Prussian Staff College







The Prussian Staff College, also Prussian War College (Preußische Kriegsakademie) was the highest military facility of the Kingdom of Prussia to educate, train, and develop general staff officers.

Location
It originated with the Akademie für junge Offiziere der Infanterie und Kavallerie (Academy for young officers of the infantry and cavalry) in 1801, later becoming known as the Allgemeine Kriegsschule (General War-School). It was officially re-founded by Gerhard von Scharnhorst in Berlin on October 15, 1810 as one of three officer colleges. Its building on Unter den Linden (1845/25) was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

Graduation
Graduating from the Staff College was a prerequisite for appointment to the Prussian General Staff (later the German General Staff). Carl von Clausewitz enrolled as one of its first students in 1801 (before it was renamed), while other attendees included Field Marshals von Steinmetz, von Moltke, and von Blumenthal in the 1820s and 1830s.

Ernst Emile Von Lorenz, who served as a United States Army Commander in 1889, was a graduate, as was US Army Colonel Albert Coady Wedemeyer, who served in World War II. The Staff College restructured after World War I and dissolved following World War II.