Officers of the combatant branches of the German army are taken from the ranks. This does not, however, in practice involve any lowering of the social scale of the officers' corps, as candi dates for commissions are youths of good family recruited with a view to their adoption of an officer's career. Candidates for corn missions volunteer direct to regimental commanders during the recruiting period, April 1 to Oct. 1 each year. Candidates for commissions who, on enlistment, are in possession of an education certificate from a "higher school" (hohere Schule) of at least nine classes, receive preferential treatment. The candidate, at the end of his first year's service, if recommended for a commission by his commanding officer, undergoes an examination on general and elementary military subjects (officer probationer's examination: Offizieranwartenpriifung). On passing this, he is, in the course of his second year's service, promoted to lance-corporal (Gefreiter) and then to corporal (Unteroffizier) as vacancies in his unit per mit. At the end of his second year (whatever his arm or branch) he proceeds to the infantry school at Dresden to undergo a course of instruction as corporal and officer probationer (Unteroffizier and Offizierwarter) for 1 oi months, at the end of which period he sits for the ensign's examination (Fiihnrichspriifung). If he passes this examination he is promoted to ensign (Fahnrich) and under goes a course of 1o4 months at the special school of his arm, which culminates in the officers' examination (0ffizierspriifung). On passing the officers' examination he is immediately promoted to senior ensign (Oberfiihnrich). He is simultaneously posted to his regiment, where he serves as senior ensign, until the following March, when, with the permission of his commanding officer, he comes up for election to a commission as second lieutenant (Leutnant) by the officers' corps of his regiment.
In the case of candidates without school certificates the mini mum training from enlistment to promotion to senior ensign is six years. For the first two years the candidate continues to serve
in the ranks. In the third year he undergoes a preliminary exami nation in general subjects. In the fourth year he must sit for a second examination in general subjects, and, if successful, for the officers' probation examination. From this point his training con tinues under the same conditions as those described above for candidates with school certificates until his promotion of senior ensign at the end of the sixth year.
Officers are recruited from two sources: (a) cadets from mili tary colleges at Rome and Naples, who leave these colleges at the age of 17 or 18, and (b) youths with the necessary educational qualifications who apply for commissions shortly before they are called up for conscript service at the age of 20. Both cate gories go through the same process of further education before they are commissioned. First, they attend an army corps cadet school for student reserve officers, one of which is established in each army corps area, for seven or eight months ; then they are attached to a regiment for three months, which qualifies them as second lieutenants of reserve (di complemento), with which rank they can then return to civil life if they like. Finally, if they carry out their original intention of taking regular commissions, they go to the military academy at Modena for two years, or, if entering the artillery or engineers, to the "school of applica tion" at Turin for three years. On passing out. all officers are com missioned as first lieutenants in the regular army. Artillery and engineer officers are antedated a year for seniority when they pass out, to put them on an equality with those passing out at Modena. A certain number of commissions as second lieu tenants in the Commissariat and Administrative Corps are given to under-officers (i.e., n.c.o.'s) of the corps and to civilians.