Following the defeats

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

suffered in the

30 Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William (german: Friedrich Wilhelm; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is ...

, set up the General War Commissariat (General-Kriegs-Kommissariat) to oversee the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, as well as to levy taxes necessary to support the army. It soon became a

bureaucratic The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

machine for civil government as well. Frederick William used it to govern the state. Many members were

landed aristocracy Landed may refer to: * ''Landed'' (album), a 1975 album by Can * "Landed", a song by Ben Folds from ''Songs for Silverman'' * "Landed", a song by Drake from '' Dark Lane Demo Tapes'' * Landed gentry, a largely historical privileged British social ...

known as

Junker Junker ( da, Junker, german: Junker, nl, Jonkheer, en, Yunker, no, Junker, sv, Junker ka, იუნკერი (Iunkeri)) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German ''Juncherre'', meaning "young nobleman"Duden; Meaning of Junke ...

s, who served in the army as well. The commissariats helped to centralize power. It later was merged into General Directory of War and Finance in 1723.

Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal (1606 in Berlin – 1657 in Halberstadt) was a German nobleman. He was a diplomat and the founder of the Brandenburg-Prussian Army. The son of Christoph von Blumenthal and his wife Dorothea von Hacke, and the fir ...

was its first head since 1646. During the reign of Frederick William I, Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow became its head.

References

Prussian Army Government of Prussia 17th-century establishments in Prussia {{Germany-mil-stub