DEFENCE
589
Ersatztruppen, a kind of reserve, where the period of service is twelve years. Men in the Ersatztruppen are liable to three periods of drill {of ten, six, and four weeks respectively) ; but as financial considerations allow of only a cer- tain number being so drilled, many receive no military training at all. At the end of twelve years the trained members of the Ersatz pass into the first ban of the Landsturm, the untrained into the second ban. By the Army Act, which came into force on October 1, 1893, the annual levies were increased by about 60,000 men, and the period of service under arms of the infantry was reduced from 3 to 2 years, that of the cavalry and horse artillery being 3 years as before.
One-year volunteers, of whom about 8,000 join annually, serve at their own charges, and are not reckoned in the legal peace strength. Non-commissioned officers are generally appointed from men desiring to make the army their profession.
All able-bodied men between the age of seventeen and forty-five, who are neither in the standing army nor the reserves, must belong to the Landsturm, which is only called out in the event of an invasion of Germany. The Land- sturm is divided into two classes or ' bans ; ' to the first ban belong those be- tween the ages of seventeen and thirty-nine ; to the second those between thirty-nine and forty-five.
The following table shows the strength and organisation of the imperial army on the peace footing in 1898-99 : —
Peace Footing.
Officers
Rank and File
Horses
Infantry, 215 regiments
12,024
362,940
Rifles, 19 battalions .
410
11,996
—
Bezirkskommandos, 288
817
5,499
—
Surgeons, Instructors, &c. . Total Infantry .
—
2,623
13,251
383,058
Cavalry, 93 regiments
2,385
65,853
64,601
, , special services (in-
cluding officers)
—
817
—
Field Artillery, 43 regiments
2,671
57,984
29,044
,, special ser-
vices (including officers) .
—
810
—
Foot Artillery, 17 regiments
and 1 battalion
870
22,713
43
Foot Artillery special ser-
vices (including officers) .
—
132
—
Pioneers, 23 battalions, 3
. railway regiments, 2 bal-
loon detachments, 1 rail-
way battalion, and 3 rail-
way companies
738
19,085
—
Special Pioneer services
—
127
—
Train, 21 battalions .
31Q
7,765
4,347
Special train services .
—
69
—
Special formations
509
3,571
—
Non-regimental officers, &c. Total .
2,442
283
—
23,176
562,277
98,038
