I never knew/realized that about the Germans. Huh.

Now that I reflect, I wouldn't be surprised if the idea isn't entirely gone now, either -- there's still a class divide between officers and grunts here in the States, and I presume that's true elsewhere, too, possibly even to a greater extent. It might be more a matter of economic class than social, in that nobody cares who your grandparents were so long as your parents had the money to educate you at the proper schools; but if the "gentleman professional soldier" has gone away, it's probably because we've lost the notion of "gentleman" entirely, not because we've decided it doesn't have a place in war.