|
1801
|
According to
White (1989), pp.29-30 and p.50, footnote 10,
this Society was founded in Berlin on 1801, July 2 as the
Militärische Gesellschaft.
Its first director was
Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst.
According to
White (1989), pp.xii-xiii,
Scharnhorst was a prominent military educator in Hannover, who was also
a proponent of reform in the military.
When his proposals for reform were rejected in Hannover, he accepted a
position in the Prussian army in Berlin in 1801.
According to
White (1989), pp.41-42,
this Society broke up with the mobilization of the Prussian Army in April
of 1805.
White (1989), p.121 gives the last recorded
meeting as 1805, April 24.
White (1989), p.186 indicates that after the
defeat of the Prussian army at Jena in 1806, Scharnhorst reorganized the
Prussian General Staff.
His reforms were continued by other talented military cheifs, most of whom
had been members of the Militärische Gesellschaft during its
brief period of existence.
It is interesting to note that there is a record in the
GBV German Union cat.
for an 1893 book entitled
Zum 50jährigen Bestehen der Militärischen Gesellschaft zu
Berlin am 24. Januar 1893 : ein Rückblick
(printed by Mittler in Berlin as a 55-page manuscript evidently).
This latter title would seem to suggest the existence of a society with
the same name as the one we have been considering,
but founded in 1843, and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1893.
We also find in the
GBV German Union cat.
a record for the following 1912 book:
Die politische Lage Europas vor Beginn der Befreiungskriege :
Vortrag, gehalten in der Militärischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin am 23.
Oktober 1912.
So we have evidence suggesting the existence of a Society of the
same name, but founded in 1843 and still in existence just shortly before
the First World War, that is to say, in existence for around 70 years.
This latter Society appears never to have published a journal.
We have no trace of its existence past 1912.
It is natural to wonder whether there was any relationship between these
two societies.
Did the 1843 Society regard itself, perhaps, as a revival of the 1801-1805
Society?
Or was it simply founded as a completely unrelated Society?
|
