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In various European countries, the term Landstorm (German : Landsturm, Swedish and Dutch : landstorm), was historically used to refer to militia or military units composed of conscripts who are not in regular army. It is particularly associated with Prussia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
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The Austro-Hungarian Landsturm was a reserve force that consisted of men aged 34 to 55. It was intended to provide replacements for the front line units and provide a militia for local defence. It was divided into the Austrian Imperial ( Kaiserlich ) Landsturm and the Hungarian Royal (Königlich) Népfelkelés.
During the First World War, the Austrian Landsturm formed 40 regiments totaling 136 battalions in Austria and the Hungarian Landsturm formed 32 regiments totaling 97 battalions. They provided 20 brigades who took to the field with the rest of the army.
In Prussia after the Prussian Army Reform of 21 April 1813, all the male population from ages 15 to 60 who were capable of military service and who were not in the standing army or the Landwehr , came under the authority of the Landsturm, which effectively formed the last national military reserve.
King Frederick William III of Prussia established the Prussian Landsturm as irregular military forces on 21 April 1813 by royal edict – the decree appeared in the Preußische Gesetzessammlung (German: Prussian Code of Law) (pp. 79–89). The 1813 edict called for heroic resistance by any means against the French invasion. As a model and an explicit example, it took the Spanish Reglamento de Partidas y Cuadrillas of 28 December 1808 and the decree of 17 April 1809, known as Corso Terrestre , during the Peninsular War against French troops. [1]
According to this edict, all Prussian citizens were obliged to oppose the invasion by the enemy using any weapons available, like axes, pitchforks, scythes, or shotguns (§43). All Prussians were further encouraged to not obey orders by the enemy, but rather to make themselves a nuisance to the French troops however possible. This was a clear departure from ordinary jus in bello (Latin for "Law of War"), which commanded the civilian population to obey the orders of the occupying power, and the police forces to assist the occupying power in crushing any uprising. It did not qualify as an insurgency, but simply as criminal activity. The Landsturm edict explicitly stated that it was preferable to risk the danger brought about by the furies of an armed population rather than to let the enemy have control over the situation. Légitime défense "justified the use of all means" (§7), including chaos.
The edict was modified less than three months later on 17 July 1813 and was purified of its subversive content relative to the laws of war. The war then continued according to the standard rules of conventional warfare. Carl Schmitt qualified the edict as the "Magna Carta of the partisan". Despite its not being put into practice, fascist jurists regarded it in a 1962 lecture in Francoist Spain as the "official document of the legitimation of the partisan of national defence" and as the "philosophical discovery of the partisan". [2] [ need quotation to verify ]
The North German Confederation Act of 9 November 1867 about the obligation for wartime military service and the Reich law about the Landsturm of 12 February 1875 restricted the obligation to the period from 17 to 42 years of age.
In the Bavarian Army the oldest ages for compulsory military service since the army reform of 1868 was referred to as the Landsturm.
In February 1808, Russia invaded Swedish Finland and on 14 March Denmark-Norway declared war on Sweden, starting the Finnish War. On the very same day of the Danish declaration of war, Gustav IV Adolf, the Swedish king, issue a decree that ordered the formation of a new military unit, called Lantvärnet, which is the Swedish name for Landwehr. The decree stated that all able unmarried men between 18 and 25 would become eligible to be conscripted for service in Lantvärnet. The plan was that Lantvärnet would consist of 60,000 men, almost at par with the standing army that numbered 66,000 men. However, in reality, Lantvärnet consisted of only circa 30,000 men. The soldiers of Lantvärnet were poorly equipped and they only received their pay on an irregular basis. This led to low morale amongst the men. After the war had ended the common people had a very negative view on Lantvärnet and conscription. Lantvärnet was abolished in 1811. Some believe that the popular resistance against conscription caused by the negative experiences of Lantvärnet lived on for many years and was one of the main causes that Sweden did not reintroduce conscription until 1901.
In 1885, the Swedish parliament passed a law that formed the Landstorm . All able Swedish males between 27 and 32 would serve in the Landstorm as a territorial defence force in case of war. The Landstorm however then only existed in theory and lacked any organisation; only in the case of war were the Swedish Army to prepare plans and organisations for the Landstorm. In 1892 the law was changed, and all men between 33 and 40 would serve in the Landstorm in case of war. In 1901 Sweden introduced conscription, and became a proper second line unit, organising the elder conscripted men (those between 33 and 40), and were tasked with territorial defence as well as securing the mobilisation of the field army. In 1914 the law was changed and the Landstorm was to organise all men between 35 and 42. Also, a mandatory 5 days refresher training was mandated for all those that belonged to the Landstorm. During World War I, The Landstorm was frequently mobilised to secure Swedish neutrality.
The Landstorm was again mobilised during World War II. In 1942 the Swedish Army went through a major re-organisation and the Landstorm was abolished and incorporated into the regular army.
In the Swiss Army, the Landsturm was, until 1995, the third age class (men from 42–50) after the Elite (men from 18–32) and the Landwehr (men from 32–42).
Conscription, also known as the draft in American English, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.
The Austrian Armed Forces are the combined military forces of Austria.
In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Sardinia, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.
Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word mobilization was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and tactics have continuously changed since then. The opposite of mobilization is demobilization.
Irregular military is any non-standard military component that is distinct from a country's national armed forces. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used. An irregular military organization is one which is not part of the regular army organization. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are often used; such organizations may be called a troop, group, unit, column, band, or force. Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations, or are members of special military units that employ irregular military tactics. This also applies to irregular infantry and irregular cavalry units.
Landwehr, or Landeswehr, is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortifications. In German, the word means "defence of the country"; but the term as applied to an insurrectional militia is very ancient, and lantveri are mentioned in Baluzii Capitularia, as quoted in Henry Hallam's Middle Ages, i. 262, 10th edition.
The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army, was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.
Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, commonly known as Baron vom Stein, was a Prussian statesman who introduced the Prussian reforms, which paved the way for the unification of Germany. He promoted the abolition of serfdom, with indemnification to territorial lords; subjection of the nobles to manorial imposts; and the establishment of a modern municipal system.
A reservist is a person who is a member of a military reserve force. They are otherwise civilians, and in peacetime have careers outside the military. Reservists usually go for training on an annual basis to refresh their skills. This person is usually a former active-duty member of the armed forces, and they remain a reservist either voluntarily, or by obligation. In some countries such as Israel, Norway, Finland, Singapore, and Switzerland, reservists are conscripted soldiers who are called up for training and service when necessary.
A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve forces are generally considered part of a permanent standing body of armed forces, and allow a nation to reduce its peacetime military expenditures and maintain a force prepared for war. During peacetime, reservists typically serve part-time alongside a civilian job, although most reserve forces have a significant permanent full-time component as well. Reservists may be deployed for weeks or months-long missions during peacetime to support specific operations. During wartime, reservists may be kept in service for months or years at a time, although typically not for as long as active duty soldiers.
The Royal Prussian Army served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Prussia as a European political and military power and within Germany.
The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces or Imperial and Royal Armed Forces were the military forces of Austria-Hungary. It comprised two main branches: The Army (Landstreitkräfte) and the Navy (Kriegsmarine). Both of them organised their own aviation branches – the Army's Aviation Troops and the Navy's Naval Aviation. The Army in turn consisted of its own three branches: The Common Army, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.
The Imperial Russian Army or Russian Imperial Army was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of regular troops and two forces that served on separate regulations: the Cossack troops and the Muslim troops.
The Royal Prussian Army was the principal armed force of the Kingdom of Prussia during its participation in the Napoleonic Wars.
After the experience of the Bavarian Army in the war against Prussia, in 1868 the Bavarian War Minister Siegmund Freiherr von Pranckh fundamentally reformed the army. His main measures were:
The Bavarian Army was the army of the Electorate (1682–1806) and then Kingdom (1806–1918) of Bavaria. It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereignty of Bavaria into that of the German State in 1919. The Bavarian Army was never comparable to the armies of the Great Powers of the 19th century, but it did provide the Wittelsbach dynasty with sufficient scope of action, in the context of effective alliance politics, to transform Bavaria from a territorially-disjointed small state to the second-largest state of the German Empire after Prussia.
The Common Army as it was officially designated by the Imperial and Royal Military Administration, was the largest part of the Austro-Hungarian land forces from 1867 to 1914, the other two elements being the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd. However, it was simply known as the Army (Heer) by the Emperor and in peacetime laws, and, after 1918, colloquially called the k.u.k. Armee.
The Imperial-Royal Landwehr, also called the Austrian Landwehr, was the territorial army of the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1869 to 1918. Its counterpart was the Royal Hungarian Landwehr. The two Landwehrs, together with the Common Army and the Imperial and Royal Navy, made up the armed forces of Austria-Hungary. While the name, "Imperial-Royal", might seem to suggest a link between the "Imperial" (Cisleithanian) and "Royal" halves of the Empire, in this context "Royal" actually refers to the Kingdom of Bohemia - not a sovereign kingdom on par with the Kingdom of Hungary, but a crownland of Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary and possession of the Habsburgs, who remained formally entitled to kingship. In this sense, the Kingdom of Bohemia was comparable in status to the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Seewehr, literally Sea Defence was the maritime counterpart of the German Landwehr army reserve during the time of the Norddeutscher Bund and of the German Empire.
Landstorm was a form of militia and territorial defence force created in Sweden in 1885. It consisted of all conscripts who had completed their service, generally men between 33 and 40 years of age, as well as a smaller number immediately transferred there. The landstorm was intended "for the defence of the home town" within "own or nearest neighboring enlistment districts." The landstorm was first raised in time of war, in the parts of the country most threatened by the enemy, and organized according to existing conditions and provided with commanders based on advice and quarters. The landstorm was abolished in 1942.
