Hauptkadettenanstalt Lichterfelde

From 1878 to 1919, the Royal Prussian Main Cadet Institute in Lichterfelde served the military training of adolescents. In the early days, about half of the cadets were nobles, after which the proportion of middle-class families increased. The cadet school soon became the most important military training institution and a springboard for a career in the Prussian army.

In the cadet school, numerous later leading colonial military officers were trained. After graduating from high school – usually with the rank of officer – they were involved in the brutal suppression of anti-colonial resistance in Africa and China in the early 20th century as commanders-in-chief. These cadets of the early years included Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and Georg Maercker. During the First World War, Lettow-Vorbeck also waged a guerrilla war against the Allies, to which several hundred thousand African civilians fell victim.