Militärschulen#

Military Schools: Until the Thirty Years´ War entry upon an officer´s career was contingent upon noble birth ("Junker", obsolete term for young nobleman), purchase of a "patent" or long-term service ("Haufenfuehrer" - leader). Wallenstein founded the first military "institution" during the Thirty Years´ War in Bohemia, in Vienna a military school of engineers was established in 1718. Empress Maria Theresia set up the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt in the course of her army reform in 1752, in Waitzen (Vác, Hungary) she founded a school of noblemen, which Emperor Franz I expanded to a war academy in Budapest, Hungary in 1808. In 1786 a "Higher Artillery School" for the officers of the bombardier corps was established in Vienna. The 1887 reform created Militaer-Unterrealschule (lower-level military secondary schools) in St. Poelten, Guens/Koeszeg, Eisenstadt, Kaschau/Košice, which were mainly attended by the sons of meritorious civil servants, the Militaer-Oberrealschule (school for higher military education) in Maehrisch-Weisskirchen (Hranice) as a 4-year preparatory school for the Military Academy, and a military orphanage in Fischau. Cadet schools ( Cadet) granted access to every young man aged 14 having received a normal schooling. In addition, the military institution of the so-called Einjaehrig-Freiwillige was established in 1868.

After 1918 officers were trained in the military school at Enns (4 years), from 1936 to 1938 in the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. In 1936 in Liebenau near Graz a military Mittelschule (secondary school) was opened, which was to continue the tradition of the former cadet schools. In 1958 instruction at the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt was resumed; the Noncommissioned Officers´ School of the Austrian Army is located at Enns, the Staff Academy and the Military Business School are in the Stiftskaserne barracks in Vienna, a Military School (Heeresnachschubschule) and a Military College of Technology in the Vienna Breitensee Barracks. The Ministry of Defence maintains an Institute of Military Sciences. Federal Armed Forces (Bundesheer).

Literature#