Prussian Uniforms in the Biedermeier Period (1815-1850).
After original or earlier reproductions of lithographs from the 19th century. Accompanying preliminary remarks, image captions and descriptions follow.
The Prussian State in 1815.
The Congress of Vienna (September 18, 1814 to June 9, 1815) marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and attempted a reorganization of Europe.
Prussia was among the victors and of course benefited territorially from the redistribution and allocation of various areas in the west and east, although the fate of Poland in particular became a point of contention between Austria, Russia and Prussia. A large part of the Kingdom of Saxony also, incidentally, fell to Prussia.
A "Decree on the improved organization of the provincial authorities" of April 30, 1815 then divided Prussia into ten provinces. Only East Prussia, West Prussia and Posen did not belong to the territory of the German Confederation. After the fusion of the two Rhenish provinces already carried out in 1822, nine provinces remained. After 1866 further provinces were added.
The total area of the Prussian state now comprised 279,992 sq km. Of this, 185,496 sq km belonged to the German Confederation. "The German Confederation was a confederation of states to which in 1815 the ‘sovereign princes and free cities of Germany’ agreed, including the Emperor of Austria and the kings of Prussia, Denmark (with regard to Holstein) and the Netherlands (with regard to Luxembourg)" (Wikipedia). Prussia now counted 12,994,000 inhabitants.
The Prussian Military.
According to Paul von Schmidt (Der Werdegang des Preussischen Heeres, reprint Krefeld 1975, pp. 242 ff.), the Prussian army after the completion of the reorganization in 1817 comprised about 130,000 men, namely
Infantry: 2 Guard, 2 Grenadier and 34 line regiments of 3 battalions; 1 Guard Jäger, 1 Guard Schützen, 2 Jäger and 2 Schützen battalions.
Cavalry: 1 regiment Garde du Corps, 4 cuirassier regiments, 1 Guard and 8 line dragoon regiments, 1 Guard and 8 line hussar regiments, 1 Guard and 8 line uhlan regiments.
Artillery: 1 Guard and 8 line artillery brigades.
Pioneers: 1 Guard and 8 line pioneer detachments.
Conscription System and Internal Conditions.
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Infantry.
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Cavalry.
Rexr
Technical Troops.
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Landwehr and Landsturm.
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Strength of the Prussian Troops in the Year 1859.
According to Paul von Schmidt (Der Werdegang des Preussischen Heeres, reprint Krefeld 1975, pp. 259 ff.), the army in 1859 had the following strength:
Infantry: 2 Guard, 2 Grenadier regiments, 1 Guard Reserve Infantry Regiment of 2 battalions, 32 line regiments of 3, 8 reserve regiments of 2 battalions, 8 combined reserve battalions, 1 instructional infantry battalion, 1 training detachment (non-commissioned officers' school), 1 Guard non-commissioned officer company; furthermore 1 Guard Jäger, 1 Guard Schützen and 8 line Jäger battalions.
Cavalry: 1 regiment Gardes-du-Corps, 1 Guard Cuirassier regiment, 8 line cuirassier regiments, 1 Guard and 4 line dragoon regiments, 1 Guard and 12 line hussar regiments, 2 Guard and 8 line uhlan regiments, 1 instructional squadron.
Artillery: 1 Guard, 8 line regiments, 1 combined fortress artillery detachment, 1 fireworks/mortar detachment and the senior artificer school, finally 1 artillery examination commission.
Pioneers: 1 Guard, 8 line detachments, 2 reserve pioneer companies.
For the disabled there were 2 invalids' homes, the Guard and 8 provincial invalids' companies.
The Landwehr comprised in its two levies: Infantry — 4 Guard Landwehr and 33 Landwehr regiments, 8 Landwehr cavalry regiments of the reserve regiments.
Cavalry: 2 Guard Landwehr cavalry regiments, 8 heavy Landwehr cavalry regiments, 4 Landwehr dragoon, 12 Landwehr hussar, 8 Landwehr uhlan regiments and 8 squadrons of the 8 reserve regiments.
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Heeressoziologie
The Prussian Army under Frederick William I (1713 - 40) - Chapter 9 - The Military Replacement System - Recruitment.
Numerous abuses are associated with recruitment at home and abroad, and the excesses connected with the intense hunt by Prussian recruiting detachments for tall recruits permanently damaged the image of the Prussian state in the eyes of contemporaries and posterity. However, the use of foreigners for army replacement was a problem for all armies of the 18th century and characteristic of the age of mercenary armies. A contemporary reports: „The recruitments both within and outside the country were under King Frederick William incessantly pursued with the utmost severity. No school was exempt from this, only the universities. As long as the student remained at the university and within its walls, he was considered in a free city. The Dessau infantry regiment was quartered in Halle, and it captured before the gates, in the villages, and sometimes even in the town at night many a student. They hurried with them to Dessau until the clamor and tumult that was sent there subsided among the students. As soon as one left the university, one was safe nowhere; even the candidates, when they traveled to ordination in Magdeburg, Stendal, Berlin, etc., were in danger of being stopped at the gate and taken away. For only the actual preachers were safe from the recruiters, but no candidate iam vocatus, nor any school servant, was safe from the recruiters. Here in Atzendorf a detachment of soldiers occupied the school at night and dragged the organist Franken from his bed and led him to Calbe. But because he had described the officer to be much larger than he actually was, the inspector Theune, who followed him, immediately brought him back from there. The Prussian officers and non-commissioned officers sent abroad for recruitment did no better. Every regiment selected for this purpose the most cunning and deceitful heads. If these could not persuade a big fellow to enlist and take the bounty, they sought by cunning and force to seize him. Nothing was too difficult for them, nothing too dangerous; they risked everything and let it come to what would happen. They broke in, dragged the big fellow from his bed, often bound and gagged him in his nightshirt, put him on a ready wagon and hurried with team horses to reach the border and our provinces“1. The abuses in domestic and foreign recruitment are also explained by the enormous performance pressure weighing on the responsible officers. The regulations of 1726 spoke clearly on this point: „If the captains recruit handsome men without complaints and acts of violence with good manners, the colonels good regiments, and the captains good companies present men in good order; then they will recommend themselves best to His Royal Majesty; on the contrary those who have bad regiments and companies will recommend themselves in the worst possible manner“.
Organisation
The Prussian Army under Frederick William I (1713 - 40) - Preface and Table of Contents
Law No. 46 in the Gazette of the Control Council in Germany of 31.03.1947 decreed the dissolution of the state of Prussia. Thus Prussia officially came to an end; however, it is disputed whether the Prussian state had not already been lost within the German Reich and whether the victors' dictate after the Second World War therefore served only as political window dressing. The clarification of the question whether it was in 1871 or 1947 that the short and eventful Prussian history, full of light and shadow, came to an end is ultimately idle; the historical fact is that Prussia no longer exists today. In this respect the Prussian state, which entered European history relatively late, shares the fate of many extinct polities; notable, however, is that — although the Prussian state no longer exists and thus belongs to the past — it still excites passions today and remains a controversial object of interest. The turn to this chapter of German history was reinforced and updated by the major Prussia exhibition in 1981 and by the 200th anniversary of Frederick the Great's death. Even in the former GDR the Prussian tradition was rediscovered and politically instrumentalized before reunification. The attention with which Prussia is still regarded is evident in many forms. Alongside the opening of various — in particular locally oriented — museums, an unabated flood of printed works on this subject continues to inundate the book market. It is striking that, both in the civilian and in the military sphere, the father, Frederick William I, always stands in the shadow of his brilliant son. While the number of biographies about Frederick the Great has become almost unmanageable, for a long time there was a lack of a comprehensive — scholarly — life description of Frederick William I from the viewpoint of more recent historiography 1).
Kriegsgeschichte
Jany, The Engagement at Burkersdorf on July 21, 1762
Lecture delivered at the Military Society in Berlin on January 24, 1907. Berlin 1907.