Ministry of War (Prussia)

The Prussian Ministry of War was gradually established between 1808 and 1809 as part of a series of reforms initiated by the Military Reorganization Commission created after the disastrous Treaties of Tilsit.

The War Ministry was to help bring the Army under constitutional review, and, along with the General Staff, systematize the conduct of warfare.

Gerhard von Scharnhorst, the most prominent and influential of the reformers, served as acting Minister of War from roughly 1808 until 1810 (he was also concurrently Chief of the General Staff).

The first division represented the continuation of the old Prussian Adjutancy-General and was also known as the "Privy Military Cabinet" (Geheimes Kriegskabinett).

The second division dealt with general army matters, including troop formation, replacements and turnover, accommodations, military exercises and mobilization.

Hermann von Boyen, another prominent reformer alongside Scharnhorst, served as minister from 1813 to 1819 and again from 1841-to 1847 and was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall in 1847.

Stein was succeeded on 9 October 1918 by Heinrich Schëuch, though by that point much of the ministry's responsibilities had been assumed by the higher military staff under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.

For one hundred years, from 1 January 1819 to 1 January 1919 (when the ministry ceased to exist), it was located in the Friedrichstadt quarter of what is today Berlin-Mitte: The main building was on Leipziger Straße 5 facing south, with the garden bordering on the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais (demolished in 1935 to erect the Ministry of Aviation building).

A new building was built for the General Staff between 1867 and 1871 in the Tiergarten at the Königsplatz (now the Platz der Republik), with its western corner facing the Moltkestraße.