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Prussia's Emergence as a Military Power
After the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia eventually
emerged as the dominant power in central Europe. Prussia had been colonized
and Germanized during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the Knights
of the Teutonic Order, a military order of German monks that pushed back
or overran the Slavs in the area. The knights were crushed by the Poles
and Lithuanians in 1410 at the Battle of Tannenberg, but in the next century
the Hohenzollern Dynasty that ruled Brandenburg and made Berlin its residence
was able to win control over West Prussia, Silesia, Pomerania, and eventually
much of the Rhineland and Westphalia.
The German military heritage was epitomized by a succession of Prussian
rulers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first of these
was the Great Elector, Frederick William (r. 1640-88), who recognized
that a standing army with an elite officer corps was the key to the development
of a powerful state in his remote part of the empire. His grandson, Frederick
William I (r. 1713-40), more than doubled the size of his professional
army to 90,000 and added a trained reserve of conscripted peasants, forming
one of the most modern and efficient fighting units in eighteenth-century
Europe. Heavy taxes supported the army, which consumed 80 percent of state
revenues even in peacetime. The next Prussian king, Frederick II (r. 1740-86),
known to posterity as Frederick the Great, raised the strength of the
army to 150,000 and launched a series of wars between 1740 and 1763, wresting
control of the province of Silesia from Habsburg Austria. Prussia had
become one of the most powerful continental states and a contender with
the Habsburgs for domination over the myriad German political entities.
The aristocratic character of the officer corps was established early
in the eighteenth century as Prussian kings tried to gain the support
of wealthy landed aristocrats, known as Junkers, by granting them a virtual
monopoly over the selection of officers. In 1733 a cadet school was established
in Berlin to train sons of Junkers to be officers. The officer corps was
well on the way to becoming the most privileged social class in Prussia.
The chauvinistic militarism of Prussia inspired fear and hatred among
other European states and peoples. Under the strong leadership of a self-perpetuating
general staff, the army brooked little interference in its affairs by
the civil government. Nevertheless, the failure to reform and the lack
of preparedness after the death of Frederick the Great in 1786 led to
the army's decisive defeat by Napoleon's forces at Jena in October 1806.
Over the next few years, General Gerhard von Scharnhorst guided the revitalization
of the army. Reforms included the introduction of universal military service
and an end to dependence on mercenaries. The officer corps was expanded
to include commoners, and officers were encouraged to take greater initiative
in battle. The new Prussian army distinguished itself at the Battle of
Leipzig in 1813 and again at Waterloo in 1815, where, under the command
of Field Marshal Gebhard von Bluecher, the army was instrumental in the
ultimate defeat of Napoleon.
Prussia's reputation for military efficiency was reestablished by the
army's final victories over Napoleon. The Prussian War College (Kriegsakademie)
became a model for military staff colleges around the world in the early
nineteenth century. A book of that era--On War --written by Karl (Carl)
von Clausewitz, a Prussian general, became a classic, its theories of
land warfare still studied by officers of many armies more than 160 years
after the author's death.
The unification of the many German states into the German Empire (1871-1918)
followed Prussian-led victories over Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866,
and France in 1870-71. Prussia's aggressive policies were masterminded
by Otto von Bismarck, who became united Germany's first chancellor. Following
unification, the legendary Prussian General Staff became the German General
Staff. Clausewitz's dictum that civilians should control the military
was ignored, and the General Staff became a power center in the highly
militaristic regimes of Kaiser Wilhelm I (1858-88) and Kaiser Wilhelm
II (1888-1918).
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