I've been reading a bit about the "characters" among the generals of the world wars, and always come back to the German East Africa campaign and the panzer generals of the second war. I keep hearing references to the Prussian officers, their schools (and the naval training on the seaborne side), but what did this mean in effect? If I had a "Von" in my name and a rank of say, Oberst, what was my education like? Was it like the West Point-style academy training? What might I do to train my men that would be different than the French or the Americans? Why would my native troops still remember their "drill" decades later from my "Prussian discipline"? I read about these terms a lot in the contexts of their existence in the makeup of these soldiers, but don't really have a practical understanding of they meant.
In his biography Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck: Ein Preußischer Kolonialoffizier, Eckard Michels paints Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck as an archetype, or at the least a very typical character, from the lower Prussian nobility.
If you have any specific questions I can look through the book again, for now I will focus on the Cadet Corps.
He indeed attended a "Kadettenanstalt" (Cadet Corps). These were intended for the sons of officers to educate the boys and bind them to the crown early on. Boys usually went on to become officers themselves afterwards. They were also cheaper than most other forms of high education (especially university). This also led to the boys not really meeting different people though, those institutions were very homogeneous. Lettow-Vorbeck himself is a prime example, as he had few interests outside of the military. This was not fought, but even encouraged by the Cadet Corps. Their non-military/sport education was often worse than that of comparable private schools and bad grades in Maths, French, Latin or English were often tolerated if the student had good grades in sports, shooting, ect. The focus was more on "Character" and "Haltung" (Attitude/Demeanour) rather than education. A Cadet could even be failing an exam and still make it to the next grade, if his beviour was satisfactory.