Los oficiales del Ejército Argentino que se capacitaron en Alemania entre los años 1900-1914 y sus familias

Abstract

The Argentine Army carried out a major challenge to achieve the desired professionalism and a real doctrine, from the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, founder of the Military College and the Naval Academy in 1869. Successive national authorities, civil and military, contribute with all their effort and intellect in this way, and from 1900 it became clear to the Argentine general staff the need for training, education and procurement of weapons, ammunition and military supplies outside the country. For 14 years and in an unprecedented observable fact, nearly 200 Argentine officers were sent to Germany to serve in high commands, staffs, academies, schools and military units, to assist manoeuvres, exercises and training courses and integrate commissions for weapons purchases. The effect was enormous and when they returned, each officer’s activity was intense at the time to inculcate their experiences, in issuing regulations and in training officers and soldiers. The family of these officers who served in the Imperial Army, in one way or another, felt the impact that left its traces on women, children and grandchildren —even in the heads of families—, and formed, unintentionally, a homogenous group with very individual styles and customs, many of them inherited from Germany and those Argentine military pioneers in search of a more qualified army.