Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/656

594 fell to pieces ; and after a series of crushing defeats, Prussia found herself at the feet of the conqueror, shorn of half her territory, obliged to receive French troops in all her towns and fortresses, and only existing as it were by sufferance. But in these very disasters were laid the seeds of her future greatness. By the treaty of Tilsit the Prussian army was limited to 43,000 men. This limitation suggested to Scharnhorst what was known as the &quot;krumper,&quot; or &quot; short- service &quot; system already described. The bitter humiliation and suffering endured under the French yoke aroused a national spirit which was capable of any sacrifices. Every Prussian was eager to be trained to fight against the oppressor of his country; and when Prussia rose in 1813, the armies she poured into the field were no longer mercenaries, but national armies, imperfectly trained and organised it is true, but animated by a spirit which more than compensated for these defects. At the close of the war her rulers, -with far-seeing sagacity, at once de voted themselves to organise on a permanent footing the system which had sprung up under the necessities and enthusiasm of the moment. The conscription, compulsory personal service, and a three years term in the ranks, with further periods in the reserve and landwehr, were then introduced.; and though variations have subsequently been made in the distribution of time, the principles were substantially the same as those now in force. By the law of 1814 the periods of service were fixed at three years in the army, two in the reserve, and fourteen in the landwehr, and the annual contingent at 40,000 men. As the popula tion increased, it was felt that the service was unequally distributed, pressing unnecessarily heavily on some, while others escaped altogether. Further, the experiences of 1859, when Prussia armed in anticipation of a war with France, aroused great doubts as to the efficiency of the land wehr, which then formed the bulk of Prussia s forces, and of whom many had been as long as ten years away from the colours. Accordingly, by the law of 1860 the annual contingent was fixed at 63,000, the period in the reserve was increased from two to four years, and that in the land wehr reduced from fourteen to five. The total armed force thus remained nearly the same (12 contingents of 63,000, in place of 19 of 40,000), but the army and its reserves were more than doubled (increased from 5 x 40,000 to 7 x 63,000) while the landwehr was proportionately reduced. This change was not effected without great opposition, and led to a prolonged struggle between the king, guided by his able and ambitious minister Bismarck, and the parliament; for some time the king ruled and levied taxes in open defiance of parliament and the constitution ; and it required the brilliant successes of 1866, and the position thereby won for Prussia, to reconcile the nation to the new law.

By the present &quot;military law of the German empire,&quot; every German is liable to service (wehrpflichtig), and must render suc h service personally. Neither substitutes nor purchase of exemption are allowed ; and those who are physically unfit for the ranks may .be required to render such other services as hospital attendants, tradesmen, &c. as they are capable of. Every German capable of bearing arms belongs to the army for- seven years, com mencing at the age of 21, and afterwards to the landwehr for five years. Army service is divided between the ranks and the reserve, three years being spent in the former and four in the latter. The annual contingent of recruits is not now permanently- fixed, but is determined by the number required to keep up the peace establishment, and is estimated at from 120,000 to 130,000 annually. By fixing the total peace establishment instead of the annual contingent, the authorities have gained the power of largely augmenting the army without raising the budget or attracting public attention, as by passing men into the reserve before their time they can always increase the contingent required to complete the regiments, and thus the total number of trained men available in war. Thus, before the war of 1870, commanding officers of regiments were directed to send home a certain number of the most intelligent men after two years service ; and since the war a large proportion of the infantry have been subjected to two years training only. The military organisation of Germany is based on the Ter: territorial divisions of the empire. With the exception of. r & ! the Prussian guard corps, which is recruited generally &quot; throughout the kingdom, each army corps has a corps district (Bezirk) within which it is raised, recruited, and stationed. The first six army corps districts correspond to the six provinces of old Prussia, the 7th and 8th to the Rhenish provinces. The 9th, 10th, and llth were formed from Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, and the minor states annexed by Prussia in 1866 ; the 12th by the kingdom of Saxony, the 13th and 14th by Wiirtemberg and Baden, the 15th by Alsace and Lorraine, and the 16th and 17th (called 1st and 2d Bavarian army corps) by the kingdom of Bavaria. The following details apply strictly to the Prussian provinces only. The corps districts are subdivided into division and brigade districts, and these again into landwehr battalion districts, corresponding to the civil Kreis, or circle. As a rule, for each infantry regiment there are two corresponding landwehr battalion districts, from which the former draws its recruits and reserves. The battalion districts, again, are subdivided into company districts, of which there are from 3 to 6 to a battalion. Every town and village has thus its appointed place in the general organisation, and this is indicated on notice boards conspicuously placed at all the entrances. At the beginning of each year lists are prepared from Rai the parish registers of all young men who have attained a. nn their twentieth year, and to these lists are added the ting names of those who, though still liable to service, have been allowed to stand over from previous years. In the spring, about May, the battalion recruiting commission commences its labours. This commission is composed of the landwehr battalion commander, the landrath or chief civil functionary, two officers, and a surgeon, as per manent members, and four local members taken from the more respectable inhabitants of the different villages. Ths commission having notified the days of its visiting the headquarters of the several company districts, the youths are mustered there accordingly, and inspected. Those who are found physically unfit for any service are struck off the lists altogether. Others who are too young and unformed for military service are put back for -a year. Many also are permitted to stand over on personal or family grounds, the commission being allowed great latitude in granting temporary exemptions. Every young man can be called up three years in suc cession, and as a rule the majority of the recruits are put back one year at least on medical grounds, but at the end of the third he must either be definitely passed or exempted. Those who are exempted in their third year are passed into the Ersatz reserve, where they undergo no training, and are free of service in peace time, but in war can be called out and sent to the depots to replace the casualties in the active army. Men below the regulation standard, but otherwise fit for the army, are passed into the Ersatz 