The Organization of German State Forces in 1866

By Stuart Sutherland

The so-called Seven Weeks' War of 1866 between Prussia and Italy and Austria was notable not only for its effect on future German history but also because it was the last time the armies of the smaller German states fought as independent contingents. Forces from 30 smaller states were involved and they were either of some strength or barely able to guard their rulers' palaces. They have largely been ignored in standard histories and this book attempts to begin to redress that imbalance by presenting for the first time in English detailed information about the organization of the armies of the smaller states. States covered: Anhalt Baden Bavaria Bremen Brunswick Frankfurt am Main Hamburg Hanover Electoral Hesse Grand Ducal Hesse Landgravial Hesse Liechtenstein Limburg Lippe-Detmold Lübeck Luxembourg The Mecklenburgs Nassau Oldenburg The Reusses Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxony Schaumburg-Lippe Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Waldeck Württemberg. An introduction places this information in context and appendices give selected orders of battle and a chronology of the preliminaries and main events of the war in Germany.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Helion and Company
• Release date: Jun 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781908916419

Stuart Sutherland

Stuart Sutherland is a former editor with the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

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© Stuart Sutherland 2001

ISBN 978-1-906033-68-2

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Ranks and positions

Anhalt

Baden

Bavaria

Bremen

Brunswick

Frankfurt am Main

Hamburg

Hanover

Electoral Hesse

Grand Ducal Hesse

Landgravial Hesse

Liechtenstein

Limburg

Lippe-Detmold

Lübeck

Luxembourg

The Mecklenburgs

Nassau

Oldenburg

The Reusses

Saxe-Altenburg

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Saxe-Meiningen

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Saxony

Schaumburg-Lippe

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Waldeck

Württemberg

Appendix I       Order of battle of 8th Federal Army Corps, beginning of July 1866

Appendix II      Order of battle of the Bavarian army, early July 1866

Appendix III     Order of battle of the Hanoverian army, late June 1866

Appendix IV     Order of battle of the Saxon army, 15 June 1866

Appendix V      Garrison of the fortress of Mainz, early July 1866

Appendix VI     Preliminaries and major events of the 1866 war in Germany

Bibliography

eBooks Published by Helion & Company

Foreword

The so-called Seven Weeks’ War of 1866 between Prussia and Italy and Austria was notable not only for its effect on future German history but also because it was the last time the armies of the smaller German states fought as independent contingents. Forces from 30 smaller states were involved, and they were either of some strength or barely able to guard their rulers’ palaces. They have largely been ignored in standard histories, and this book attempts to begin to redress that imbalance by presenting for the first time in English detailed information about the organization of the armies of the smaller states. An introduction places this information in context, and appendices give selected orders of battle and a chronology of the preliminaries and main events of the war in Germany.

Stuart Sutherland

Introduction

Historical background

In 1815, after the final downfall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna resumed its redrawing of the map of Europe in the diplomatic negotiations which had been going on since 1814. As part of these negotiations, there was created the so-called Germanic Confederation (Deutscher Bund). The Confederation was seen as a successor to the Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806, and thus it was the same size as it, or in other words including all the German states and a sizeable proportion of the rest of central Europe.

The Confederation originally contained 39 states, mainly monarchical but with four city republics. It was established very much as a defensive bulwark against a possibly resurgent France, and by the German Federal Act of July 1815 its object was the preservation of the internal and external security of Germany and of the independence and inviolability of the individual German states. Member states retained full independence, but they pledged mutual aid in repelling attacks on Confederation lands. However, they could not leave the Confederation or take unilateral action against another member.

Because its states retained freedom of action, the Confederation was a consultative security association rather than a real confederation. This was reflected in the nature of its two assemblies, which were in permanent session in the central city-state of Frankfurt am Main, the de facto capital of the Confederation. The larger body was termed the Federal Diet, and it was attended by a varying number of representatives from all states. It may be seen as a permanent diplomatic conference, for the members were accredited government representatives rather similar to ambassadors. The Diet dealt with matters which required the full participation of the state representatives and was thus unsuited for day-to-day business. This was handled by the very much smaller Plenary Council, which united the main state representatives in a system of proportional representation. When decisions had to be taken, they were voted on: 11 of the representatives, from the larger states, each had a vote, and the 28 others were grouped in nine so-called curias, each of which had a vote determined by majority rule.

As part of the ongoing organization, in April 1821 the Diet passed the Basic principles of the military constitution of the Germanic Confederation, which laid down the organization of the Confederation’s armed forces. If the Diet decided that an external power threatened the peace of the Confederation, it could order the state contingents mobilized, and 10 army corps and (from 1830) a so-called Reserve Division were to be formed from them. A very limited version of this mobilization occurred during the First Schleswig War of 1848–50, when some states supplied contingents to fight the Danes. However, the total was much inferior to the entire Confederation army because of the limited nature of the conflict. Then if the Diet found it necessary to bring one of the member states into line, it could vote what was termed a Bundesexekution. In this limited military measures could be taken, but in practice it only amounted to threatening the wayward state with military action. Last, in case the internal peace of a member state was threatened by revolution or uprisings, a Bundesintervention could be decreed, in which parts of the armed forces of other states would be used to put down the disturbances. Such was, for example, the case in 1830, 1833, 1849 and 1850 to 1852.

Although the state contingents did not assemble, except sometimes for yearly manoeuvres, mixed garrisons were established in several places. As the seat of the Diet, Frankfurt received a garrison, although it was more an honour guard than anything else. In addition, several fortresses in southwestern Germany were declared to be Confederation assets, their organization being laid down in 1822. As the first line of defence against France, they received fairly considerable contingents from the larger states. Moreover, a permanent military commission was established in Frankfurt, with officers from the larger states as members to discuss general arrangements.

Unfortunately, it was very difficult if not impossible for there to be a wartime Confederation army. Since the association had been formed on the basis of full independence for the member states, the latter were often very suspicious that their freedom would be unduly affected if they cooperated with one another, especially with the larger states. As a result, in peacetime the contingents almost never exercised with one another, just as in the days of the Holy Roman Empire, and those that did were motivated more by local ties than a sense of Confederation solidarity. Moreover, when two or more forces did come together it was commonly only for formal parades in which medals were handed out and long speeches made. Naturally too, states tended to go their own way in their training, equipment, armament and uniforms, which produced the absurdity that in 1859 one state’s bugle call to retreat was its neighbour’s signal to advance! Moreover, since there was limited military action between 1815 and 1866, training very often became quite formalized, to the point that a peasant could inform an officer on exercises that he had placed his sentry improperly because the man belonged by the cherry tree, where [he] has always been. And since rulers were jealous of any infringement on their rights, they could easily prevent the Diet from enforcing standardization and closer cooperation.

The cumulative effect of this lack of cooperation and coordination was brought home with a vengeance in 1859, when the empire of Austria, a member of the Confederation, was at war with France and Piedmont in northern Italy. When the French and Piedmontese pushed into the Austrian province of Venetia, there developed in Germany a strong dislike for France and a corresponding sympathy for Austria. The Diet therefore decided to mobilize the Confederation army as a warning to France, and so for the first time all the contingents were activated. As might have been expected, the result was a hopeless shambles, and it is doubtful the mobilization would have achieved anything before the end of the war soon thereafter made it irrelevant.

The kingdom of Prussia took heed of this warning about the inefficiency of its army and began a series of reforms which led to the creation of the highly efficient and dangerous war machine which would unite Germany almost on its own. However, although there was a certain amount of increased cooperation and reform during the early 1860s, the great majority of the other states gave only short-lived attention to the problems which the mobilization had pointed out.

By the beginning of 1866, the Confederation numbered 33 states. Chief among them were the Austrian empire and the kingdom of Prussia; under the terms of the Confederation, only parts of these states were included. There were also the kingdoms of Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony and Württemberg, the electorate of Hesse, the grand duchies of Baden, Hesse, Luxembourg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Limburg, Nassau, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen, the principalities of Liechtenstein, Lippe-Detmold, Reuss old line, Reuss young line, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, the landgraviate of Hesse and the free cities of Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Lübeck. The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, wrested from Denmark by Austria and Prussia during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, were being administered by Prussia and Austria respectively. When war finally broke out in June, all of the larger and many small states were ranged with Austria and only a few small ones with Prussia, which withdrew from the Federal Diet and declared the Confederation abolished. Many states were, however, anxious to avoid conflict and attempted to remain neutral, but in the end all had to take sides. The war of course went very badly for Austria and its allies, and during it, Prussia occupied Frankfurt on 16 July. The Federal Diet had been forced to flee Frankurt two days earlier, and the Germanic Confederation came to a humiliating end in an inn in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. Soon after the war, Prussia and other northern German states entered into the so-called North German Confederation, which was a forced union under Prussian hegemony, and the southern states of Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg became independent, although linked to Prussia by secret treaties. The stage was now set for the third and final act of the drama of German unification.

The system of military service in the Confederation

In 1821 and 1822 the Diet had made the size of a state’s wartime contingent dependent on the number of its inhabitants, changing it as circumstances demanded, and in 1852 it had laid down that each state was to contribute one and a half per cent of its population to its contingent. In order to do so, the majority of states subscribed to a system of conscription which did not differ substantially. Once a man became 20 or 21 he was liable for military service. Each year a lottery was held to determine which young men would be called up, and those who drew a special number were liable to be taken into the army. As everywhere, a considerable proportion were rejected because they were in bad health or physical condition, but there were also a significant number who were not legally bound to serve. These were usually from the upper and middle levels of society, such as members of noble houses, university students, civil servants and the like, but sole breadwinners of families and supporters of aged or widowed parents were also freed from military service. Moreover, in the majority of states someone who was not legally freed and had drawn a special number could escape service. He did so by being furnishing a substitute (Stellvertreter; Einsteher in a couple of states), a man who agreed to serve in place of him on payment of a sum of money. In addition, men were permitted to volunteer, and in one or two situations they were the sole people allowed.

The terms of service varied, but a recruit never put in his full legal term. It may be surprising to modern readers to learn that armies were not very popular in mid-19th-century Germany and that legislatures were not therefore keen to spend a lot of money on them. Moreover, most states, especially the smaller ones, did not have the financial wherewithal to pay for the equipping, housing and feeding of all their soldiers even if they had wanted to. In consequence, after soldiers had been drilled and trained for a year or so, they were generally sent home on semi-permanent furlough (Urlaub). A furloughed man (Urlauber) could be recalled if another soldier died or fell ill or if mobilization was decreed, and he was also generally called up for short exercises each year. After the end of his regulation service, the soldier was transferred on paper to the reserve or the so-called Landwehr, an untranslatable word for another form of reserve. As during his period on furlough, he was liable to serve if mobilization was decreed during that time. The lengthy furlough and reserve periods had a great influence in making a soldier forget his training, and in addition, on his return he might be confronted with a new weapon or method of drill. The small number of soldiers who wished to continue in military service were assessed by an officer. If a man was worthwhile he signed an agreement with the army called a Kapitulation, which bound him to further duty. Termed re-enlisted men (Kapitulanten), these men came to furnish a high proportion of non-commissioned officers. The remainder of non-commissioned officers were generally taken from the substitutes, because it was common for serving soldiers to agree to extend their term of service. Some states had schools for the instruction of non-commissioned officers.

Ranks and positions

Other ranks

The German armies of 1866 had much the same internal organization. From the ground up, the private soldier in the infantry (Gemeiner or Soldat) was of course the backbone of nearly all forces. In some contingents he was designated a fusilier, or light infantryman, but by 1866 this word was merely honorific. Not so, however, sharpshooter (Scharfschütze) (Anhalt, Bavaria, Electoral Hesse, Grand Ducal Hesse, Liechtenstein, Nassau), who was commonly used as a light infantryman. The rifleman ( Jäger) (Baden, Bavaria, Hanover, Electoral Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Nassau, Saxony, Schaumburg-Lippe, Württemberg) was a better-trained sharpshooter usually armed with a more accurate and longer-ranging weapon and likewise employed as a skirmisher. A cavalry trooper was a dragoon (Baden, Hamburg, Hanover, Mecklenburg-Schwerin), Chevauleger, light dragoon (Bavaria), cuirassier (Bavaria, Hanover, Electoral Hesse), hussar (Brunswick, Hanover, Electoral Hesse), lancer (Bavaria) or Reiter, again similar to a dragoon (Grand Ducal Hesse, Oldenburg, Saxony, Württemberg). The names of artillerymen are discussed in the sections on the individual states. Engineer soldiers were usually termed Pionier or Pontonier, depending on their tasks.

Supervising the soldiers at the lowest level was the lance corporal. He was usually termed Gefreiter, but Bombardier in Bavarian and Mecklenburg-Schwerin artillery, Carabinier in Baden and Electoral Hessian cavalry, Oberkanonier in Baden,