supervision. There was not a door which could be locked so that a cadet might be alone for the briefest period. Two hundred cadets dined at each session; thirty cadets were assigned to each classroom; ten cadets studied together in each living quarter. In the extraordinary instance of leave being granted to attend a funeral or a wedding, the cadet was required to report at once to the garrison commander nearest his destination. Riding was the only excuse for being out of uniform. Part of the system was to starve the Cadet Corps; cadets were not allowed to receive parcels from home. This tightened disciplinary efficiency; one of the severer penalties was barring the cadet from lunch or dinner.
Veelee never told his father how he hated the Kadettenanstalt because he assumed that his father would expect him to hate it, as his father had hated it. He had twenty-five minutes for recreation each day which he could squander on walks or spending the five marks per month the cadets were allowed for stamps, supplies, and everything else. The Kadettenanstalt was a fortress of unreality which conditioned the future officers for a place in its extension, the palace of unreality which was the German Army. It was an army which honored suicide when circumstances might have marred the communityâs illusion of what an army officer was and how he lived. Blunders marred that image, and it was the duty of a brave soldier and an honest fellow to kill himself to wash the stain away. If an officer was insulted by an inferiorâsuch as a civilian whom he could not, in any case, challenge to a duelâsuicide was the only way out. Veelee was taught when he was eleven years old that if a drunk came around a corner and there was no reason to deduce why he should not become offensive, the officer should cross the street quickly before the drunk could reach him. However, if the officer moved too late and the drunk struck him or cursed him, the officer must either draw his sword and hack the man to pieces on the spot or kill himself. If neither, and the encounter were witnessed, the officer would be cashiered from the army.
By graduating from the Kadettenanstalt into the army, the cadets could grow to men while still remaining boys at their games, and they could predict the contours of their lives. Veelee spent nine years as a cadet. In the fall of 1914 he graduated in the top eleven percent of officer candidates in his class. He passed his examinations for the general certificate for higher education six months earlier than the general rule, partly because of the outbreak of the war and partly because he had volunteered for service at once in order to escape.
Because Veelee was qualified as a cavalry officer, under the mysterious logic of armies he was not assigned to cavalry. He found himself in the renowned Preussisches Jegerregiment 2, which held the elite of the Prussian Army and was equal, in the service, to the Guards. Eighty percent of the officers in the regiment commanded by Colonel Prince Ernst von Sachsen-Meinigen were of aristocratic stock. It was a regiment of Rangers, part of the Alpine Corps, and within four months of having been posted, Veelee distinguished himself in the Rumanian campaign of 1915 and was promoted from ensign to sub-lieutenant. He was then decorated with the Iron Cross, second and first class, for distinguished service during the battle of Hermannstadt in September 1916. He was made lieutenant in February, 1918, when he was twenty years old, and posted to the staff of the Marine Corps in Flanders, stationed at Bruges, where he served directly under Captain Wilhelm Keitel of the General Staff. They were assigned to maintain liaison with the navy.
Keitel was a swot, a prodigiously dull and feverishly ambitious grind, sixteen years older than Veelee. He was a plebeian Hanoverian, light on talent, and his awe at being permitted to roam at large among the Prussian aristocracy flagellated his deep sense of
Veelee never told his father how he hated the Kadettenanstalt because he assumed that his father would expect him to hate it, as his father had hated it. He had twenty-five minutes for recreation each day which he could squander on walks or spending the five marks per month the cadets were allowed for stamps, supplies, and everything else. The Kadettenanstalt was a fortress of unreality which conditioned the future officers for a place in its extension, the palace of unreality which was the German Army. It was an army which honored suicide when circumstances might have marred the communityâs illusion of what an army officer was and how he lived. Blunders marred that image, and it was the duty of a brave soldier and an honest fellow to kill himself to wash the stain away. If an officer was insulted by an inferiorâsuch as a civilian whom he could not, in any case, challenge to a duelâsuicide was the only way out. Veelee was taught when he was eleven years old that if a drunk came around a corner and there was no reason to deduce why he should not become offensive, the officer should cross the street quickly before the drunk could reach him. However, if the officer moved too late and the drunk struck him or cursed him, the officer must either draw his sword and hack the man to pieces on the spot or kill himself. If neither, and the encounter were witnessed, the officer would be cashiered from the army.
By graduating from the Kadettenanstalt into the army, the cadets could grow to men while still remaining boys at their games, and they could predict the contours of their lives. Veelee spent nine years as a cadet. In the fall of 1914 he graduated in the top eleven percent of officer candidates in his class. He passed his examinations for the general certificate for higher education six months earlier than the general rule, partly because of the outbreak of the war and partly because he had volunteered for service at once in order to escape.
Because Veelee was qualified as a cavalry officer, under the mysterious logic of armies he was not assigned to cavalry. He found himself in the renowned Preussisches Jegerregiment 2, which held the elite of the Prussian Army and was equal, in the service, to the Guards. Eighty percent of the officers in the regiment commanded by Colonel Prince Ernst von Sachsen-Meinigen were of aristocratic stock. It was a regiment of Rangers, part of the Alpine Corps, and within four months of having been posted, Veelee distinguished himself in the Rumanian campaign of 1915 and was promoted from ensign to sub-lieutenant. He was then decorated with the Iron Cross, second and first class, for distinguished service during the battle of Hermannstadt in September 1916. He was made lieutenant in February, 1918, when he was twenty years old, and posted to the staff of the Marine Corps in Flanders, stationed at Bruges, where he served directly under Captain Wilhelm Keitel of the General Staff. They were assigned to maintain liaison with the navy.
Keitel was a swot, a prodigiously dull and feverishly ambitious grind, sixteen years older than Veelee. He was a plebeian Hanoverian, light on talent, and his awe at being permitted to roam at large among the Prussian aristocracy flagellated his deep sense of
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