General Staff Officers part 1
One of the reasons that our books are so different from others is because of our intimate knowledge of the “red donkey”. These were manuals issued to the general staff officers individually. Not to a unit or a position. The book allegedly tells you everything about everything. They are quite rare. I know there is one in Potsdam, several collectors have one, as do we. They are seldom if ever referenced.
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Before 1914, it was commonly said that Europe was home to five reputedly perfect institutions: the Roman Curia, the British Parliament, the Russian Ballet, the French Opera, and the Prussian General Staff. The Great General Staff was the organizational center of the German armies.
The staff had neither the responsibility for the training of or the commanding of troops, nor the task of compiling field regulations. This was done either by the Ministry of War or the corps commanders. In 1914, the staff consisted of 625 officers divided between the Great General Staff in Berlin and the Troop General Staff that provided officers for corps and divisions. There were three general staff officers per army corps staff and one per divisional staff. It is instructive to know that small unit commanders would go to “The General Staff Officer” to find out what was going on inside the division.
The corps staffs, eventually grew to four general staff officers known as the Ia, Ib, Ic, and Id led by a Chef des Stabes, usually abbreviated as the “Chef”, who were known as Truppengeneralstab, headed by a colonel. In wartime army staffs, there would also be the ordinance officers IIa, IIc, etc. The Chef had a direct reporting line to the Great General Staff in Berlin. Divisions only had one Ia officer—roughly comparable to contemporary G3 officers. Due to their direct line to the Great General Staff, they often worked behind the back of their own commanders. This seemingly insignificant fact becomes very important as World War I approaches.
Since the officers in General Staff were considered to be the absolute elite of army officers, there was heavy competition to become a General Staff Officer. The first step was to take a voluntary War Academy Entrance Examination. Applicants for the exam had to have held a commission for three years and not be eligible for promotion to captain for five more years. The regimental commander of each applicant had to submit an evaluation, which covered, the applicant’s duty experience and expertise, his suitability for advanced academic study, his health, his conduct and character, and his financial situation. Annually there were 400 test takers and about 25 percent were admitted to the War Academy in Berlin. In the last few years before the war, these numbers grew to 800 candidates, with about 150 to 160 young officers actually attending the War Academy. The course of study was three years long and Prussia, Saxony, and Württemberg sent officers to the same academy. The failure rate for the examination ending this course was between 66 and 75 percent. As a result, only 25 to 35 officers per year graduated from the War Academy. The graduates spent a year or more of probation in a unit before joining the Great General Staff in Berlin. The washout rate of probation was significant with only about ten officers per year actually being accepted as General Staff officers.