Question about militair wochenblatt

[henridecat]

Discussion copied from Yahoo group
========================================================================
Hey All,

Does anybody have a link to a site or book that
definitively describes the history (or at the very
least a definition) of militair wochenblatt? The
kriegsspiel site refers to it quite a bit, and from my
limited knowledge of German I have surmised that it
was (is? I assume not) a weekly magazine published by
the Prussian army that related to military affairs,
but I can't find any site (or book for that matter)
that confirms this assumption. Can anyone point me to
anything?

Thanks,

Tom Magee

p.s. Are there any Kriegsspielers in the San Francisco
Bay area? I am fascinated by the game and am looking
to play if any Bay area residents are interested in
getting together.
========================================================================
Haven't got much for you. I think it started in 1873 and was still going strong in the late 1930s. I would guess it finished during WW2. In the aftermath, Germany turned away from things military for quite a long time.

What it was is a bit more difficult. Many of the articles seem to have been written by soldiers (eg Guderian wrote for it in the 30s), but I haven't seen anything to prove it was an official army publication.

The actual spelling is militar wochenblatt. Try googling that, and you will find some references.

Hope that helps a bit.

Martin James
========================================================================
Thanks, Martin. Just today I was able to dig up a few
more facts about the publication. I found a German
wikipedia page at the following address:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milit%C3%A4r-Wochenblatt

I also found out the the Stanford University library
has a complete collection of the publication in its
library. Stanford also has a copy of Bill Leeson's
translation of Kriegsspiel, for those of you in the
Bay area who are interested.

Thanks again for the reply. I will be hitting the
library later this week to check the publication out
for myself, and I will most likely be writing up an
English wikipedia article that provides a short
description of the magazine to help others who, like
myself, are unfamiliar with it.

Thanks again,

Tom
========================================================================
That's an interesting Wikipedia article. Well spotted.

Have done a quick translation and the magazine appears to have started as early as 1816, so I was only 60 years out!

It was initially a private endeavour, and occasionally switched between private & army control throughout its existence. It was first taken over by the Prussian army in the 1820s, in order to contribute to the education of younger officers. The prime motivator appears to have been von Muffling, who also ordered the dissemination of kriegsspiel to every regiment! Clever dude, von Muffling.

Latest reference is the Wik article is 1942.

Martin James