Military schools and courses of instruction in the science and art of war, / in France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England, and the United States. Drawn from recent official reports and documents. Revised Edition

by Unknown

III. The Last Reserve or Landsturm.

[I.] The standing army is composed of all young men between twenty and twenty-five years of age. The period of service in time of war is for five years, but in time of peace the young soldiers can obtain leave of absence after three years’ service;—they belong for the remaining two years to what is termed the “reserve,” receiving neither pay nor clothing, and they are subject to be recalled if war should break out.

Encouragement, indeed, is given and advantages held out to induce men to stay, and to take a new engagement for an additional term of six years; but it is said that only a small number are thus obtained. The bulk of the troops are men serving for this short time; and there are many, it should be added, whose term of service is even yet shorter. For all educated young men, all, that is, who pass a certain examination, are allowed, on condition that they pay for their own equipment and receive no pay, to shorten their service from three years to one. This privilege appears to be very largely used. It should also be stated, that young men of any class may volunteer to perform their service at any age after seventeen.

The Prussian standing army amounts at the present time to about 126,000 men. It is divided into nine army-corps or corps d’Armée, one of which is named the guard, and the others are numbered from I. to VIII. In each there is a regiment of artillery and a division of engineers. A regiment of artillery consists, in time of peace, of three divisions; each division of one troop of horse artillery and four companies, of which, one is Fortress artillery with two-horsed pieces. Each regiment has thus three companies for the service of the fortress and twelve for field service. The whole of the artillery is under the command of a general inspector, and it is divided into four inspections. An engineer division is composed of two companies. There are nine engineer divisions, one in each army corps. The whole are commanded by a general inspector, and they are divided into three inspections.

The promotion in the Prussian infantry and cavalry is regimental, and by seniority, up to the rank of major; after that it is by selection; and an officer who has been passed over two or three times may consider that he has received an intimation to retire from the service. In the artillery the promotion is by regiments; in the engineers it is general.

[II.] The first Landwehr, or Landwehr of the first summons (des ersten aufgebots,) consists principally of young men between twenty-five and thirty-two years of age, who enter when they have completed their period of service in the standing army. They are called out once every year for service with the divisions of the standing army to which they are attached, for a period varying from a fortnight to a month; and they may be sent in time of war on foreign service.

Those who have passed through the first Landwehr, enter at the age of thirty-two in the second Landwehr, or Landwehr of the second summons (des zweiten aufgebots.) They are called out only for a very brief service once a year, and they can not at any time be ordered out of the country, but continue to form a part of the second Landwehr until they are thirty nine years of age.

[III.] After the age of thirty-nine a Prussian subject belongs to the last reserve or Landsturm, and can only be summoned to service in arms upon a general raising, so to say, of the whole population, when the country is actually invaded by the enemy.

With the standing army, the center of the system, all the other forces are kept in close connection. For every regiment of the standing army there is a corresponding regiment of Landwehr, and the two together form one brigade. In the local distribution, every village and hamlet of the Prussian dominions belongs to a certain regiment of Landwehr, serving with a certain regiment of the army, and belonging accordingly to one of the nine army corps.

Such is the military organization, which, from the important part played in it by the Landwehr, is sometimes termed the Prussian Landwehr system. The history of its formation is remarkable, and the circumstances which led to its creation helped also to create the very peculiar education of the army.