Description:
Steven Clemente describes how conservative traditions and artistocratic values were preserved in the selection and training of German army officers prior to World War I despite changing times and the influx of many middle-class recruits into the army. He demonstrates how right thinking and service to the King and the Kaiser were the basis for Prussian officer education in the period from 1860 to 1914.
The history provides considerable detail about German secondary school education, the selection of officers, the curriculum, and life in the cadet and war schools, the life of a subaltern, and the education of the Prussian War Academy. The book concludes with an analysis of the attitudes and loyalties of the officers that entered World War I. Students of European history and military affairs will find this study one that raises a number of provocative questions about German performance in World War I and in subsequent years.
Brief description:
STEVEN E. CLEMENTE is a freelance historian specializing in modern German and European political and military history.
Review Quotes: ." . . is an important book. It brings together in exhaustive detail a great mass of material (memoranda, curricula, admission requirements, selection standards, personal accounts) essential to an understanding of Prussian officer education. And because this book is in English, U.S. soldiers now have an opportunity to study one of the finest military education systems in history."-Infantry