Landwehr

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The Landwehr was a type of militia found in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe.

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 Hallam's Middle Ages, i. 262, 10th ed.

Germany

The landwehr in Prussia was first formed by a royal edict of 17 March 1813, which called up all men capable of bearing arms between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and not serving in the regular army, for the defence of the country. After the peace of 1815 this force was made an integral part of the Prussian army, each brigade being composed of one line and one landwehr regiment. This, however, retarded the mobilization and diminished the value of the first line, and by the re-organization of 1859 the landwehr troops were relegated to the second line.

Austria

The Austria-Hungary's dual monarchy was composed of two halves which each had their respective parliament, government, budget, and armed forces. More precisely, the Austrian fraction was referred to as the Landwehr and the Hungarian one as Honvéd.

Switzerland

In Switzerland the landwehr used to be a second line force, in which all citizens served for twelve years. It was abolished after the army reform in 1965.

As a reference to this past, a number of Swiss wind bands bear the name "Landwehr".

See also

• National Guard

References

 

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