Preface The beginnings of the Prussian army as a standing army lie in the reign of the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector (1640 to 1688). At a meeting of the Privy Council on 5 June 1644, it was decided to set up a standing army. It was also Frederick William Elector of Brandenburg who enforced the essential principles of the later Prussian army: 1. connection of the advertising system with the duty of local peasant sons, 2. recruitment of officers from the local nobility, and 3. financing of the army by the electoral domain income. Military legislation to discipline the army became indispensable in the course of building a standing army. The GStA PK, IV. HA Preußische Armee, Rep. 16 Militärvorschriften (Prussian Armed Forces, Rep. 16) collection at hand comprises for the most part a collection of photocopies and copies of General Administrative, Command and Control and Service Regulations (including drill regulations for infantry and cavalry), regulations on troop administration, troop service, officer corps, engineering and fortifications as well as on the Landwehr from the former Bundesarchiv Militärisches Zwischenarchiv Potsdam. A smaller part of the military regulations comes from the former holdings GStA PK, IV HA A Prussian Army Archives and GStA PK, IV HA B Army Historical Collection, which originated mainly from the acquisition of files (purchases, gifts etc.) after 1967 in the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage. Since 1966/68 the Secret State Archives PK and the Federal Archives Dept. Military Archives Freiburg have had a regulation according to which the files dated before 1 January 1867 belong to the Secret State Archives PK and those dated after 31 December 1866 belong to the Federal Archives Dept. Military Archives. In the course of this delimitation regulation, a joint meeting of representatives of the Privy State Archives PK, the Federal Archives Department Military Archives Freiburg and the Federal Archives Military Intermediate Archives Potsdam took place in Potsdam on 16 September 1992. In this session, the delimitation issues of the Prussian army, which had been handed down in the Federal Archive Military Intermediate Archive Potsdam, were discussed. Besides the files that were taken over from the former Soviet Union in 1988, there were already extensive documents of the Prussian army there. After these files had been handed over in December 1995, the Secret State Archive PK began to merge the files handed over from the former Federal Archive Military Intermediate Archive Potsdam to Dahlem with the files of the holdings GStA PK, IV. HA A Prussian Army Archive and GStA PK, IV. HA B Army Historical Collection handed down in the Secret State Archive PK. In this context, the designation IV HA Prussian Army Archives in IV. HA Prussian Army changed. The partial stock of military regulations was given the Repositurnummer Rep. 16. For the stock there is a finding index from the former Bundesarchiv Militärisches Zwischenarchiv Potsdam. This was reorganized in 1997 by Prof. Dr. Kloosterhuis. The entry into the Augias database was made in 1998 by Mrs. Koegel and was revised by undersigned. Some file titles and notes on contents were checked and partially supplemented. Parallel to the development work the magazine-technical processing took place. The files were resigned, provided with new signature plates and packed in file boxes. How to order and quote: The records listed here are kept in the magazine in Dahlem. The pink order forms must therefore be used. The files shall be ordered as follows: IV. HA, Rep. 16, No. to quote: GStA PK, IV. HA Preußische Armee, Rep. 16 Militärvorschriften, Nr. Inventory volume: 4.6 lfm 748 VE (=zeichnungseinheit) Duration: 1635 - 1912 Last number assigned: 748 Berlin, February 2011 Irina Fröhlich (Archivoberinspektorin) Finding aids: Database; Findbuch, 1 vol.
