General Staff (Sweden)

The General Staff (Generalstaben, abbreviated Gst) was a Swedish government agency established in 1873 and was active until 1937.

History
The General Staff was established in 1873 (SFS 1873:87). Its tasks was to contribute to the military science education in the army, train their officers and deliver them to the service of other agencies, study militarism abroad, elaborate plans for the army's mobilization and its concentration on different battlefields, write the country's military history and nurture its military historical archives, perform the country's military mapping and its study and description in military terms (whereby the Topographical Corps was merged with the General Staff).

The General Staff was initially organized with a chief with a head office and four departments: the Communications Department (1873-1937), Military Statistics Department (1873-1908), Military History Department (1873-1937) with the Military Archives and Topographical Department (1873-1937).

The task to handle the nations military mapping was transferred to the Geographical Survey Office of Sweden (Rikets allmänna kartverk) in 1894. The Military Statistics Department was divided in 1908 into three: the Central Department, Organization Department and the International Department. In 1912 the Communications Department was divided. One part retained the old name, and devoted themselves to the actual transportation policy. The other was called the Technical Department and devoted themselves to the telegraph, telephone, balloons, airplanes, cars and more.

The Technical Department dissolved on 17 December 1931 and was replaced by the Education Department, which also dealt with questions about regulations and instructions relating to the education. The General Staff ceased to exist on 1 July 1937 and its duties were taken over firstly by the Defence Staff and the Army Staff.