This year would reveal his strong personality, which accompanied his great physical strength and rough appearance, although this exterior belonged to a generous and naturally kind young man.

In the campaigns of the Franco-Prussian War, despite his few years of service, he stood out as battery commander on behalf of his performance in the Battles of Wörth, Sedan, and in the Siege of Paris, where he was hurt many times.

Finishing his studies in the academy, in the 1877 he was chosen and commissioned by the Chief of Staff, the field marshal Helmuth von Moltke, to make educational trips in France, Italy, Spain, Africa, and Russia until 1878.

In 1881 he was promoted to the rank of captain and designated as professor of the Artillery and Engineering School, conducting classes of military history, hoplology, tactics, and ballistics between 1882 and 1885, standing out again for his work.

Emil Körner, who stood out for his brilliant background and great war experience, under the concept that he must realize in Chile the necessary reforms to transform its army into a mirror of the Prussian, a five-year work agreement, with contract renewal.

It's important to highlight that the request to incorporate a German officer was made to the supreme government by the general Emilio Sotomayor and the admiral Patricio Lynch specifically to reform the military system.

The Civil War of 1891 was a conflict of powers between the president of the republic and the parliament around (initially) the interpretation of the constitution, and marked the first political intervention of the four officers educated by General Körner in the Prussian way.

The Army's high-ranking officers insisted that it was incompatible with their discipline, that the subordinates would know more than their superiors, and that therefore there were no posts to give to the students who were going to leave the War Academy, and they requested the suppression of that establishment.

Körner decided to integrate himself into the Congressional Army, under severe threats from the government of a process in military justice and they voided his contract, communicating this to the German ambassador in Santiago, Baron Felix von Gutschmid.

He left on March 5, 1891, from Valparaíso with a group of officials, students of the Army War Academy, to Iquique where he was gratefully received and integrated to the congressional forces with his same rank of colonel lieutenant.

These forces were directed by Colonel Estanislao del Canto, who put him in charge of the mission of organizing the incipient revolutionary army in the capacity of Chief of Staff.

According to what Colonel del Canto expressed, the active labor and perseverance of Körner gave a great impulse to the formation and organization of the congressional troops.

The war carried out with these well-instructed troops developed itself in good form for the congress and it opened the doors for the central area to where their forces were transferred to give the coup de grace to the government of the President Balmaceda.

The opposition from the Balmacedist troops was as expected, as they did not utilize the natural obstacles that the terrain offered (the Aconcagua River and Petra Gorge) he was able to rapidly disperse the constitutional forces which earned him great appraisals for his bravery.

Despite this, the congress didn't totally support his modernization plans and limited them for fear of a power that would counterbalance them and also for the fact that the new government consolidated slowly, owing to the disorder of a political, economic, social, and military nature, proper to the end of a civil war.

Whereas before General Körner had been reprimanded by Germany for his participation in the civil war of a country whose government had contracted him, in 1892 Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him the Cross of the Red Eagle, second class for bringing his troops to victory in the revolution.

At the time of his retirement he left Chile with the best equipped and prepared force in Latin America, based on order, German discipline and planning, combined with Chilean courage and commitment.