Summary of the Swedish general staff for period 1816-1914

The first general staff was formed in the french army during the early period of Napoleonic wars. Around the same time, the Prussian general staff was created in 1806, and after the war, the Swedish general staff was established in 1816. It is essential to explain that the original general staffs were mainly working with cartographic and topographic activities and at the same time were functioning corps for higher army officers. The following changes that resulted in new working procedures and professionalisation of general staffs in Europe during the middle and following parts of the 19^th century were results of contemporary developments such as conscripted armies, railroad and telegraph. Aspects as these affected the military abilities of the states such as Prussia which in combination with professional general staff became able to wage a new kind of warfare during the era of industrialisation.  

In Sweden, after the topic for reorganisation of the general staff was discussed several times since the 1850’s, it was decided by the parliament (Riksdag) in 1873 that the general staff should be organised as own corps with its own Chief of general staff. One of the main agitators for this process was lieutenant colonel Hugo Rabb who at the moment was chief for the Lantförsvarets kommandoexpedition (literally meaning Command expedition of the land-defence ministry which in part was one of the predecessors of today’s Ministry of Defense). In Swedish military history writing, Hugo Rabb is described as military reformer since he played a crucial role in several military developments in the army During the later periods of the 19^th century. In his view, regarding the reorganisation of general staff, the latest wars had shown the need for a functioning General staff in war-making process. This could be seen in the functional development of the Prussian general staff that among other things came to include war planning, educational work and intelligence gathering about other foreign armies. Also the wars between Prussia and Denmark in 1864, Austro-Hungary in 1866 and France in 1870-71 resulted in several European countries creating or reorganising their general staffs.

The newly reorganised Swedish general staff was not only to have a central role during the war but also during peacetime regarding the work with military  education and objective discussions of all questions that regarded the land warfare. One Swedish military history writer called Gunnar Arteus had written about Hugo Rabb, the general staff and german influence during the time of reorganisation. During 1855-1858 Rabb was studying at Allgemeine Kriegsschule in Berlin which Arteus has regarded being vital for Rabb's military view. According to Arteus the new general staff had some Swedish continuity however due the new role and assignments as for example interaction between serving in the general staff and serving at unit level was a sign of the German influence that dominated the reorganisation process. Rabb considered that it was essential for the general staff officers after some time in the staff would be given the possibility to serve on unit level to stimulate the war science education but also to affect the planning and leading of exercises to spread and update their knowledge. The general staff officers were also supposed to serve in two army branch outside of their own. The interaction between the staff and units gave the possibility for selection of future personnel since the Rabbs stand was that it was not enough for the officers to only be employed by the staff. They also needed to immerse themselves in their professionalism and in that way the officers would be given the possibility to study in both Sweden and abroad and also to participate in annual general staff filed exercises (theoretical) and more significant field service exercises (in field with units).

Among other decisions for general staff that were taken in 1873 were working procedures for intelligence gathering about foreign armies, planning for the army’s mobilisation and strategic deployment, writing Sweden’s military history and working with the military cartography. Also, the staff was supposed to educate officers for their specific field services and their work as teachers in the army schools. Also, the general staff officers were to be provided as personnel for the Land-defense Ministry and higher army staffs. Finally, the organisation of the general staff was formed in four sections: military statics section, communication section, topographical section and the military history section. 

In year 1874 a particular instruction was established for the Chief of general staff. Among other assignments, he was supposed to continually follow the military development to make proposals to Land-defense ministry for tests or changes in the army when he considered that the new knowledge and experiences demanded that. Since then towards the beginning of the 20^th century, the growing working complexity in general staff led to a new reorganisation. In 1908 the military statistics section was reorganised in three new sections: central section, organisational section and foreign section. The central section was assigned to develop plans for different war scenarios (most of the planning was towards a war scenario between Sweden and Imperial Russia), the organisational section took care of the army’s organisation issues and mobilisation while foreign section took care of intelligence gathering and elaboration of military developments in other countries. The contemporary technical events as aeroplane, balloons, motor vehicles and radio resulted in dividing the communication section into technical section that took care of new technological developments and communication section that took care of transport issues such as railways.  

Regarding the employment of the general staffs' personnel, it was regulated by instructions from 1904 where it was said that the number of general staff officers would be maximum 48 while the number of cadets should be maximum of 12. In order to be employed by the general staff, it was necessary to initially be educated at the War College, Artillery college or Engineering college and after that to serve two years in general staffs main station and land-defence ministry. During the aspiration service, the cadet was also given an amount of self-assignment that were supposed to be presented verbally or written to Chief of general staff and was to participate in both filed exercises. The result of the high demands for general staff personnel was that only around 25% of approximately 25 officers that were annually admitted for studies at the War collage later became cadets for the general staff after being proposed by the teachers' council at the college. In 1914 the number of active personnel in general staff was increased to a maximum of 56 while the number of cadets was raised to a maximum of  24 in 1916 to increase the selection of personnel and to meet the new demand for staff personnel. During the years around 1914, only two to four cadets were employed by the general staff, which meant only around 20 % of cadets annually serving in the staff later became general staff officers. Also in 1914, the former general staff officers composed the 11 Of 13 army generals and almost little more over the half of all chiefs of infantry regiments. During the WWI the Chief of general staff was lieutenant-general Karl Gillis Bildt (1854-1927) who as Rabb was educated in Germany at the Kriegsakademie (1875-1878) and became a general staff officer in 1882. He was also a member of parliament’s first chamber during 1899-1908 and commissioner for different comities such as the parliamentarian defence committee in 1907-1910.

References

Generalstaben 1873 – 1923; En minnesskrift (Stockholm: Norstedt & Söner, 1923)

Bestämmelser för generalstabsens organisation och verksamhet i fredstid, SFS 1873:87. (Svensk Författningssamling)

Gunnar Artéus ”Hugo Raab och generalstabsidén” i Hugo Raab, red. Gunnar Artéus, (Stockholm: Försvars­högskolan, 2003)

Svenska arméns rulla 1912-1918 (Stockholm: Norstedt).

Arden Bucholz, Moltke and the German Wars , 1864-1871 (Basingstoke: Palgrave ,2001)