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Heeressoziologie
The German Schutztruppe in German South West Africa. Photo collection.
The original photographs shown below from the estate of a member of the Keetmanshoop garrison (probably around 1908/09) also include depictions of members of the Herero and Nama pastoral peoples living in German South West Africa (DSWA) (the latter at that time derogatorily referred to as Hottentots). Those responsible for this website are aware of the injustice associated with the German colonial period and of the current historical assessment of the events following the uprisings of 1904–08 as genocide. This assessment is shared.
Heeressoziologie
Scenes from the everyday service of the Old Army - Field Artillery
The field artillery brigades usually had 2 and only exceptionally 3 regiments. At the beginning of the 20th century the entire field artillery consisted of 46 brigades, 94 regiments, 199 divisions (182 horse-drawn and 17 mounted divisions) or 574 batteries (532 horse-drawn and 42 mounted batteries).
Heeressoziologie
The Imperial Navy - SMS Gneisenau - Photo Collection
SMS Gneisenau was a large cruiser of the Imperial Navy and belonged to the so-called Scharnhorst class.
Heeressoziologie
The Imperial Navy - SMS Seeadler - Photo Collection
The S.M.S. Seeadler was a small unprotected cruiser of the Imperial Navy and belonged to the so-called Bussard class.
Heeressoziologie
The Imperial Navy - Photographic estate of a crew member of SMS Thüringen from 1916
The SMS Thüringen belonged to the so-called Helgoland class.
Heeressoziologie
The Internal Structures of the Imperial Army
The Imperial Army was a social formation and therefore exhibited informal as well as formal structures. With regard to the valuation of the different branches of service, there was a clear hierarchy in prestige. Cavalry occupied first place, followed by infantry, the technical troops and, last of all, the train. The social standing of the individual branches did not follow objective criteria and ignored the new dimensions of technology. The result was the complete overvaluation of the lance-armed cavalry—which, against the background of modern machine weapons, already appeared anachronistic.
Heeressoziologie
The Position of the Military in the Society of the German Empire
The military held an outstanding social position in the Empire, and its affairs largely escaped political control. The German Emperor was the supreme commander of the German army, and Wilhelm II (1859–1941) had internalized this role to a particular degree. The socially critical writer Theodor Fontane once (1897) made the following perceptive remark about this monarch: "He has a million soldiers and also wants a hundred armored ships — he dreams (and I shall credit him highly for this dream) of a humiliation of England. Germany shall be on top, in everything and everywhere. All of this — whether it is wise and feasible, I leave undecided — touches me sympathetically and I would willingly follow him on his tightrope, if I saw that he ... had the right balancing pole in his hands. But he does not have that. He wants, if not the impossible, then at least the extremely dangerous, with the wrong equipment, with insufficient means. He believes he can achieve the new with the very old, he wants to erect the modern with junkroom weapons. He provides new must, and because he no longer treads the old hoses, he simply wraps these old hoses with ever-thicker twine and thinks: now it will hold. But it will not hold ... What the Emperor presumably intends cannot be achieved with “weapons” at all; all military efforts seem to me as if in the year 1400 all force had been directed to make knightly armor bulletproof — instead one finally arrived at the only correct solution, to discard the armor entirely"1.
Heeressoziologie
Everyday service life and the material living conditions in the Imperial Army
The Imperial Army and the navy were composed mainly of conscripts. Conscription means the legally based obligation of every male—fit for military service—citizen to perform military service. General conscription was introduced in Prussia as part of the military reforms in 1814 (Law on the Obligation to Military Service of 03.09.1814), in the North German Confederation in 1867 (Law concerning the Obligation to Military Service ... of 09.11.1867). After the foundation of the Reich in 1871, general conscription also applied in the German Empire; the Imperial Military Law of 1874 adopted the previous provisions of the 1867 Military Service Act. Conscription began at the age of 20.
Heeressoziologie
Scenes from the Service Operations of the Old Army - Parades, Field Service Exercises and Maneuvers of Bavarian Troops
To be completed.
Heeressoziologie
Scenes from the Daily Service of the Old Army - Cavalry - Training
In 1893 the cavalry retained the three-year term of service, but the enlisted men remained only three years in the Landwehr of the 1st levy1. Cavalrymen were trained in riding and drill, while foot training was reduced.
Heeressoziologie
Scenes from the daily service of the Old Army - Training - Instructional Infantry Battalion
According to Mila (History of the Clothing and Equipment of the Royal Prussian Army 1808 - 1878, Berlin 1878, reprint Krefeld 1970, p. 104) the Instructional Infantry Battalion "was established by A.K.O. of 30 December 1819, with the intention of promoting uniformity and conformity in service and in the infantry's drill exercises, for which purpose every year on 1 April officers, non-commissioned officers and men of all infantry regiments are detached to Potsdam for a certain period; a permanent company remains together continuously."
Heeressoziologie
Scenes from the Daily Service of the Old Army - Menage or Provisions
In the age of universal conscription and modern mass armies, the question of troop provisioning had to be reconsidered.