Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA3029, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Landsturm angetreten

In German-speaking countries, the term ''Landsturm'' was historically used to refer to

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

or military units composed of troops of inferior quality. It is particularly associated with

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, Sweden and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Austria-Hungary

The Austro-Hungarian ''Landsturm'' was a

reserve force A military reserve force is a military organization whose members 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 ...

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 defense. It was divided into the Austrian Imperial (

Kaiserlich {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...

) ''Landsturm'' and the Hungarian Royal ( Königlich) ''Népfelkelés''. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, 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.

Germany

Prussia from 1813

In Prussia after the of 21 April 1813 all the male population from ages 15 to 60 who were capable of military service, who were not in the standing army or the '' Landwehr'', had to respond to the orders of the ''Landsturm''. It effectively formed the last national military reserve. King Frederick William III of Prussia established the

n ''Landsturm'' as

irregular military 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 orga ...

forces on 21 April 1813 by royal

edict An edict is a decree or announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism, but it can be under any official authority. Synonyms include "dictum" and "pronouncement". ''Edict'' derives from the Latin edictum. Notable edicts * Telepinu Pro ...

– the decree appeared in the ' (German: Prussian Code of Law) (pp. 79–89). The 1813 edict called for heroic resistance by any means against the

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

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

Peninsula War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...

against Napoleonic troops (ref. the introduction, §8, §52). According to this edict, all Prussian citizens were obliged to oppose the invasion by the enemy using any weapons available, like

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...

pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor mac ...

s or shotguns (§43). All Prussians were further encouraged to not obey orders by the enemy, but rather to make themselves a nuisance to the Napoleonic troops however possible. This was a clear departure from ordinary '' jus in bello'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for Law of War), which commanded the

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

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 An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...

, 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 law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of warring parties (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territor ...

. The war then took place according to the standard rules of

conventional warfare Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted by using conventional weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation. The forces on each side are well-defined and fight by using weapons that target primari ...

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as ...

qualified it as the " Magna Carta of the partisan". Despite its not being put to practice, fascist jurists considered it in a 1962 lecture in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

to be the "official document of the legitimation of the partisan of national defense" and as the "philosophical discovery of the partisan."

North German Confederation from 1867

The

North German Confederation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...

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.

Bavaria from 1868

In the

Bavarian Army The Bavarian Army was the army of the Electorate (1682–1806) and then Kingdom (1806–1919) of Bavaria. It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereignty (''Wehrhoheit'') of Bavaria into that of ...

the oldest ages for compulsory military service since the army reform of 1868 was referred to as the ''Landsturm''.

Sweden

In February 1808, Russian Empire, Russia invaded Swedish Finland and on 14 March Denmark-Norway declared war on Sweden, starting the

Finnish War The Finnish War ( sv, Finska kriget, russian: Финляндская война, fi, Suomen sota) was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a re ...

. On the very same day of the Danish declaration of war,

Gustav IV Adolf Gustav IV Adolf or Gustav IV Adolph (1 November 1778 – 7 February 1837) was King of Sweden from 1792 until he was deposed in a coup in 1809. He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the ruler of Finland. The occupation of Finland in 1808–09 ...

, 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 ''Landstormen''. All able Swedish males between 27 and 32 would serve in landstormen as a territorial defence force in case of war. Landstormen however then only existed in theory and lacked any organization; only in the case of war were the Swedish Army to prepare plans and organizations for the landstorm. In 1892 the law was changed, and all men between 33 and 40 would serve in Landstormen in case of war. In 1901 Sweden introduced conscription, and became a proper second line unit, organizing the elder conscripted men (those between 33 and 40), and were tasked with territorial defence as well as securing the mobilization of the field army. In 1914 the law was changed and landstormen was to organize all men between 35 and 42. Also a mandatory 5 days refresher training was mandated for all those that belonged to landstormen. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Landstormen was frequently mobilized to secure the Swedish neutrality. Landstormen was again mobilized during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 1942 the Swedish Army went through a major re-organization and landstormen was abolished and incorporated into the regular army.

Switzerland

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).

References

{{Authority control Military units and formations of Germany Military history of Germany Law of war