Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/485

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GAB—GYZ

ARM 11] paid off by them after the war. In 1873 the total amount of all debts of the German states was only about .£171,000,000. In this sum was included £9,500,000 of currency. The greater part of this liability has bee11 incurred for productive purposes, particularly for the eoustruction of railways. The railway (lebts (which are not directly charged on the population) were i11 1873 about .£96,500,000. Since then some states have gone on reduci11g their debts still further; Prussia, for example, has, done so by more than £11,000,000. Others again, suel1 as Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Baden have contracted new loans for constructing railways, or, as Saxony, for purchasing them. The entire debt of all the Ger- man states, including the imperial debt, at 31st December 1877, may be estimated at .£220,000,000, of which sum, l1owever, more than £140,000,000 consists of railway debt. The average sum per head will accordingly be £5, whereas in Great Britain it is £23 to £24. When the railway debts are deducted the proportion is less than £2 a head in Germany. ' ARMY AND NAVY. By the constitution of 16th April 1871 every German is liable to service (wehrpflichtig), and no substitution is allowed (art. 57). Every German capable of bearing arms (wehrfahig) has to serve in the standing army for seven years——-as a rule from the end of the twentieth till the commencement of the twenty-eighth year of his age. Three of these seven years he must spend in active service, and the remainder i11 the reserve ; after quitting the latter he forms part of the landwehr for five years more———the full time of military service thus being twelve years. The strength of the army on a peace footing (friedensfuss) was fixed in the army bill of 1874 at 401,659 (or say 1 per cent. of the population at the census of 1871) for a term of seven years ending the 31st December 1881. The number of recruits levied annually is 145,000 men. All young men who reach a certain fixed standard of higher school training, however, are obliged to serve only for one year iii the active army, and these are not included in the effective strength of the army on a peace footing. Collaterally with the army there l1as existed since 1875 the landsturm, to which all men liable to service and capable of hearing arms, between the ages of seventeen and forty—two, belong, if they are neither in the line, the reserve, the landwehr, nor the marine. The lzmdsturnr is only called to arms in the event of a hostile invasion of the imperial territory being threatened or effected. By the articles of the constitution the whole of the land forces of the empire form a united army in war a11d peace under the orders of the emperor. The ‘sovereigns of the chief states are entitled to nominate the lower grades of oflicers, and the king of Bavaria l1as reserved to himself the special privilege of superintending the general administration of the two Bavarian corps d’armée ; but all appointments are made subject to the emperor’s approval. The 64th article of the constitution enacts that all German troops are bound to obey unconditionally the orders of the emperor, and to take the oath of allegiance accordingly. The emperor is empowered to erect fortresses in any part of the empire. 0rgam.z':ation of the Army/.—Tl1e imperial army consists of 18 army corps, viz., the Prussian garde-du-corps, 13 Prussian corps (including the troops of the minor states in military conve11tion with l’russia—Nos. 1 to 11 being Prussian, while Nos. 14 and 15 are the Baden and Alsace-Lorraine eor s respectively), the Saxon corps (No. 12), the Viirtemberg eorps ( o. 13), and the 2 Bavarian corps. One army “inspection ” comprises from 3 to 4 corps. Generally 1 army corps consists of 2 divisions, each of which includes 1 horse and 2 foot brigades. As a rule the infantry brigade consists of 2 infantry regiments and 2 landwehr regiments, the cavalry brigade of from 2 to 3 cavalry regiments. An infantry regiment consists of 3 battalions of 4 companies each ; a cavalry regiment has 5 squad- rons. There are many exceptions, however, to these rules, e.g., the garde-du-corps and the Saxon corps d’ar1née consist each of 1 cavalry and 2 infantry divisions, the 11tl1 contains 3 divisions, &e. Some divisions also are stronger than others. Altogether the Ger- man army numbers 40 divisions, of which 6 are iufantry, 3 cavalry, GERMANY 467 and 31 both combined. There are in all 74 infantry and 38 cavalry brigades, and 148 infantry and 93 cavalry regiments. Besides the troops above 11a1ned, each army corps generally includes (a) 1 jéiger or light battalion (the Bavarian army has, how- ever, 10 of them); (11) 1 field artillery brigade; (c) 1 foot artillery regiment; (cl) 1 engineer battalion; (c) 1 train battalion. The garde- du-eorps has, in addition, two railway battalions, 1 instruction in- fantry battalion (Lchrbataillon), &c. The several field artillery brigades are not uniformly constituted, but in 12 of the 18 anny corps the brigade consists of 2 artillery regiments. One of these with 8 batteries is attached to the division, while the other remains under the orders of the corps commander. This lattcr consists of 2 sections (Abtheilungen) of 3 batteries each, and a mounted division of 3 batteries. Each battery has as a rule 4 guns. A foot artillery regiment has 2 battalions of 4 companies each. There are in all 36 field artillery regiments with 301 batteries and 1206 guns, and 13 foot artillery regiments. In war time several corps are combined as “ armies," the entire military force consisting then of the field or battle army, the reserve or supplementary troops (Ersatztruppen), and the garrison troops (Besatzungstruppen). The following tables exhibit the strength of the German army on a peace footing and on a war footing respectively. There are other 25,975 men who are not included in the latter sum-total but whose cost is defrayed by army grants. They include 4653 physicians, 838 veterinary surgeons, 1600 paymasters, &e. Nor does the table take account of the troops of the field reserve and of the landsturm, regarding the organization of wl1iel1 no details have been published ; the former, which is drawn from the landwehr, is estimated at 250,000 men. It is calculated that Germany may put. in arms at any given time two millions and a half of armed men without having recourse to the last reserves. The maximum strength of the army in the war with France was 1,350,787 men a11d 263,75f horses. 1S'trcn_r/th. of the Imperial Army. _ I I’eace—1-‘ooting. Oflicers. Ralllhgnd i Horses. 1. smr£........ 1,957 4 '2. Infantry, 763 battalions- Infautry, 14S regiments or 444 battalions .‘ 8.740 255.679 Jiigcr (light infantry), 26 battalions 5:34 14,454 Depfits of landwehr, 293 buttalions.......... 348 4.63.)‘ 3. Cavalry, 93 regiments, 465 squadrons 2,357 64,709 G-,591 4. Artillery- 1-‘icld artiller_v, 301 batteries 1,629 30,733 14,845 Fort artillery, 29 battalions .. .. 683 15,167 5. Engineers, 20 battalions.............................. 394 10,324 6. Train, 18 battalions..................... .. 200 4.999 2,457 7. Special troops .. 311 9-38 , 17.133 401,059 l 79.893 _ I I 'ar-Footing. Otfiecrs. cam] Horses (1. Field .-trmy. Staff . .. 863 5,170 5.070 Infantry, 44:3 battalions ............................ ..! 10,190 455,620 17,908 Jiiger, 26 battalions.............. .. .. 572 26,676 1,046 Cavalry. 372 squadrons ........................... .. 2,144 59,814 6-3.608 Artillery, 300 batteries, 1800 guns ......... .. 2,286 78,120 77,432 Engineers, 54 companies... 555 20,917 9,647 Train, 295 columns ........ .. 484 38,451 46.017 Administration departmeu ......................... .., 216 2,826 10,864 Total field army ................ .., 17,310 687,594 '223,.5n-2 (2. Itcserre. I 37.5 1,836 322 Inf antry, 148 battalions . . . . . . . . . . .. 2,812 179,524 1,036 Jligcr, 26 companies .......... .. ' 104 8.008 26 Cavalry, 93 squadrons 465 23,994 19,716 Artillery, 71 batteries, 426 guns 340 13.261 5,507 Engineers, 20 companies................ 90 4,950 20 Train, 37 companies.................. 240 11.522 3,903 Total reserve 4,426 243,095 I 30,530 6. Garrison Troops. Administration 8-30 10,000 1.850 Infantry, 293 landwehr battalions 6,424 250,244 2,044 Jtigcr, 26 landvcl11' companies . .. 104 6.500 26 Cavalry, 144 squadrons 828 22,768 25.380 Artillery, 54 batteries, 324 guns. 1,370 54,852 8,114 Engineers, 48 companies................................. 53 8,538 Total garrison troops 10,107 353.102 37,414 Grand total .. 31.843 1.283.791 301,536 Forlresses.—S_ince the Franco—German war the fortress system has been entirely remodelled. A number of old and useless fortresses have been dismantled ; several new ones have been erected along the sea-coast; and most of those

flanking the land frontiers have been enlarged. The