Under the command of Field Marshals Count Helmut von Moltke and Count Alfred von Schlieffen, the Prussian-German General Staff developed into the highest strategic authority in Prussia and, after 1871, in the German Empire. In the end, the political forces in Germany hardly participated in its strategic planning; rather, they were informed about them. It is interesting to posit how this development came about. Owing to his personal merits in the campaigns against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866 and France in 1870-1871, Field Marshal Count Helmut von Moltke succeeded in emancipating the General Staff completely from the Prussian War Ministry. As had been the case with Scharnhorst, who came from the Army of Hannover 20 years before, Helmut von Moltke changed from Danish into Prussian service, because he hoped to find better career chances there. In 1857, the monarch appointed him as Chief of the Prussian General Staff.
When the war against Denmark broke out in 1864, General von Moltke first remained in Berlin. According to regulations dating back to 1821, he had to submit his operational suggestions through the War Minister to the monarch. The commander in chief of the Prussian troops, Field Marshal von Wrangel, first had similar acceptance problems as had been the case with Gneisenau and General von York. Wrangel considered it beneath a Prussian Field Marshal's dignity to accept the advice of a Chief of the General Staff.' The Field Marshal changed his views only when Moltke was appointed as his Chief of the General Staff in the course of the campaign and directly cooperated with Wrangel. The separate deployment and advancement of four Prussian armies and the nearly successful envelopment of the Austrians near Koeniggraetz in the 1866 campaign were Moltke's personal achievement. The victory over Austria built up his reputation as a strategist. There he achieved Clausewitz's ideal of a decisive victory by means of a battle of annihilation. The railway network gave Moltke the means he needed to mobilize swiftly and concentrate the Prussian conscript army. In appreciation of Moltke's success, on June 2, 1866, King Wilhelm elevated the importance of the Chief of the General Staff's position. In times of war he was granted the right to issue operational orders on behalf of the King. However, the sovereign had to be consulted before vital decisions were taken. Up to that time the Chief of the General Staff had only been the planner of operations, but this step entrusted him with their execution as well. Henceforth he only had to inform the War Minister about his activities.
As early as the end of the 1864 War, the strength of the General Staff had to be increased because the wartime establishment of only 83 officers was simply insufficient. There were also plans for "raising a special budget for purely scientific purposes." Financial constraints and the War of 1866 prevented this reform. Resulting from the conclusion of the 1866 war, the following budget for the General Staff was decided upon on January 31, 1867: The "main budget" provided for 88 General Staff officers. Besides the Chief of the General Staff of the army, it included three division chiefs of the Great General Staff, officers in the Great General Staff, and the General Staff chiefs and General Staff officers of major formations. The "additional budget for scientific purposes" comprised 21 officers. Of the 109 General Staff officers, 46 were assigned to the Great General Staff and 53 were posted to the Line General Staff. The outbreak of the 1870 war showed that the wartime requirements of 161 General Staff officers were contrasted by a peacetime budget, which provided for 109 General Staff officers. At the beginning of the campaign of 1870, about 200 General Staff officers were posted to the mobile German armies. Their number was increased in the course of the war.
The phenomenon of the General Staff officers being only few in numbers already existed at the time of Moltke. The "Office of the Chief of the General Staff" was responsible for personnel management of General Staff officers and all organizational and economic affairs. The "main budget" formed three divisions which were tasked to keep track of all matters of military interest at home and abroad, plus a division for railroad matters. The first division was responsible for Sweden, Norway, Turkey and Austria. The second division's responsibility was Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The third division was tasked to observe developments in France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and America. Finally, the fourth division worked on any issues related to military rail transport. The "additional budget for scientific purposes" also allowed for the organization of a war history department, geographical-statistical studies, and a General Staff survey division.
Upon declaration of war against France in 1870, Moltke advanced to the battlefield with the Great Headquarters. The operations division was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Bronsart von Schellendorf, the political division by Lieutenant Colonel von Verdy du Vernois, and the railroad division by Lieutenant Colonel von Brandenstein. Moltke conducted the operations in France with only 13 General Staff officers. Owing to their wartime success they were called Moltke's "demigods" within the Prussian Army. He repeated his outstanding performance of 1866 by annihilating the Army of the French Emperor Napoleon III at Sedan and by breaking the French armies which tried to bring the war to an end to the advantage of the French Republic.
The complete emancipation of the General Staff from the War Ministry took place in 1883. A cabinet order dated May 24, 1883 placed the position of the Chief of the General Staff on a level with that of the War Ministry and the Military Cabinet. He was granted the right to contact the sovereign directly and to present his statements. Moltke never had strived for this elevation of the General Staff. After the 1870-71 Unification War, in the course of a popular-nationalist heroizing of war, many Germans came to consider the General Staff as an almost mystic powerhouse. Numerous war memorials and artist's impressions depicted the Chief of the General Staff together with the "Architect of the Reich," Otto von Bismarck, Emperor Wilhelm I, the War Minister, Albrecht von Roon and the monarch and ruler of the German Empire. Field Marshal Count Helmut von Moltke had headed the General Staff for 31 years. When he stepped down from his post at the age of 88, 239 General Staff officers were serving in the Prussian Army and the Federal contingents of the German Imperial Army. This included 197 Prussians, 25 members of the Bavarian Army, 15 of the Saxonian Army and 7 from the Wuerttemberg contingent. The Prussian Army and the Federal contingents included 21,981 officers, of which only 1 percent were General Staff officers.
The successor to Field Marshal Count von Moltke as the Chief of the General Staff was General Count von Waldersee. He occupied the post for only 3 years and had to resign due to disagreements with Emperor Wilhelm II. Emperor Wilhelm II appointed the General of the Cavalry, Count Alfred von Schlieffen as his successor, who held the post of Chief of the General Staff from 1891 to 1906. Under his command, the Prussian-German General Staff system reached its highest efficiency before the First World War. Up to the present day Schlieffen's ideas and techniques of command and control have influenced various facets of the Bundeswehr and its General Staff training. This fact is hardly known or recognized today, as will be discussed later.