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Uniformierung & Ausrüstung

From the Colorful to the Field-Gray Coat

Prussia dominated the Imperial Army not only in organizational and weapons-technical matters but also in clothing. After the founding of the Empire in 1871 and the incorporation or accession of the non‑Prussian military contingents, a process of harmonization began that also manifested itself visually — in the uniforms1. In the Imperial Constitution of 1871 Article 63 stated: “With regard to clothing, the basic colors and the cut of the Royal Prussian Army shall be authoritative. It is left to the commander of the respective contingent to determine the external badges (cockades etc.).”

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.

Organisation

The development and organization of the individual branches of the Reich Army before the (First) World War

Since the second half of the 17th century the infantry was regarded as the main arm. In 1688 the Prussian army comprised a total of 16 regiments of foot, in 1713 there were 20, in 1740 there were 32 and by 1786 already 55 field regiments of infantry1. In the fateful year 1806 the old Prussian army included 60 infantry regiments and 24 fusilier battalions as well as the field-jäger regiment of foot2. In the confrontation with the troops of the young French Empire most of these units perished; only the regiments No. 2, 8, 11, 14, 16, 42, 52 and 58 survived the catastrophe as intact formations. The essentially complete defeat of the old Prussian army was the occasion for a comprehensive army reform — embedded in fundamental political upheavals — 3. From the aforementioned mainly East Prussian infantry regiments and remnants of other units there initially emerged 4 East Prussian, 2 West Prussian and 2 Pomeranian regiments; later 2 Brandenburg infantry regiments and 1 Silesian infantry battalion followed. According to the French diktat of 01.01.1809 the Prussian army was permitted to consist of only 10 infantry regiments with a combined maximum of 22,000 men, exclusively of the Guard. Notwithstanding the partial French occupation of Prussian territory and high reparations payments, the rebuilding of the army was pushed forward despite the most meagre means and ultimately made possible the successful War of Liberation in 1813/15 against imperial France under Napoleon I. The militia law of 03.09.1814, further developing the Draft for the Implementation of Conscription in the Prussian States of 05.02.1810, established general conscription of all citizens from their 20th year and structured the armed force into the standing army, the Landwehr of the 1st and 2nd levies and the Landsturm4. From 25.03.1815 the former reserve regiments No. 1 to 12 bore the designation Infantry Regiments No. 13 to 24, and by the end of 1815 the line infantry — also through absorption of formerly Swedish-Pomeranian, Nassau, etc. troops — numbered a total of 36 regiments. In 1818 (30.03.) regiments No. 33 to 36 were formed and in 1820 (12.02. and 12.03.) partly by conversion regiments No. 33 to 40 were established with two battalions each5. This status remained unchanged for a considerable time.