Number of young men attaining service age (including those who had voluntarily enlisted before their time) | 556,772 | |
Men belonging to previous years who had been put back for re-examination, &., still borne on the lists | 657,753 | |
| ———— | ||
| 1,214,525 | ||
Deduct—Physically unfit, &c. | 35,802 | |
Struck off | 860 | |
Voluntarily enlisted in the army and navy, on or before attaining service age | 57,739 | |
Assigned as recruits to the navy | 10,374 | |
Put back, &c. | 684,193 | |
| ——— | ||
| 788,968 | ||
| ——— | ||
Available as army recruits, fit | 425,557 | |
Of these, (a) Assigned to the active army for two or three years’ service with the colours | 212,661 | |
(b) Assigned to the Ersatz-Reserve of the army and navy | untrained | 89,877 |
(c) Assigned to the 1st levy of Landsturm | 123,019 | |
| ——— | ||
| 425,557 |
Thus only half the men on whom the government has an effective hold go to the colours in the end. Moreover few of the men “put back, &c.,” who figure on both sides of the account for any one year, and seem to average 660,000, are really “put back.” They are in the main those who have failed or fail to present themselves, and whose names are retained on the liability lists against the day of their return. Many of these have emigrated.
By the constitution of the 16th of April 1871 every German is liable to service and no substitution is allowed. Liability begins at the age of seventeen, and actual service, as a rule, from the age of twenty. The men serve in the active army and army reserve for seven years, of which two years (three in the case of cavalry and horse artillery recruits) are spent with the colours. During his four or five years in the reserve, the soldier is called out for training with his corps twice, for a maximum of eight weeks (in practice usually for six). After quitting the reserve the soldier is drafted into the first ban of the Landwehr for five years more, in which (except in the cavalry, which is not called out in peace time) he undergoes two trainings of from eight to fourteen days. Thence he passes into the second ban and remains in it until he has completed his thirty-ninth year—i.e. from six to seven years more, the whole period of army and Landwehr service being thus nineteen years. Finally, all soldiers are passed into the Landsturm, in the first ban of which they remain until the completion of their forty-fifth year. The second ban consists of untrained men between the ages of thirty-nine and forty-five. Young men who reach a certain standard of education, however, are only obliged to serve for one year in the active army. They are called One-Year Volunteers (Einjährig-Freiwilligen), defray their own expenses and are the chief source of supply of reserve and Landwehr officers. That proportion of the annual contingents which is dismissed untrained goes either to the Ersatz-Reserve or to the 1st ban of the Landsturm (the Landwehr, it will be observed, contains only men who have served with the colours). The Ersatz consists exclusively of young men, who would in war time be drafted to the regimental depots and thence sent, with what training circumstances had in the meantime allowed, to the front. Some men of the Ersatz receive a short preliminary training in peace time.
In 1907 the average height of the private soldiers was 5 ft. 6 in., that of the non-commissioned officers 5 ft. 6½ in., and that of the one-year volunteers 5 ft. 9½ in. A much greater proportion of the country recruits were accepted as “fit” than of those coming from the towns. Voluntary enlistments of men who desired to become non-commissioned officers were most frequent in the provinces of the old Prussian monarchy, but in Berlin itself and in Westphalia the enlistments fell far short of the number of non-commissioned officers required for the territorial regiments of the respective districts. Above all, in Alsace-Lorraine one-eighth only of the required numbers were obtained.
Peace and War Strengths.—German military policy is revised every five years; thus a law of April 1905 fixes the strength and establishments to be attained on March 31, 1910, the necessary augmentations, &c., being carried out gradually in the intervening years. The peace strength for the latter date was fixed at 505,839 men (not including officers, non-commissioned officers and one-year volunteers), forming—
| 633 | battalions infantry. |
| 510 | squadrons cavalry. |
| 574 | batteries field and horse artillery. |
| 40 | battalions foot artillery. |
| 29 | battalions pioneers. |
| 12 | battalions communication troops. |
| 23 | train battalions, &c. |
The addition of about 25,000 officers and 85,000 non-commissioned officers, one-year men, &c., brings the peace footing of the German army in 1910 to a total of about 615,000 of all ranks.
As for war, the total fighting strength of the German nation (including the navy) has been placed at as high a figure as 11,000,000. Of these 7,000,000 have received little or no training, owing to medical unfitness, residence abroad, failure to appear, surplus of annual contingents, &c., as already explained, and not more than 3,000,000 of these would be available in war. The real military resources of Germany, untrained and trained, are thus about 7,000,000, of whom 4,000,000 have at one time or another done a continuous period of service with the colours.[6] This is of course for a war of defence à outrance. For an offensive war, only the active army, the reserve, the Ersatz and the 1st levy of the Landwehr would be really available.
A rough calculation of the number of these who go to form or to reinforce the field armies and the mobilized garrisons may be given: