Chapter II: A Military University

The distinctive feature of the regeneration by which modern Prussia was raised up, after the Prussia of Frederick the Great had been shattered in the first conflict with Napoleon, was the effort to lay a solid foundation in healthy institutions and especially in a sound education. The work which was done for Prussian institutions by Stein and for liberal education by Humboldt, was done for the army by Scharnhorst, to whom military education was the corner-stone of army reform. The University of Berlin began its work on October 15th, 1810, and on the same day[1] was opened the War School for officers, the great military high school of Germany, now known as the War Academy. It was the creation of Scharnhorst, whose greatness is nowhere more conspicuous than in his educational work.

As early as 1792, before he had ever seen a battle, he had published a _Soldier's Pocket-book_, in which the principles and details of field service were explained and illustrated by examples from then recent wars. The experiences of his first campaigns in 1793 and 1794 led him during his last years in the Hanoverian service to draw up a series of memoirs in which military education occupies a prominent place, and when in 1801 he joined the Prussian service, one of his first appointments was that of lecturer to the classes of young officers which had been instituted by Frederick the Great and still continued to be held. Scharnhorst rearranged and extended the courses of instruction, and himself as "Director of the Academy" taught to the higher class the important subjects of tactics and strategy. The lectures which he gave between 1801 and 1805 have been preserved in a fragmentary state, and show that he was the first to concentrate the attention of his pupils on the conduct of the operations of war, instead of merely busying them with the details of the several technical arts and sciences which subserve that end. The regulations for the Academy which he drafted in 1805 contain the outlines of the system which in a more developed form is still characteristic of the highest Prussian military education. Scharnhorst's best pupil at this time was Carl von Clausewitz, who in after years attributed to these early lessons the intellectual impulse which produced his masterly essays, and the historical method in which all his theory has its roots. Lectures and classes were abruptly ended by the mobilization of 1805, which was followed in 1806 by the great catastrophe.

The War School of 1810 aimed at the higher training of selected officers whose ability gave promise of a career in the superior ranks. It was distinct from the lower schools intended to give a professional training to young men preparing to become officers, and was closely connected with the general staff, in which Scharnhorst, at this time its chief, paid great attention to the instruction of the younger members. One of the first professors appointed was Clausewitz.

The wars of liberation practically dissolved the War School, which, however, after the peace of 1815 was re-established without substantial modification, though it was placed in the department, not of the chief of the staff, but of the inspector-general of military education. During the subsequent long period of peace, the Academy had the services of many distinguished men. From 1818 to 1830 Clausewitz was its director. The great geographer Karl Ritter was from 1820 to 1859 one of its professors. In 1859 the title of War Academy was definitely adopted, and in 1872 the institution was again placed under the superintendence of the chief of the general staff.

The regulations at present in force, though of recent date, are little more than a codification of the system which has been gradually developed on the foundations laid by Scharnhorst, and their value and the authority which attaches to them are in great measure due to the long and unbroken tradition which they represent.

They are embodied in two short codes entitled respectively "Order of Service," and "Order of Teaching of the War Academy." A concise account of these documents will best explain the workings of this institution.

The Order of Service is one of the few results of the brief reign of the lamented Emperor Frederick, whose signature it bears. It begins in true German fashion with a definition: "The object of the War Academy is to initiate into the higher branches of the military sciences a number of officers of the necessary capacity belonging to the various arms, and thus to enlarge and extend their military knowledge and to clear and quicken their military judgment.

"Side by side with this direct training for their profession, they are to endeavour, in proportion to the requirements of the army, to penetrate deeper into certain departments of formal science, and to acquire mastery in speaking and writing one or two modern foreign languages."

The Academy in its scientific working--as an institution for teaching and study--is under the chief of the general staff of the army, who is responsible for the appointment of the teachers, for the selection of officers as students ("the call to the Academy"), for their dismissal in case of need, and for the permission to attend a particular course occasionally granted to officers not "called." For the discipline and management of the Academy, the director, a general, is responsible. He is assisted by one or two deputies and by a Board of Studies, over whose nomination the chief of the staff has a controlling influence. The duties of the board are to approve of the programmes of the several professors' courses, and to conduct the examinations at the beginning and at the end of the course. The complete course lasts three years, with a long vacation of three months each summer. The appointment or "call" of students is in each case only for a year, its renewal depending upon diligence and good conduct. Any officer of five years' service not yet within four years from his turn of promotion to captain may apply for admission to the Academy, which is regulated by examination.

"The object of the entrance examination is to ascertain whether the candidate possesses the degree of general education and the knowledge requisite for a profitable attendance at the lectures of the Academy. The examination is also to determine whether the candidates have the power of judgment, without which there could be no hope of their further progress." The questions set are to be such as cannot be answered merely from knowledge stored up in the memory, and should test the capacity for clear, collected, and consistent expression. The military subjects required are tactics, formal and applied, the nature and construction of firearms, fortification and surveying. The general subjects are history, geography, mathematics, and French. The paper in applied tactics must be as simple as possible. It must consist of a problem for solution, so as to oblige the candidate to make a decision and give his reasons for it. Each candidate must send in an essay written at home on one of a list of subjects announced some months beforehand. This is particularly intended to test his power of judgment and the degree of general education he has attained. It may be either in German or French. "Of those officers whose work is judged the best (by the Board of Studies) the director may submit to the chief of the general staff of the army, with a view to their being called to the Academy, the names of any number not exceeding a hundred. The chief of the staff communicates his decisions to the generals commanding army corps, who inform the officers concerned."

The _Order of Service_ lays down that in the instruction given at the Academy certain practical applications shall never be omitted:--

"As a continuous commentary on the lectures, the students, under the guidance of their professors, are to visit the military workshops, technical institutions, and exercising grounds at Berlin and Spandau, and the fortifications of Spandau. They are to attend the exercises of the railway regiment, and make journeys of instruction on the military railway.

"The lessons in tactics, fortification, and transport are to be supplemented by practical exercises. Moreover, during a portion of the holidays after the first and the second year, each officer is attached for instruction to a regiment of one of the two arms to which he does not properly belong. Lastly, the third year's course is always to conclude with a three weeks' tour, for practical instruction in staff duties."

The _Order of Service_ concerns itself no further with the scope and method of teaching, but decrees that these shall be determined by the order of teaching to be issued by the chief of the general staff of the army.

The _Order of Teaching_ of the War Academy at present in force was issued by Count Moltke at the close of his career at the head of the Prussian staff.[2] Its value can be made clear only by a reproduction of its principal clauses. But a true judgment of an educational institution must be based upon the existence of a standard of comparison, an ideal which may be readily accepted as the measure of perfection. Such a normal type may be sought in the best University training of the present day, of which the spirit may perhaps be expressed in a few sentences.

A system of instruction, intended not for children but for men, which is not an attempt to make good the defects of early education, but addresses itself to minds already trained and disciplined, cannot be regulated mechanically. In all intelligent education the order of teaching is at once natural and rational. The subjects group themselves by their relation to the end in view, and the necessity of each new advance is evident to the student as soon as he is prepared for it. Such a course of study has a unity, and a completeness, which is of great significance in view of the formation of a type of character. The highest education, however, has features peculiarly its own. It is founded in the conception of science, not as a department of knowledge, but as "the proper method of knowing and apprehending the facts in any department whatever."[3] From this idea of method flow practical consequences. The student, as soon as maturity is approached, abandons the general realm of knowledge, and concentrates himself upon a single province,[4] in which, however, he becomes not merely a follower, but an independent worker, seeing and judging for himself and co-operating with his teacher in advancing the bounds of knowledge. Above all, "it is not the substance of what is communicated, but the act of communication between the older and the younger mind, which is the important matter."[5]

From this educational standpoint, Count Moltke's _Order of Teaching_ deserves a close examination. Its opening paragraphs must be given in full:--

"THE COURSE OF STUDY.

"In accordance with the objects for which the Military Academy is instituted, its course of study must aim at a thorough professional education; it must not lose itself in the wide field of general scientific studies.

"A sound formal education is the indispensable pre-requisite of a thorough military professional education. The deepening of the formal training, of the general intelligence and judgment, must therefore never be lost sight of during, and side by side with, the professional studies. Accordingly the course will be based upon the knowledge gained in the cadet corps, the military schools, the school for artillery and engineers, and, as regards general knowledge, in the gymnasia. But a simple repetition of things already known, by way of refreshing the memory, cannot be sufficient. As the whole course aims at a higher culture, it must proceed independently, entirely free from the constraint of a school.

"The practical abilities of the officers, acquired during five years' service, offer in many respects a foundation upon which the teachers can build.

"METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

"The instruction at the Military Academy begins with the elements of the various subjects, the object being, in the first instance, to strengthen and enlarge the grasp of what has already been learned. It proceeds, as the subjects develop, to more difficult matters, aiming, as its ultimate goal, at the thorough preparation of the officer for the modern requirements of war. The instruction in the formal sciences must for this purpose proceed in a different manner from that adopted in the military subjects. The scientific teaching may take the form of lectures, which appeal merely to the comprehension and the memory of the hearer, while in the military subjects, everything depends upon the pupil learning to apply and to make the most of the knowledge which he acquires. It is, moreover, essential to bring about an active process of mental give and take between teacher and pupils, so as to stimulate the pupils to become fellow-workers. The awakening effects of co-operation like this will never be seen where the one only expounds, and the other only listens. But it will naturally be produced by the combination of clear exposition, with practice in the application to specific concrete cases of the knowledge gained. (The so-called 'applicatory method' of teaching. Cp. p. 187, note.)

"Accordingly, in the purely military subjects the lectures are, as far as possible, to be interspersed with practical examples, in which the details are explained upon the map. Moreover, in this department, there will be opportunities of encouraging the pupils from time to time to deliver original addresses, the preparation of which should lead to the formation of independent opinions. The subjects of these addresses are to be military, and never merely scientific.

"If the teacher succeeds by the force of his word and his person in developing the mental powers of his pupils so that they eagerly look forward to the next year's course and are thoroughly roused to work for themselves, he has accomplished his task. For the Academy is not to give fragments of disconnected knowledge; in its course of teaching the necessity of every new subject must rest upon truths which the pupils have already perceived and made their own."

The general framework being thus erected, the _Order of Teaching_ proceeds to review the several subjects[6] taught in the Academy, indicating in each case the reason why the particular subject is to be taken up, and the manner in which it is to be treated.

The following paragraphs, which deal with the four principal subjects of instruction, give a sufficient insight into the system:--

"TACTICS.

"The object of the tactical instruction, to which, above all, pre-eminent importance must be attached, is (1) to give the officers a thorough knowledge of the tactical regulations in force in our army and those of our great neighbours, and (2) by teaching and by setting problems to make them familiar with the endless diversity of the conditions of modern battle.

"The first year's course comprises (_a_) the outlines of the historical growth of our army organization and of our tactical forms; (_b_) our drill-books, order of field service and musketry instruction, so far as they are important for the use of the troops in the field; (_c_) thorough explanation of the forms of battle of the great European armies of to-day.

"Hand in hand with this formal instruction, the German regulations dealing with march, combat, and rest must be illustrated by problems involving a small detachment of all arms. In these problems the principal stress is to be laid on the co-operation and mutual support of the various arms.

"In the second and third years' course only applied tactics will be taught. During the second year the duties of the infantry and cavalry division, with special regard to the issue of orders and the conduct of battle, must be thoroughly studied. The third year's course embraces the functions of an army corps acting as a portion of an army.

"The teacher must throughout endeavour to make his instruction suggestive by examples and by exercises on the map and in the open air. In this he will be successful in proportion as he makes use of the experiences of modern and of recent wars.

"MILITARY HISTORY.

"The lectures upon military history offer the most effective means of teaching war during peace, and of awakening a genuine interest in the study of important campaigns. These lectures should bring into relief the unchangeable fundamental conditions of good generalship in their relation to changeable tactical forms, and should place in a true light the influence of eminent characters upon the course of events and the weight of moral forces in contrast to that of mere material instruments.

"These lectures must not degenerate into a mere succession of unconnected descriptions of military occurrences. They must regard events in their causal connections, must concern themselves with the leadership, and must at the same time bring out the ideas of war peculiar to each age. They will acquire a high value if the teacher succeeds in bringing into exercise the judgment of his pupils.

"This judgment, however, must never degenerate into mere negative criticism, but must clothe itself in the form of distinct suggestions as to what ought to have been done and decided.

"The lectures in the first year's course will treat of one or more of the campaigns of Frederick the Great; in the second year's course, campaigns of the Revolution or of Napoleon I.; and in the third year's course, campaigns of the period since Napoleon, especially those of the time of the Emperor William I.

"HISTORY.

"A thorough historical knowledge is a necessary part of general scientific education, and is also of manifold value in the professional life of an officer. Accordingly, the lectures which are to lay the foundations for it are continued throughout the three years' course. Their object is to show consecutively the general development of the human race in the successive stages of religious conceptions, of political and social forms, and in the results of science, art, and philosophy. All these phases of human progress are to be illustrated in the history of representative nations and individuals. Growing forms are to be explained in connection with previous conditions, and finally the exposition must reach the present time, the ground upon which the officer's work is founded, and of which therefore he must understand the gradual historical growth.

"GENERAL STAFF DUTIES AND PRACTICE TOUR.

"This course is to deal with the functions of the general staff, and with the service of the general staff officer in peace and war. It includes, in any order preferred by the teacher--

"The historical development of our general staff.

"The corresponding arrangements of the other Great Powers.

"The subdivision of our army as based upon the Imperial Constitution, the military laws, and the conventions.[7]

"The office work of the general staff officer in its general outlines; the preparations for the manoeuvres and for mobilization; the various constituent parts of the mobile army.

"Railways and transport.

"The duties of the general staff officer in the field, especially his position and functions in relation to the general command.

"The principles of the supply of armies in peace and war, the resources and means available for the purpose, and the methods employed.

"The war strength and composition of the armies of our great neighbours.

"The practice tour[8] with which the course terminates offers the opportunity of testing the capacity, knowledge, and endurance of each officer--of finding what he can do. Upon the basis of simple general and special ideas, usually framed by the teacher who conducts the exercise, the decisions of the general commanding and the general staff officer's share in the measures adopted will be illustrated. For this purpose it will be useful to form two sides, neither of which should, as a rule, exceed the strength of an imaginary infantry division on a war footing. The exercise should be so arranged as to occasion in turn practice in formal work such as may promote facility in the issue of orders and a knowledge of the arrangements of our army, discussions upon the spot of tactical situations, analyses of the effects upon the troops of dispositions given, and lastly, comprehensive examinations of the situation presented by the campaign or battle. Each officer who joins the tour should have the opportunity of grappling with as many as possible of these various kinds of difficulties."

The advocates of original research as the true instrument of higher education may not at first sight recognise their ideal in Moltke's _Order of Teaching_. They may smile at an academy where natural science and history are taught in lectures appealing only to the intelligence and the memory. But the school at Berlin has a practical aim. It is a school of war, and in all that relates to war the German staff officer learns to apply that science which consists in the true method of apprehending. Moreover, the _Order of Teaching_, like all other German military regulations, does not fully reveal the thoroughness of the work executed in obedience to its precepts. In military history, for instance, it lays down that the third year's course is to deal with "campaigns of the time of William I." This phrase would be met by very superficial work. The letter would be fulfilled by a perusal of a _précis_ of the campaigns of 1866 or of 1870. A study of one of these campaigns in the official history might seem completely to fulfil the requirements. But in practice the students at the Academy work out the selected campaign on a still wider basis. In the probationary year which follows the Academy course they are allowed access to the materials from which the staff histories were written, and are expected to form their own judgment on the campaign from the study of the original documents themselves. This is the very ideal of the ideal professor of history.

There is no doubt another point of view from which the War Academy may be differently judged. A University, strictly speaking, is a school of free thought, and should give to those who have lived its life and breathed its spirit a view of the world, of nature and of humanity, of which the characteristic is freedom, spontaneity, independence. The man who in this sense has had a liberal education may be reactionary or progressive in his sympathies, may be democratic or authoritative in his leanings, but in any case if the University has done its work he will choose his own way. He will take his bearings for himself, and his thought will be conditioned by no ordinances and limited by no authority. At this intellectual freedom the War Academy does not aim. Its business is not with the progress of humanity, but with the training of good servants for the King of Prussia. Whether this immediate object is a means to the higher end is a question for the historian in some future century.

[1] Schwartz, _Leben des Generals Carl von Clausewitz_, etc., vol. i. p. 151.

[2] It is dated August 12th, 1888; Count Moltke's resignation as chief of the general staff of the army is dated in the _Gazette_, August 10th, 1888.

[3] Mark Pattison's _Suggestions on Academical Organisation, with Especial Reference to Oxford_, p. 307.

[4] Cp. Pattison's _Suggestions_, p. 262.

[5] Cp. Paulson's _Suggestions_, p. 165.

[6] List of the subjects taught in the Academy, with number of hours per week in each year's course devoted to each:--

1st 2nd 3rd
MILITARY SUBJECTS. year's year's year's
course. course. course.

Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 2
Military history . . . . . . . . 3 4 4
Early history of armies . . . . . 1 -- --
Construction and nature of weapons 3 -- --
Fortification . . . . . . . . . . 3 -- --
Means of communication . . . . . -- 2 --
Military surveying . . . . . . . -- 2 --
Military law . . . . . . . . . . -- 1 --
Military hygiene . . . . . . . . -- 1 --
Military geography . . . . . . . -- 2 --
Duties of the general staff . . . -- -- 4
Siege warfare . . . . . . . . . . -- -- 3

NON-MILITARY SUBJECTS.

History . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 3
General geography . . . . . . . . 2 -- --
Administration and law, including
international law . . . . . . . -- -- 2
Mathematics (Mathematical ) 4 3 2
Physical Geography (sciences as ) 2 -- --
Physics . . . . . (alternatives ) -- 3 --
Geodesy . . . . . (for language.) -- -- 3
Chemistry . . . . ( ) -- -- 2
French . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 6
or . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Russian . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 6

Every candidate for admission to the Academy is required to say whether he proposes to take up the subjects grouped as mathematical sciences, or a language, and if a language whether French or Russian.

[7] The conventions are the agreements with Prussia by which the armies of Saxony, Bavaria, and Würtemberg are regulated.

[8] The practice tour (_Uebungsreise_) is a sham fight, or rather a sham campaign, carried out in the district chosen for the purpose by officers without men. The troops are imaginary, but the officers taking part in the exercise are assigned to the several posts of command, and upon the basis of the imaginary situation, communicated by the umpire, work out all the necessary orders and dispositions.