistaken his vocation; but it must exercise great influence (and such is its avowed object) in retaining him in it.

After passing successively through two Junior Institutions,—the Lower Houses of Education, where he continues till eleven years old, and the Upper Houses, where he remains till fifteen,—the boy receives his finishing course in one of what are termed the School Companies, the highest class of schools for training boys to become Non-commissioned Officers in all arms of the service. These are twenty in number, and scattered over the whole Empire, containing generally 120 pupils each, though in one case only sixty; and with a course of either two or three years, according to the nature of the service. The extent and the requirements of the Empire give a striking variety to their character. Thus, in the frontier School Companies, “the range of the studies is more extensive, because the Non-commissioned Officers on the Military Frontiers are intrusted with the general administration, and require of necessity a knowledge of Political Administration, of Jurisprudence, and Agriculture;” and thus also the Non-commissioned Officers for the responsible Flotilla Service of the mouths of the great rivers, the lagoons of the Po, the head of the Adriatic, and the lakes, are carefullyeducated and frequently promoted. Following the course of a pupil through these Upper Houses and School Companies, we were much struck by the sensible and vigorous character of the education, and the motives supplied for exertion. In the Upper Houses the boys compete for entrance to the School Companies which they prefer, and the more scientific companies are a special object of ambition, because it is more usual in these for young men to be raised by their talents to the Academies, and thus made Officers, “free of all cost:” according to the regulations, however, this is possible in all. It may be stated that from six to ten pupils from each of the more scientific School Companies,—the Artillery, Engineer, Pioneer, Flotilla, and Marine Companies,—are yearly transferred to the Academies, to complete their education there for the Officer’s Commission.

A system of this kind, supplying at once a good education and large opportunities of advancement, must necessarily operate as a great encouragement to young men educating for Non-commissioned Officers; and allowing for the social differences of the two countries, it resembles in spirit the French system, which throws open the gates of the Polytechnic and St. Cyr, and with them a proportion of the Commissions in the Army, to all.

This, however, is not all. The sums devoted to the education of Non-commissioned Officers, as well as Officers, are immense, and may be regarded as a spontaneous contribution of the National Feeling, no less than a State provision. A system both of public and private foundations (Stiftungen) prevails—part derived from the Emperor, part from the provinces, part from private gifts and legacies—by which 3,190 pupils are supported in the Houses of Education and the School Companies, and 1,320 in the Cadet Schools and Academies. The very large majority of these exhibitions supply acomplete, about 200 apartial, maintenance. And it is curious to observe the aid to education which is so common in our own Universities, devoted in Austria to what may be termed the great National Institution—the Army,—and retaining all the limitations to the descendants of Founders or Natives of provinces which marked our own foundations. Some of these exhibitions have been founded by foreign soldiers for their own countrymen. Thus there are two bearing the name of the O’Gara and the O’Brady, to be held by any Irishmen of good family, one of which is in the gift of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. We should add that this system is still a living and popular one. Within three years the city of Brünn has founded such an exhibition “for sons of Austrian subjects in Moravia, and by preference in Brünn, incommemoration of His Majesty’s escape from assassination in 1853.” We ourselves heard a distinguished Officer express an intention of founding one of these Exhibitions. The comparison with the openBoursesof the Polytechnic is remarkable; but the Austrian appointments to free places seem to be given, like the Prussian, solely as rewards for the service of the parent.

2. The education of young men for Officers is conducted upon the same principles which regulate that for Non-commissioned Officers. The age of admission to a Cadet School is about eleven. The pupils are pledged to the service with the same formalities which we have noticed in the Lower Houses of Education. Between fifteen and sixteen they enter one of the Academies for the Line, the Artillery, the Engineers, or the Marine, and after four years they pass to their respective services.

Thus, unlike the French system, that which is followed in Austria commits the pupil to the Army, and to a Military Education, from an early age, resembling herein the plan of theAccademia Militareof Turin. But an attempt seems to be made to combine general with special teaching. Thus, although even in the two first years (from fifteen to seventeen,) at Wiener Neustadt, there is some introduction of successful practical military teaching, the chief weight is thrown upon mathematics, history, geography, drawing, and French; special military teaching has a greater, though far from an exclusive place, in the two last years. The studies are high, and (as far as we could judge) pursued carefully, and with excellent discipline.

The description we have given of the system pursued in the Schools for Non-commissioned Officers will have shown that there is a constant appeal to emulation. The same is found at Wiener Neustadt. There is a careful system of assigning credits during the whole school period, which itself argues competition. The chief immediate reward, indeed, is the choice of a regiment on leaving the school; but the prospect of entering the Staff School stands in no distant perspective, and this is filled with so many pupils from Wiener Neustadt, that it must be looked upon as the sure reward of a successful Neustadter. There are other inducements of a different character. The discipline being strict, pupils are constantly removed from Wiener Neustadt and the other Academies to the schools for Non-commissioned Officers, and though sometimes allowed to enter the army as Officers, it must always be as juniors to their contemporaries at Wiener Neustadt. We heard instances of great strictness in this matter.

The new course for the Special Arms in Austria is not yet completelyin operation. It is at present carried on separately in the Academy of Olmütz for the Artillery, and that of Znaim, in Moravia, for the Engineers. There are 200 pupils in each Academy, and the courses of instruction, which are more special or technical than at Wiener Neustadt, last four years, from the age of fifteen to nineteen. The yearly examinations, the manner in which the marks of the monthly examinations tell on the final one, and the careful classification of the pupils in the order of merit, reminded us of the system of the Polytechnic more than any other school we have seen. And an inspection of the very high credits obtained by the first thirty pupils will prove the diligence with which the studies are pursued. We should add that several pupils of marked talents come from the scientific School Companies, A further fact bears witness to the vigor of the discipline. We have alluded to the dismissal of unpromising subjects from the Austrian Military Schools. In the course of three years, since the changes of 1850, it appears that nearly 100 pupils were removed from Znaim, as not coming up to the standard required for the Engineers by the new regulations.

3. The courses of instruction in the three Academies for Infantry and Cavalry, Artillery, and for Engineers, last for the same time, and run (as it were) parallel to each other. Each is, or is to be, completed by a senior department. The United Course for the Artillery and Engineers is not indeed yet combined in the magnificent buildings begun at Wiener Neustadt; but it is already organized in a provisional state at Znaim for the Engineers, and the plan of instruction drawn up is a solid one. The arrangements for the general Staff School require more remark.

In our report upon Austrian schools we have specially noticed this School as remarkable for its thorough and open competitive character from first to last, and its very sensible plan of study. Admission to it is by competition, open to Officers of all arms: the pupils are not unduly overburdened with work; perhaps, there is even room for one or two more subjects of importance; but what is done seems to be done thoroughly; the Officers are carefully ranked, on leaving the School, according as the abilities they have displayed, may be considered a criterion of their fitness for employment on the General Staff; andin this orderthey enter the Staff Corps. The consequence is that every Officer knows distinctly, from the time that he first competes for admission until his final examination on leaving, that the order in which he will enter the Staff depends entirely on his own exertions and success at the school. It seemedto us that this open competition produced a spirit of confidence and energy in the students, as great, if not greater, than any we met with elsewhere.

The whole of the above system of education is directed by the Fourth Section of the War Department. In all the schools we found traces of its activity; and the energy and system which prevail in the Military Teaching of Austria appear in great measure to result from its being directed by this single head.

[From Report of English Commissioners in 1856.]

The Staff School(Kriegs-Schule,) in Vienna, was established in 1851, and grew out of the experience of the Hungarian war, although a Staff-Corps had existed for more than a century in the Austrian army, and for many years past all the appointments in it have been made upon an examination, which was, in fact, one of competition. The process was formerly as follows:—

An officer desirous of becoming a candidate for a staff appointment, sent in his name to the colonel of his regiment, whose recommendation he was obliged to obtain as a preliminary step. If supplied with this, he began his course of staff study, and was sent for this purpose to some large garrison town as anattachéto the staff. Whilst here he went through, for two years, the course of drawing, writing military memoirs, mapping the country, &c., and for two years more served on active staff duty with different bodies of troops. At the end of these four years a number of the officers thus employed in a particular country were brought together, and examined by the chief of the staff in the country, assisted by a board of officers appointed for the purpose. No actual list was drawn out of the order in which the candidates acquitted themselves, but it was understood that the best were chosen and put upon the general staff. The work upon this was exceedingly laborious; few except officers of real ability were candidates for it, and patronage in it was looked upon with great dislike. On the other hand, studies and reading were not made the first requisite; a ready intelligence and quick eye to make an officer aColonnen-führer,—leader of a column on a march,—were always most valued.

Before describing this school, it may be as well to mention shortly the staff-corps and the corps connected with it.

1.The General Staff of the Austrian Army consists of:—

Twelve Colonels.Twelve Lieutenant-Colonels.Twenty-four Majors.Eighty Captains.

Twelve Colonels.

Twelve Lieutenant-Colonels.

Twenty-four Majors.

Eighty Captains.

Theattachés, to the number of eighty,—i.e., those who are expecting appointments, may be subalterns, but they obtain the rank of captain on joining.

The chief of the staff-corps is Field-Marshal Hess.

2. There has been created very lately a separate corps of adjutants or aids-de-camp, who are charged with the administrative duties, such as inspecting the bearing, equipment, carrying on the discipline, &c., of the troops. This consists of—

Eleven Generals.Eighteen Lieutenant-Colonels.Eighteen Majors.Fifty-eight First Captains.Ten Second Captains.Ten First Lieutenants.

Eleven Generals.

Eighteen Lieutenant-Colonels.

Eighteen Majors.

Fifty-eight First Captains.

Ten Second Captains.

Ten First Lieutenants.

There is no examination for entrance into this corps. Appointments are made by the generals, and we were told that there was some scope for “protection.”

3. There is also a smaller corps for the purpose of surveying, called the Corps of Geographical Engineers, connected with the staff, inasmuch as some of the staff officers draw the maps on a large scale, which it is the business of this corps to reduce. It is usually occupied on the Great Surveys of the Empire; at present it is employed on the Survey of the Principalities.

It consists of—

Eleven Generals.One Colonel, called the Director.Two Lieutenant-Colonels.Two Majors.Sixteen Captains.Sixteen Lieutenants.Four Sous-Lieutenants.

Eleven Generals.

One Colonel, called the Director.

Two Lieutenant-Colonels.

Two Majors.

Sixteen Captains.

Sixteen Lieutenants.

Four Sous-Lieutenants.

The staff school consists of thirty pupils taken from all arms of the service, fifteen being received each year, and the course of study lasting two years. It is under the direction of a general and a lieutenant-colonel; and, with few exceptions, such as might occur in the time of war, no appointments on the general staff are to be given to any officers who have not passed through the staff school.

In order to enter the school for the staff corps, an officer must have served at least two years with his regiment, and be unmarried, and above twenty-one and under twenty-six years of age. He may then forward to the chief of the staff, through his colonel, his claim to be admitted as a candidate at the entrance examination. Further inquiry is made, and a good many of the names sent in are struck off the list. Such, we were told, was the case last year when the names sent in were very numerous, but out of these only forty-five were allowed to compete, and out of these again only fifteen (the regular yearly number) were selected. The competition for entrance into the school is indeed said to have been very active eversince it was opened. Most of the students areNeustadters; the seven professors were all, with the exception of the professor of the French language, military men, and chiefly officers of artillery, formed in the long studies of the old Bombardier School.

The subjectsin which the candidates for admission are examined are—

1. Algebra and Geometry, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry.2. Geography.3. History.4. Arms and Munitions.5. Field and Permanent Fortification.6. Pioneering.7. Rules of Drill and Exercises.8. Manoeuvring.9. Military Drawing.10. Military Composition.11. French.12. To be able to speak one of the Austrian national languages, and to write a good current and legible hand.

1. Algebra and Geometry, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry.

2. Geography.

3. History.

4. Arms and Munitions.

5. Field and Permanent Fortification.

6. Pioneering.

7. Rules of Drill and Exercises.

8. Manoeuvring.

9. Military Drawing.

10. Military Composition.

11. French.

12. To be able to speak one of the Austrian national languages, and to write a good current and legible hand.

The most striking features in the system of this school, both at the entrance and throughout the course, are that it is distinctly competitive, that it admits very young officers, and that while the work is considerable, the subjects for study are not numerous. In these three points it differs considerably from the Prussian Staff School, in which the students are generally older, and the principle of competition is not so fully carried out. In the Austrian school, the students are placed on entering in the order which their entrance examination has just fixed. They are examined once a month during their stay. On leaving the school, their respective places are again determined, and they have a claim for appointments in the staff corps in the exact order in which they were placed on leaving the school.

Their relative places on leaving the school are assigned to them, as we were assured, very carefully, and, after much consultation in every case among the professors; but this is not done by marks, nor by any minute system of testing intellectual qualifications, but an estimate is formed upon the whole work of the two years, both on the studies in the school and the practice in the field,—of the student’s comparative fitness,as an officer, for the work of the staff. “We try to estimate the whole man,” was the expression used to us, “whether he will make a goodColonnen-führer” (a good man to direct a regiment on a march,) as was said elsewhere. This general estimate was preferred to that of marks, on the ground that the latter might give too much weight to the more appreciable,i.e., simply intellectual qualities.

The students do not at present live within the establishment, butare to do so when the new ones, building, are ready. They begin their lectures at half-past seven and end at one or three o’clock on alternate days, going to the riding-school in the afternoon on the days when their morning’s work ends at one. Thirty horses are kept for their use.

The subjects of instructionduring the first year consist of—

1. Military Drawing and the Study of Ground and Positions.2. Higher Tactics.3. Staff Duties.4. French Language and Literature.5. Riding.

1. Military Drawing and the Study of Ground and Positions.

2. Higher Tactics.

3. Staff Duties.

4. French Language and Literature.

5. Riding.

And those of the second year are as follows:—

1. Military Drawing, and the Study of Ground and Positions.2. Military Geography.3. Principles of Strategy, illustrated by representations of some of the most instructive campaigns.4. French Language and Literature.5. Riding.

1. Military Drawing, and the Study of Ground and Positions.

2. Military Geography.

3. Principles of Strategy, illustrated by representations of some of the most instructive campaigns.

4. French Language and Literature.

5. Riding.

The students are occupied at the school about eight hours daily and their chief work is military drawing and topography. We went into the room where the students of both years were working together at drawings and plans under an artillery officer, said to be one of the best draughtsmen in the army. Some of the plans were modeled in soap, thehachuresbeing marked very elaborately, so that the models and drawings might closely correspond. We also attended a lecture of the second class in military geography. A student traced out on the blackboard the line of the Western Alps, and was examined very closely on the smaller passes, the rivers, and the bases of operations for armies on both sides. The answers were very minute, and given with the greatest readiness; and we understood the question to be taken at random, and not to be a prepared one.57

The student officers attending the school are called upon to serve in those arms to which they do not belong. For this purpose they join the troops of the garrison of Vienna during June, July, August, and September, and if they belong to the infantry they go through all the exercises of the cavalry in one year, and of the artillery in another. If they belong to the cavalry, they go in the same manner through the exercises of infantry and artillery. After going through this practice, they have to take command of a battery, of a squadron of cavalry, and of a division of infantry.

The month of May is devoted in the first year to an expedition for practice in surveying the country, and in the second, for making reconnaissances, &c.

October is a vacation in the first year. In the second it is taken up with the final examination before leaving.

The officers acting as professors receive 600 florins, about 60l.annually, besides their pay.

Immediately after the final examination, if there are any vacancies in the staff corps, the pupils receive appointments in order of merit, and are at the same time made captains. In proof of their receiving appointments on the earliest opportunity, we were told by Colonel Scudier that the last ten vacancies in the staff corps were filled up out of the twelve students who had just left the school.One of these was only a second lieutenant, and in order to make him a captain, (the rank required for the staff corps,) the Emperor promoted him to be a first lieutenant immediately, and to be a captain within three days afterwards. This double promotion was on the ground of great merit.

If an officer finds no vacancy in the staff corps ready for him, he must return to his regiment and wait as an attaché. But if a second lieutenant, he is entitled immediately to a step of rank, and if a lieutenant, after three years’ service he is made a captain, although he may not even then be attached to the staff corps.

There are to be eighty of these attachés to the staff. Their number at present amounts to only thirteen.

With regard to special aids-de-camp, generals are allowed to choose their own, without examination, but with this limitation, the officer chosen must not be a relation.58

The disastrous results to the integrity of the empire and the reputation of the army, of the military operations of Austria in 1858, against the combined forces of France and Sardinia, and of the still more humiliating defeat in the brief but momentous campaign of 1866 against Prussia, forced the military authorities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to a thorough investigation of her military system and the education of the officers of her armies. It was not difficult to account for ultimate defeat in the larger armies and better prepared in all the resources by which large armies are equipped, fed, and moved. But military critics were not slow in discovering that better preparation should have been made, the field should have been taken earlier, and the forces combined and moved with great certainty and skill.

In a Report by the Minister of War on the necessity of reorganizing the educational system of the Imperial army, and in the plan for such reorganization the author, Baron Kahn, starts with a principle which the great Empress Maria Theresa announced when she laid in 1748 the foundation of the earliest war school in Austria (Wiener Neustadt), and which Frederick the Great avowedly imitated in his War Academy in Berlin in 1764,—“In this school shall be formedmenonly, and of them,soldiers.” The choice of the profession of arms must be postponed till a good general education, reaching the moral as well as the intellectual and physical qualities of the future officer, has been imparted. The separation of the military pupils from their families at an early age must be avoided, and hence the number of cadet boarding schools for young aspirants are diminished. The intellectual preparation required, the sharpening and hardening the mental faculties, must not be gained by an exclusive mathematical course, in special schools, but in the general training of the public schools, the Real Schools or Gymnasia, of the country. A more practical knowledge of the common studies,—of geography and national history and the whole science of public economy and the martial resources of the empire, must be gained before the special military instruction begins. Admission to the higher military schools must be given only to aspirants of mature age, of high moral qualities, and of thorough intellectual activity—ascertained by careful examination and tested by at least one year’s service in connection with a regiment.

The military schools are divided into two classes, viz.:—

(1.) Those which give a boy a general education, but prepare him at the same time for the military profession.

(2.) Those which educate boys only in military matters.

In the first class may be included (a) all those lower class institutions in which military orphans and sons of poor non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers are educated; (b) the middle (cadet) schools which prepare students for the military academies; (c) the military academies, viz,Wiener Neustadt, and the engineer and artillery academies. As pure military schools, may be mentioned the schools for non-commissioned officers in the infantry, engineer, artillery, and pioneer corps; the cadet and division schools in the infantry; the higher artillery and engineer courses.

(a.) The lower schools for the education of military orphans of a tender age have the same system as the common schools of the like class (NormalorVolks Schulen), where the moral qualities are to be chiefly inculcated on Christian principles; it is therefore necessary that children should not be taken from family influences earlier than can be helped. It will therefore only be necessary to take into these schools such children as are orphans, or sons of penniless parents, or at all events those whose families can not be induced to educate them at home even by pecuniary assistance. One school would be enough for such boys, in which the moral education would be the first object, as the necessary education required to prepare the scholars for the higher schools and regimental cadet schools may be obtained by their attending the public schools.

(b.) As regards the middle cadet schools, they should be abolished, as they do not agree at all with the above-mentioned principles. Boys are torn from home at much too tender an age, and are not brought up in the path of morality. Should a reform only of these schools be intended, this would be so expensive that the improvement gained would be dearly paid for.

As the army is not only to be composed of drilled soldiers, but also of generally well educated men, in order to improve their intellectual position and the spirit of the army, and to prevent the undue growth of drill and mere formalities, it is of great necessity that the military schools should be brought into harmonious concert with the civil schools. The deficiencies of the latter are less than those of the former, and it may be expected that they will soon be removed. In accordance with these considerations (and there are yet many more), it is much to be recommended that these two institutions should be abolished, not only as being right in principle, but also in agreement with the laws of national economy.

By the laying down of the system of education to be taught at the common middle schools, as a condition of being allowed to enter a military academy, in connection with the influences of the moral development of the family circle, up to the fifteenth year of a boy’s life, it is to be hoped that the general above-named principles will be attained; and when the poor officers are allowed the means to educate their boys aspiring for the military academies by granting them pecuniary allowances, it may be hoped that they will not only be contented, and will care for the moral education of their children, but that the State also will find in the system the best means of attaining its object.

As regards the higher schools, especially military ones, the following may be observed:—

There are two establishments at present:

(a.) The Military Academy and Wiener Neustadt for general education.

(b.) The Engineer Academy, as a special school for the engineers, and for the instruction of officers in general.

The latter of the two is not efficient enough, for not more than eight or ten persons at most are instructed as engineers in it, the rest being detailed for the infantry, cavalry, &c. As by the establishment and organization of division schools a sufficient supply of officers aspirant is provided, and as the officers detailed from the above-named academies to the line are not more efficient than the scholars of the division schools (especially when the extra cost of the academy education is considered), the Engineer Academy must be looked upon as much too expensive. I agree, therefore, with those who recommend its abolition. On the other hand, the Neustadt Academy, which offers to its students a more general, and therefore a better founded education, and where highly instructed officers can be educated in larger numbers, may be allowed to remain, both in consideration of its efficiency and in honor of its serene foundress, the great Empress Maria Theresa, but on condition of its being reorganized in accordance with the principles laid down by that noble lady in the following words:—“That in this school shall be formedmenonly, and of themsoldiers.”

The said academy must, however, seek to attain to a higher degree of perfection than of late. The classics must be more cultivated, as also national economy and a general civilized education. It should be organized for a course of six years, and it should receive students, sons of officers or military officials, who have successfully passed two or three Latin or technical schools.

The following subjects should be taught, besides the military and mathematical sciences:—

(1.) The Latin language, sufficient to understand the Roman classics.(2.) All human sciences; particular attention should be paid to style, as it has been observed that since Latin has not been taught in the Wiener Neustadt Academy, there has been a great falling off in this respect. Rhetoric is to be taught in a practical manner, as the knowledge of how to speak is of importance in our constitutional era.(3.) Philosophy, two years; in the first year, psychology; in the second year, logic to its full extent, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy.(4.) Statecraft, state and international law, and the fundamental law of the Austrian monarchy.(5.) The rudiments of economy and national economy.

(1.) The Latin language, sufficient to understand the Roman classics.

(2.) All human sciences; particular attention should be paid to style, as it has been observed that since Latin has not been taught in the Wiener Neustadt Academy, there has been a great falling off in this respect. Rhetoric is to be taught in a practical manner, as the knowledge of how to speak is of importance in our constitutional era.

(3.) Philosophy, two years; in the first year, psychology; in the second year, logic to its full extent, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy.

(4.) Statecraft, state and international law, and the fundamental law of the Austrian monarchy.

(5.) The rudiments of economy and national economy.

As special schools for the army the following should be retained:—

(a.) A special engineer and artillery school.(b.) A special school for the pioneer corps, where the special knowledge necessary for that arm, as well as other military matters, are taught. The scholars should be between the ages of 16 and 19 years.

(a.) A special engineer and artillery school.

(b.) A special school for the pioneer corps, where the special knowledge necessary for that arm, as well as other military matters, are taught. The scholars should be between the ages of 16 and 19 years.

The students of the institutions intended for the education of the engineers and artillery will be enrolled in their respective corps quartered in Vienna. They will there have to pass a proper course of high mathematics, natural philosophy, and architecture at the Polytechnic; after they have succeeded in this, they will be either detailed for two years’ active duty with their corps, or they may be at once ordered to pass through a higher combined course forartillery and engineers. If this will suffice for the due supply of technically instructed officers, the artillery and engineer academies may be abolished.

As regards the present school for the General Staff, it may be recommended that a general college for the whole army should be formed from it, wherein not only the higher military sciences should be taught, but also statecraft and national economy. It would be right to examine a candidate before he entered the college in the rudiments of natural philosophy and chemistry.

The student may obtain the time necessary for the cultivation of these two sciences by reducing the time till now assigned to sketching and surveying; the more so, as the student will have already attained a great perfection in this branch of his education by former study of it in the public and preparatory schools.

(A.)—ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH.

1.Military Orphan Asylum.

Military orphans and other deserving candidates for the army are supported in this establishment. They are educated at the public schools.

The number of pupils is 150. They pass thence into the other institutions, according to their talents and final destination.

2.Military Technical Schools.

At present four in number. It is proposed to reduce them to two. The course is of three years. Number of pupils, 150 in each school. They are educated for the Technical Academy, and to provide good non-commissioned officers for the Artillery and Engineers. They enter at 14 and leave at 16 years of age, at the end of their third year’s course of study. Those enter the Technical Academy who have most distinguished themselves; the others are sent either for a two years’ course to the Division Schools, or else to the Artillery Officers’ Aspirant Schools.

3.The Military College.

The course is for two years. This is chiefly intended as a preparatory school for the Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt.

4.The Military Academies.

These institutions are intended to provide the army with officers properly qualified for the various branches of the army.

(1.)The Wiener Neustadt Academy.—The course is of four years. Number of scholars 100 per annum, or a total of 400. The academy is intended for the education of candidates for the Infantry Regiments of the Line and Military Frontier, the Jagers, and the Cavalry.

(2.)The Technical Academy(established in Vienna) for the education of the best pupils of the technical schools for the artillery, engineer, and pioneer services. The course is of four years; 65 scholars in each year, or 260 total. Each year’s course of study is divided into two sections, one for artillery pupils, one for engineer pupils.

It is proposed that these officers should be attached to their respective corps in Vienna during their course of study, and should attend lectures at the Polytechnic at Vienna. When this course is over, they are to be attached for two years’ service with their corps, or sent direct to go through the higher artillery or engineer course.

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