The Pursuit of Power. Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000

216 Chapter Six

society and government as well as of the army. A Hanoverian upstart,

Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst (1755–1813), won remark­

able ascendancy among the military reformers, thanks to his personal

qualities and to halfhearted support from Frederick William III. The

Prussian king felt that he had been betrayed by incompetent and even

cowardly aristocratic officers. So after Jena he turned to Scharnhorst

and his fellow reformers, but only in a mood of desperation, for he

mistrusted their faith in the revival of Prussian greatness through

partnership with the people. Active alliance between ruler and ruled,

Scharnhorst believed, was the real secret of French successes. Time

and again ordinary Frenchmen had proved themselves willing to fight

bravely on behalf of their nation and its rulers. Germans would do the

same for the king of Prussia but only if they were given a proper stake

in the country. King Frederick William acceded to such ideas reluc­

tantly, for he remembered what had happened to Louis XVI when he

had tried to ride the tiger of the popular will. Abolition of serfdom

and establishment of limited local self-government were about all that

the Prussian king was prepared to approve in the way of social and

political reform.

In strictly military matters, however, Scharnhorst’s ideas met with

fuller success. Until 1813, French policy made implementation of the

ideal of a people in arms plainly impossible. But in the meantime,

improvement in military efficiency, skill, and level of training seemed

attainable. Accordingly, Scharnhorst’s idea that officers should be ap­

pointed and promoted only on the basis of demonstrated capacity was

officially decreed by royal proclamation in 1808, as follows:

A claim to the position of officer shall from now on be war­

ranted in peace-time by knowledge and education, in time of war

by exceptional bravery and quickness of perception. From the

whole nation, therefore, all individuals who possess these qual­

ities can lay title to the highest positions of honor in the military

establishment. All social preference which has hitherto existed is

herewith terminated in the military establishment, and everyone,

without regard for his background, has the same duties and the

same rights.^59

To implement this declaration, schools were established in which
cadets might qualify for commissions and in which serving officers
might qualify for promotion to higher rank. Schooling for artillerymen

59. Translation by Gordon A. Craig in The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640–1945
    (Oxford, 1955), p. 43.