Importance of Military Academies

According to the translator's Introduction, both Rilke and the Young Poet attended military academies in their youth, where both experienced struggle between their soul-based, poetic inclinations and their body-based, unquestioning and unemotional educations. The Introduction also comments that the man who brought them together, Professor Horacek (see "Important People") taught both men during their time at their respective military schools. In other words, military academies play important roles in the lives and creative development of both Rilke and the Young Poet.