Landwehr & Landsturm

[chrisharley9]

What are these two German units & what is the difference between them. I know they are a type of reserve, but little else

All the Best

Chris

[themonsstar]

Hi

In peace every male German was liable to military service ( wehrpflichtig) from his 17th to his 45th birthday.

On reaching the age of 17, automatically became liable to serve in the Landsturm, a category intended primarily for home defence. Every man belonged to the Landsturm 1st Batt between the ages of 17-20.

Liability to service in the standing Army commenced when a man had reached the age of 20, and consisted of 2 years' "aktiv" colour-service (3 years in the Cavalry and Horse Artillery), followed by successive periods in the Reserve (4 or 5 years), Landwehr ( 11 years), and Landsturm 2nd Batt (7 years ). All men passed to the Landsturm 2nd Batt on the 1st of April in the year on which they reached the age of 39.

After completing his period of colour-service, a man was, in peace liable to be called out for two annual trainings while in the Reserve, and after passing to the Landwehr 2nd Batt was free from further service

[chrisharley9]

Many thanks for that

All The Best

Chris

[joerookery]

Chris,

i can add little to that explanation except a thought that not all guysw got "drafted" This is something I am working on -- long winded as usual.

Ersatz Reserve.

Not everybody was selected for active service or Dienstphlicht. The 1907 statistics show that 240,000 of 556,000 eligible males never entered Dienstzeit. There simply were not enough slots.  Somewhat made up of people who failed a physical, for one reason or another.  (Many of these were extremely minor.)  There were also exceptions made for family emergencies and other reasons.  If you are one of these excuse service types, you actually were entered into the ersatz reserve for a period of 12 years.  These guys were trained in administrative, not armed, duties three times during a 12 year time period.  These training periods could be quite long.  Not to exceed 20 weeks in total, if you divide that by three you come close to seven weeks per activation.  That's a long time, and apparently not all of these guys did it.  After 12 years, if they had completed their training, the class went to the second ban of the Landwehr.  If the training had not been completed, they went to the first ban of the Landsturm.  There were really small battalions made up of these guys at mobilization.  They were built around brigade headquarters.  Initially there were over 90.  One of Schlieffen's pet ideas was to use these battalions as maneuver units.  These units had absolutely no service support establishment.  They were purely men with rifles and had few officers.  No supply, medical or other essential support elements.  The purpose of an ersatz battalion was to give replacements to their regiments.  If an ersatz battalion became a maneuver unit it could not perform this function. 

[chrisharley9]

Thanks for that as well

All The Best

Chris