On the Strength and Organization of the Imperial Army before the (First) World War

After the victory of the North German Confederation and the southern German states allied with it in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire was founded. The founding of the Empire took place on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles.

Under Prussian dominance, a German nation-state was thus created for the first time.

The new German Empire consisted of a total of 25 federal states, namely the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, the grand duchies of Baden, Hesse, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Saxe-Weimar, the duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen, the principalities of Lippe, Reuss Elder Line, Reuss Younger Line, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Waldeck-Pyrmont, the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. From the troop contingents of the mentioned federal states the Imperial Army was formed as the armed force.

The last Emperor (1888–1918) of this new entity on the political stage of Europe was Wilhelm II. (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert of Prussia, *27.01.1859 in Berlin; †04.06.1941 in Doorn, Netherlands).

The imperial war system was regulated in the imperial constitution.

The armed force consisted of the Army (the standing army and the Landwehr), the Navy (the fleet and the naval militia) and the Landsturm.

Altogether, the entire land force of the Reich formed a unified army, but it was a contingent army, i.e. it consisted—based on a series of military conventions—of the contingents of the various federal members.

The army was subordinate in war and in peace to the Emperor as Federal Commander-in-Chief. He was the supreme warlord and head of the army.

At the Bundesrat level a special committee was responsible for the land army and fortress affairs.

In this committee, in addition to the presidency, at least four other federal states were represented with one vote each. The chair was held by the Prussian Minister of War.

Parliament (the Reichstag) had only budgetary rights within the scope of determining the military expenditure budget.

Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg had special rights¹.

While Saxony and Württemberg retained only their own administration (War Ministry), the Bavarian army formed an internally self-contained component with autonomous administration under the military authority of the King of Bavaria. In case of war, however, it came under the supreme command of the Emperor.

The military sovereign rights of, for example, the King of Bavaria were: a) the flag oath was sworn to him, b) he filled all command positions and decided on all personnel changes, c) he designated all troop units and determined their garrisons, d) he determined the uniform regulations and e) he was responsible for the disciplinary authority, administration and jurisdiction of the Bavarian contingent. With regard to organization, formation, training, pay, mobilization and armament, however, conformity with the standards of the federal army had to be established.

The other contingents had either been dissolved or were in terms of command and administration incorporated into the Prussian army². Some of the latter states had been able to retain special rights (Hesse, both Mecklenburgs, Baden). As independent contingents, the Grand Ducal Hessian, the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Strelitz contingents had been taken into the Prussian army. Non-independent contingents were the troops of the grand duchies of Baden, Oldenburg, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen and the principalities of Reuss Elder and Younger Line and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Furthermore, several other formations bore the corresponding national cockade, e.g. those of the Free Hanseatic Cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck.

The supreme administrative authority was in each case the Ministry of War. The Prussian Ministry of War had consisted of several departments since 1886³.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, Lieutenant General v. Falkenhayn was Minister of War.

The Ministry of War consisted of the Central Department, the General War Department⁴, the Department for Personal Affairs, the Army Administration Department, the Supply and Justice Department, the Remount Inspection and the Medical Department.

The Central Department comprised the Ministerial and Intendanture Section and reported directly to the Minister of War.

From 1893 to 1895 von Einem was commander of the Cuirassier Regiment von Driesen (Westphalian) No. 4; on 18.10.1895 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the VII Army Corps. In 1903 the general succeeded Minister of War von v. Gosler and remained in this function until 1907. Afterwards von Einem was appointed commanding general in Münster (VII Army Corps).

Attached to the Ministry of War were the General Military Treasury, the Directorate of the Great Military Orphanage Potsdam and the Intendanture of the military institutes⁵. Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg had their own war ministries organized as state authorities.

The Emperor influenced the army in particular through his military entourage (headquarters) and the all-powerful and largely autonomous Military Cabinet (Military Cabinet of His Majesty the Emperor and King)⁶. Here the personnel matters of the officer corps were handled; furthermore, the Military Cabinet was a mediation point to the other military authorities.

In 1914 it was presided over by the General of Infantry Moritz Freiherr von Lynker (30.01.1853 in Spandau; †20.01.1932 in Demnitz).

In the First World War the Supreme Army Command became the decisive influential military body.

The actual brain of the Imperial Army, however, was the General Staff⁷.

At the beginning of the Wars of Unification the General Staff was still an authority subordinate to the Ministry of War.

General staff officers at the brigades maintained the connection to the General Staff. In each infantry division an officer of the General Staff was also assigned as a liaison officer. In 1866 a signals office was also established in the General Staff, thereby laying the foundation for a modern military intelligence service.

The handling of personnel matters of the army was—alongside the preparation of mobilization—another task of the General Staff. The former was later transferred to the aforementioned Military Cabinet.

Under the aegis of the later Field Marshal Helmuth Count von Moltke, the General Staff developed into an exceedingly efficient planning center that did far more than simply train leadership aides.

Walter Görlitz honors its role in his "A Short History of the German General Staff" (Berlin 1977, p. 75) as follows:

"When Moltke took office, the upswing of trade and industry was already in full swing. Industry not only made possible the perfectioning of the equipment of large army masses, but by revolutionizing transport it also lent them increased mobility. The increase in range and striking power of rifled firearms had to lead to a transformation in tactics and forms of combat. Moltke's significance lay first in the fact that he clearly recognized this transformation in theory and sought to incorporate it into future mobilization and deployment plans. War, once the domain of the nobility, became the domain of professional science. The other great impending transformation — the fact that with increasing industrialization and urbanization the substitute for the conscript army was fundamentally changing, that recruits increasingly came from the discontented industrial proletariat rather than from agrarian-patriarchal conditions — he did not see. The army with its discipline seemed to him strong enough to educate all elements in the same spirit as a "school of the nation.""

One of the important tasks of the Great General Staff was in particular the preparation of mobilization.

From 10.08.1888 the General of Cavalry Count von Waldersee (1832–1904) was Chief of the General Staff. His deputy, Alfred Count von Schlieffen, became his successor in 1891.

Alfred Count von Schlieffen, born in 1833 as the son of a Prussian major general from a Lutheran patrician family, developed a comprehensive plan for a feared two-front war that intended a gigantic envelopment movement through Luxembourg and Belgium for a rapid victory over France and a primarily defensive posture towards Russia⁸.

From 1913 the General Staff was headed by the General of Infantry Helmuth von Moltke (1848–1916) — a nephew of the famous predecessor.

Memories of General Staff service. From the memoirs of Wilhelm Groener. Taken from: Fundamentals of German Military History. Volume 2. Work and Sourcebook, p. 217.

In peacetime the only higher formations were the army corps.

They generally consisted of 2 infantry, cavalry and field artillery divisions as well as corps troops: foot artillery, engineers and transport troops.

The peacetime organization of the VII Army Corps looked, for example, in 1914 as follows:

13th Division: Münster

     25th Infantry Brigade

Infantry Regiment No. 13: Münster

Infantry Regiment No. 158: Paderborn

       26th Infantry Brigade: Minden

                     Infantry Regiment No. 15: Minden

                     Infantry Regiment No. 55: Detmold/ Höxter/ Bielefeld

       13th Cavalry Brigade: Münster

                     Cuirassier Regiment No. 4: Münster

                     Hussar Regiment No. 8: Paderborn/ Neuhaus

        13th Field Artillery Brigade: Münster

                     Field Artillery Regiment No. 22: Münster

                     Field Artillery Regiment No. 58: Minden

                     Landwehr Inspection: Dortmund

14th Division: Düsseldorf

        27th Infantry Brigade: Cologne

                     Infantry Regiment No. 16: Cologne

                     Infantry Regiment No. 53: Cologne

        28th Infantry Brigade: Düsseldorf

                     Infantry Regiment No. 39: Düsseldorf

                     Infantry Regiment No. 159: Mülheim-Ruhr

        79th Infantry Brigade: Wesel

                     Infantry Regiment No. 56: Wesel/ Cleves

                     Infantry Regiment No. 57: Wesel

        14th Cavalry Brigade: Düsseldorf

                     Hussar Regiment Br. 11: Krefeld

                     Uhlan Regiment No. 5: Düsseldorf

                     Landwehr Inspection: Essen

The named army corps also included a train depot in Münster, an artillery workshop in Lippstadt, artillery depots in Münster and Wesel, a fortress prison in Wesel, a corps clothing office in Münster and an officer riding school in Paderborn.

                        Landwehr-Inspektion: Essen

Zum genannten Armeekorps gehörten auch ein Train-Depot in Münster, eine Artillerie-Werkstatt in Lippstadt, Artillerie-Depots in Münster und in Wesel, ein Festungsgefängnis in Wesel, ein Korps-Bekleidungsamt in Münster und eine Offizier-Reitschule in Paderborn.

Each division consisted of 2 brigades of two regiments each.

The German Imperial Army comprised a total of 25 army corps in 1914, of which 19 alone were Prussian (Guard Corps, I–XI, XIV–XVIII, XX–XXI). Two were provided by Saxony (XII, XIX), one by Württemberg (XIII) and three by Bavaria (I–III). In 1874 there were still 18 army corps.

The army corps were organized as follows:

Since the army corps—except for the Guard Corps—were organized locally, the various regional affiliations were also concentrated here; for example, many East Prussian units were found in the I Army Corps, Pomeranian in the II Army Corps, Brandenburgian in the III Army Corps, many Westphalian units in the VII Army Corps, West Prussian units in the XVII Army Corps.

But there were also army corps that united different regional affiliations, e.g. the IV Army Corps with Saxon, Hanoverian, Thuringian and Anhalt troop elements⁹. Recruits from Alsace-Lorraine were apparently viewed with mistrust—even during the World War¹⁰.

The administrative areas of the army corps included in detail¹¹:

Several army corps were grouped into an army inspection. There were (since 1913) a total of 8, namely:

1.                                    Army Inspection: I., XVII., XX. Army Corps

2.                                    Army Inspection: Guard Corps, XII. and XIX. Army Corps

3.                                    Army Inspection: VII., IX. and X. Army Corps

4.                                    Army Inspection: III., as well as I–III Royal Bavarian Army Corps

5.                                    Army Inspection: VIII., XIV. and XV. Army Corps

6.                                    Army Inspection: IV., XI. and XIII. Army Corps

7.                                    Army Inspection: XVI., XVIII. and XXI. Army Corps

8.                                    Army Inspection:  II., V. and VI. Army Corps.

The army inspectors were intended as potential army commanders in case of war. In peacetime they held joint maneuvers with the army corps.

Die Armee-Inspekteure waren für den Kriegsfall als potentielle Armee-Führer gedacht. Im Frieden hielten sie mit den Armeekorps gemeinsame Manöver ab.

The various Prussian Guard formations formed the Guard Corps¹².

It consisted of the 1st and 2nd Guard Infantry Divisions with together 5 Guard infantry brigades, the Guard machine-gun detachments No. 1 and 2, the Guard cavalry division with together 4 Guard cavalry brigades, the Guard Landwehr infantry with together 2 Guard divisions, the field artillery with together 2 Guard divisions and the field artillery shooting school with training regiment, the foot artillery with the Guard foot artillery regiment, the training regiment of the foot artillery shooting school as well as the test battery of the artillery testing commission, the Guard pioneer battalion with searchlight platoon and pioneer testing commission, the transport troops with the railway regiments No. 1 and 2 as well as the operations department of the railway troops and the depot administration of the 1st railway brigade, the telegraph battalions No. 1 and 2 as well as the war telegraph school, the airship battalions No. 1 and 2, the flyer battalion No. 1, the motor transport battalion and the experimental department of military transport with experimental company, the Guard train battalion with train depot, the palace guard company as well as various other institutions such as the war school, the main cadet institute, cadet house, etc.

The war organization of the Guard Corps was as follows:

Commanding General: General of Infantry Baron v. Plettenberg

Hinweis: Die Garde bildete zu Kriegsbeginn neben dem Gardekorps auch ein Garde-Reserve-Korps.

Like all modern armies of that time, the Imperial Army included the following branches: infantry, cavalry, technical troops (field and foot artillery, engineers and pioneers) and transport troops (train, railway, motor transport, airship, flyer and telegraph formations).

The progressive expansion especially of the latter species took place in constant interaction with the rapid development of technical progress.

According to the stipulation of the Imperial Law of 03.07.1913, there were to be: 669 infantry battalions (including Jäger and sharpshooters), 550 squadrons, 633 field artillery batteries, 55 foot artillery battalions, 44 pioneer battalions, 31 railway (transport troops) battalions and 26 train battalions.

This target, however, was not completely reached before the outbreak of war. In fact, at that time the Imperial Army was organized with respect to the individual branches or units as follows¹³:

651                 Infantry battalions

18                   Jäger battalions

1                     Training infantry battalion

9                     NCO schools

1                     Infantry shooting school (+ 1 Bavarian shooting school)

1                     Rifle testing commission

11                   Machine-gun detachments

233                 Machine-gun companies

15                   Fortress machine-gun companies

2                     Training machine-gun companies

547                 Squadrons in 110 regiments

633                 Field artillery batteries in 76 regiments

1                     Field artillery shooting school

48                   Foot artillery battalions in 19 regiments

1                     Foot artillery shooting school

35                   Pioneer battalions

1                     Pioneer experimental company

8                     Railway battalions + 1 operations department

9                     Telegraph battalions

8                     Fortress telephone companies

5                     Airship battalions

5                     Flyer battalions

1                     Motor transport battalion

1                     Bavarian air and motor transport battalion

1                     Experimental department of the transport-technical testing commission

25                   Train departments (previously battalions)

25                   District commands

25                   Bezirkskommandos

In 1873 the German Imperial Army numbered a total of 19,955 officers, 401,659 men with 94,742 horses. In 1888 there were 19,294 officers, 468,409 men with 84,091 horses. Of these, Saxony accounted for: 1,250 officers, 31,810 men and 5,361 service horses; Württemberg: 806 officers, 19,946 men and 3,690 service horses; and Bavaria: 2,202 officers, 54,185 men and 8,874 service horses. At that time the German population was 48.17 million.

In 1900 the numbers were: 23,730 officers, 79,873 non-commissioned officers, 491,826 enlisted men, etc., 2,155 military physicians, 1,039 paymasters, 657 veterinary surgeons, 1,107 gunsmiths, armory masters, saddlers as well as 105,065 service horses.

The table strength of the German Imperial Army finally amounted in 1913 to 30,259 generals and officers, 106,477 non-commissioned officers, 647,811 enlisted men (a total of 784,547 men) and 157,816 service horses. With medical officers, veterinarians and officials the Imperial Army then numbered 800,675 men. The population of the German Empire was now 67.81 million.

In his work: The German Army. From Triumph to Defeat (Düsseldorf and Vienna 1977) Herbert Rosinski assesses the development of the German Imperial Army 1871–1914 as follows in summary (pp. 96 ff.):

"Thus the German army shows in the forty-four years between 1871 and the outbreak of the world war a long epoch of undisturbed consolidation and steady progress outwardly. The peculiar structure of the Reich as a league of princes found its expression in the fact that, besides Prussia, the three smaller kingdoms of Saxony, Württemberg and Bavaria maintained their own armies, their own ministries of war and—in the case of Bavaria—even their own General Staff. Yet these last remnants of the former political fragmentation never seriously impaired the fundamental unity of the army. All questions of military service and army organization were decided uniformly in the Reichstag and not in the representative assemblies of the four kingdoms. In all political matters the determining role of the Prussian army guaranteed the required uniformity of supplementation and training, so that from 1871 we can with full right speak of the German army, although the final departure from the contingent army only occurred after the First World War."