Reichswehr
| Imperial Armed Forces of Germany | |
|---|---|
| Reichswehr | |
 Emblem | |
| Motto |
Wir. Dienen. Deutschland. ("We. Serve. Germany.") |
| Founded | 16 April 1853 |
| Service branches | |
| Headquarters |
Federal Ministry of Defense, Berlin, Prussia General Staff, Zossen, Prussia |
| Leadership | |
| Commander-in-chief |
 Emperor Georg Friedrich |
| Federal Minister of Defense |
 Hans-Joachim von Gottberg |
| Chief of the Great General Staff |
 Colonel General Markus Vad |
| Personnel | |
| Military age | 18–32 eligible for enlistment |
| Conscription |
Yes Conscription:
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; conscript service obligation is 18 months; women are not conscripted but may volunteer to serve; conscripts are selected by lottery, with all male Germans registering at age 18 and a percentage of those is chosen depending on the manpower needs of each branch annually. |
| Active personnel | 424,782 (2021) |
| Reserve personnel | 790,000 (2021) |
| Industry | |
| Foreign suppliers |
 European Community Kingdom of Sierra Superior |
| Related articles | |
| Ranks | Military ranks of Germany |
The Reichswehr (lit. "Reich Defense") is the armed force of the German Empire. It consists of the Army (Heer), Navy (Marine), Air Force (Luftwaffe), and the Joint Support Service (Streitkräftebasis). The Joint Support Service includes two semi-independent services, the Joint Medical Service (Zentraler Sanitätsdienst) and the Cyber and Information Domain Service (Cyber- und Informationsraum). The German Emperor is the commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr, but the Chancellor of Germany exercises the role of the commander-in-chief by imperial prerogative. The Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin is responsible for the armed forces and the Chief of the Great General Staff is its highest ranking officer, working from the General Staff headquarters in Zossen, Prussia. As of 2021, it had 424,782 active personnel, 790,000 reservists, and 103,218 civilian employees, making it one of the ten largest military forces in the world in the largest in Europe.
Germany has a military budget of KS$132 billion, the fourth-largest in the world after the Kingdom of Sierra, the United Commonwealth, and China, which is 2.26% of the country's GDP. The Reichswehr maintained its personnel strength using conscription since it was created in 1853, though after the Revolutions of 2000 and the end of the Cold War the number of conscripts called up annually has been reduced each year, as the military has refocused away from a conventional war in Europe to fighting low-level insurgencies. Since the Amazonas incident and the start of the 2021-22 Caribbean diplomatic crisis, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced in its updated national security strategy from January 2022 that the Reichswehr must prioritize its capability to win a major war against a peer adversary, after two decades of counter-insurgency operations in the Middle East and Africa.
A unified Germany military was formed in 1853 after the Austro-Prussian War led to the unification of German states as the German Empire. During Great War I, the Reichswehr was able to conquer much of Western Europe and the Balkans through the usage of rapid mobilization time-tables as well as combined operations involving tanks, motorized infantry, and close air-support. In Great War II it fought a war of attrition against both French State and Derzhavist Russia before pushing back into both countries, being the leading force in defeating the Axis powers. After the defeat of the Axis, the Reichswehr had the central role in the postwar occupation of France and Russia as well as in being the first line of defense along the borders with the southern European communist bloc states. During the Cold War it was described by British historian William Craig as "the best army in the world." The end of the Cold War has seen the Reichswehr transition into assisting Germany's allies in fighting insurgencies, though it remains a leading conventional military power.
History
The precursor to the unified German armed forces was the German Federal Army (Bundesheer), which was established by the German Confederation after the Napoleonic Wars as a combination of specific units from different German states that were capable of operating together. In 1849 the Frankfurt Parliament designated all German military forces as "the German Wehrmacht" and placed certain units from the northern German states under Prussian command in wartime, in response to tensions between Austria and Prussia. This system functioned during the Schleswig War and the Austro-Prussian War. The creation of the German Empire in 1853, at the conclusion of the Austro-Prussian War, led to the Prussian Army dominating the armies of the other German states, although the Bavarian, Saxon, and Württemberg remained semi-autonomous, with their own ministries of war and general staffs. The new country had its own Army of the Realm (Reichsheer). The 1853 constitution of the German Empire named its combined military forces as the Reichswehr ("Reich Defense") and required all officers and men to take an oath of loyalty to the Emperor of the Germans (the Kaiser) and to the German nation. Despite this, the Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, and Württemberg armies maintained their own distinct traditions and identities for several decades. This combined army was used to great effect in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Prussians sought to create a corps of highly capable officers, who were recruited into the Great General Staff, which organized the mobilization of troops according to meticulously prearranged timetables and carried out attack plans against neighboring countries in the event of war. This made the Reichswehr into a highly effective machine that smashed into France in 1870.
The Prussian system of training officers, with practical experience of commanding divisions, corps, and armies, and observing foreign armies as attaches during peacetime, would be copied by other armies around the world. For the rest of the late 19th century the Reichswehr did not fight any major wars but participated in colonial expeditions in East and Central Africa, as well as in China. The Prussian Ministry of War and the Great General Staff grew increasingly powerful, bypassing the Foreign Office and the Cabinet by speaking to the Emperor directly. In the first century of its existence as unified country, Germany was led by an oligarchy of landlords, aristocrats, army officers, and clergy, and the Reichswehr emerged to become heavily involved in directing foreign policy, to the point of being described as a "state within a state." Otto von Bismarck restored some civilian control over the military during his tenure as Chancellor, but after he stepped down in 1890 the important decisions in matters of state were made by Kaiser Wilhelm II and his generals. The Italian and Russian Revolutions, followed by the Austro-Hungarian War, led the Imperial German government to increase the size of the military. In peacetime the basic organization of the German Army (Reichsheer or Deutsches Heer) was in army inspectorates, consisting of army corps, divisions, and regiments.
Command, control, organization
Deployments and operations
Appearance
Uniforms
Service uniform of the German Army (Heer)
Service uniform of the German Navy (Marine)
Service uniform of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe)
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Rank insignia
- Officers
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- Enlisted
- Notes
- ↑ The rank of General Field Marshal has become a ceremonial or honorary rank, the most recent promotion of an active-duty Army officer to this rank was in 1997.
- ↑ The rank of Grand Admiral has become a ceremonial or honorary rank, the most recent promotion of an active-duty officer to this rank was in 1999.
- ↑ The rank of General Field Marshal has become a ceremonial or honorary rank, the most recent promotion of an active-duty Air Force officer to this rank was in 1996.