Laconophillia became embedded in the ethos of British public schools in the Victorian era (and with it a certain other -phillia). The upper crust of Edwardian Britain were all stamped with what they believed the Spartan mould would look like, and I believe a similar obsession was found in the Prussian cadet schools and the French lycees. (It would probably be an overreach to look at the various noxious social movements like eugenics and military disasters of the Edwardian era and see nothing but the fruits of these spartan experiments coming to fruition, but I can't imagine the mindset helped)
Unless I am mistaken, the Prussian military complex prided itself on being a modern invention. An equal to the Romans, to the Spartans, and all the others, sure; but the distinct Prussian mind (which was famously rejected by Einstein) was a certain pride in not mimicking military greatness and grandeur, but embodying it.
