Military cabinet

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The military cabinet was a direct organ of the command of the Prussian king and German emperor for the processing of personnel matters of the officer corps and an intermediary to the military authorities.

history

The military cabinet emerged from the personnel department of the War Ministry established in Prussia in 1809 as part of the military reform . In addition to its role as a personnel department, it also developed into the monarch's military cabinet , since it was now also assigned the handling of all other military matters that were solely subject to the king's command.

In a cabinet order dated June 3, 1814 , the term military cabinet appears officially for the first time. The head of the military cabinet was often the adjutant general at the same time and thus only formally reported directly to the war minister . After 1841, however, his influence was temporarily restricted in favor of the Minister of War, but King Friedrich Wilhelm IV refused to abolish the military cabinet in the revolution of 1848/49 .

Under the later General Field Marshal Edwin von Manteuffel , from 1856/1857 to 1865 in personal union head of the department for personal affairs and the military cabinet and since 1861 adjutant general, the military cabinet achieved a high degree of independence. During the wars of 1866 ( German War ) and 1870/1871 ( Franco-German War ), the head of the military cabinet was part of the headquarters .

With the formation of the Imperial German Army and the reinforcement of the army after 1871, the powers of the military cabinet expanded significantly. It remained a Prussian authority and at the same time functioned as the cabinet of the imperial command. Until 1918 it was officially called the "Military Cabinet of His Majesty the Emperor and King". The chief of the cabinet was the only military man to give lectures to the Kaiser several times a week, attended almost all military lectures and mediated communications between the crown and the military authorities on command issues . From this grew the power of the military cabinet and its great influence on Kaiser Wilhelm I and even more on Wilhelm II , who particularly favored the secret cabinet system and in 1889 also set up a naval cabinet .

During the First World War , the military cabinet lost influence in favor of the Supreme Army Command and was subordinated to the War Ministry on October 28, 1918 as part of the so-called "parliamentarization of the Empire". With the fall of the monarchy and the outbreak of the November Revolution of 1918/19, the military cabinet ceased to exist in its old form. On December 7, 1918, it was renamed "Personnel Office in the War Ministry".

Field Office

Former military cabinet in Berlin, Behrenstrasse 66

From 1872 to 1918 the military cabinet had its seat at Behrenstrasse 66. The building erected by Conrad Friedrich Wilhelm Titel 1792–1793 as Palais Massow, which served as the general staff building from 1830 to 1872, was converted in 1872 for this purpose.

Chiefs of the military cabinet

literature

  • Rudolf Schmidt-Bückeburg: The military cabinet of the Prussian kings and German emperors. Its historical development and constitutional status 1787-1918 . Berlin, Mittler 1933, reprint 2010.

Web links