I've read Keegan's The First World War and in it he briefly mentions how imperial Germany's military academies played a role in making its army so powerful. Lately I've been reading passages from Clausewitz's On War (Colonel JJ Graham translation) and now I'm wondering just what was taught in a military academy. Did the curriculum focus on teaching the history of any particular wars? What was novel about Germany's compared to that of France or Tsarist Russia?
So there needs to be a distinction here. Most every nation had military academies where the goal was to take young men and produce junior officers. Sandhurst and West Point are good other modern examples of these.
But what Prussia led the way in was having a Staff or War College. That was a school for mid level officers who aspired to high command or senior postings. Everything from historical campaigns, to technological advancements, to moral and legal questions, to theory would be studied. and on top of everything healthy doses of wargamming and problem working. Prussia was the first nation to establish a war school of that nature, and the first to have a permanent general staff for the organization and operational planning missions.
The US Army War College serves that purpose as an example, and grants Masters and Doctorate degrees for its students.
Many other states established similar schools, in the aftermath of the Franco Prussian war, but Germany had generations of institutional experience already.