Prussian Naval Academy

The training of officers for the Prussian Navy started with the foundation of the Navigationsschulen in Danzig in 1817, although there were other similar schools in the first half of the nineteenth century at Memel, Königsberg, Stettin and Stralsund.

[1] Under the leadership of King Wilhelm III, and the Minister of Finance Hans von Bülow, the Prussian Cabinet ordered on 20 June 1817 the creation of a navigation school for the building and training of officers for seagoing vessels.

This first Prussian school of this kind started in Danzig (today Gdansk in Poland) at the St. Jacob Church, where a tower was built as an observatory.

Already in the first year there were 40 students who mainly studied navigation but also did occasional "military maneuvers" on the schooner of war Stralsund - under Captain Longé.

After three years he moved the school into a building that lay outside Danzig at the mouth of the Radaune River because the St. Jacob Church was inadequate.