Continuity and change in the Bavarian Officer Corps 1815 to 1866
[journal article]
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.36.2011.3.270-296
Abstract
"The article examines shifts in the social make-up of the Bavarian officer corps during the German confederation and the development of the role the officers played in Bavarian society. The study explores social patterns of recruitment and careers as well as the military conditioning of the officers as it related to their social status. It analyses the social prestige, the inner coherence and the social self-concept of the Bavarian officer corps and detects continuities and changes in these sectors as well as their reciprocal relations over the period of examination of five decades. The analysis clearly shows that the development of the Bavarian officer corps had different characteristics than that of the Prussian. The Bavarian officer corps emerges as a socially inhomogeneous military elite lacking the Prussian social exclusiveness. The officers stayed in constant touch with the milieu of their family background. Only the military reform beginning in 1868 based on the Prussian model created an unprecedented level of education and assimilation of the officers and led to an increasing convergence to the situation of the Prussian officer corps."
In summary, it can be stated for the period of the German Confederation that although it is appropriate to describe the Bavarian officer corps as a functional elite based on its capacity as a leader and instructor of the army but the internal cohesion of the Bavarian officer corps was not very strong due to its heterogeneous social composition and a lack of education in social exclusivity to such an extent that the officers did not occupy a uniform social position in Bavarian society. Rather, officers remained primarily self-evident members of their respective social class of origin. The army reorganization that was initiated after the defeat of 1866 again represented a clear break. It primarily affected the performance and values of the Bavarian officer corps. In the areas of education and military technology, which contributed to the Bavarian army's success in the war of 1870/71. War of 1870/71. In 1872, Bavaria became the first German state to enforce compulsory school-exit examinations for officers' careers, and thus Bavaria was the first German state to enforce compulsory training of the Bavarian officer corps,