Landwehr

Landwehr, or Landeswehr, is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortifications. 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 edition. The English term "home guard" may possibly derive from an attempt to translate the term landwehr, the earliest unit calling itself "home guard" being formed by German immigrants in Missouri in the events leading up to the American Civil War. Imperial and Royal Landwehr The Austrian Landwehr was one of three components that made up the ground forces of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy between 1868 and 1918, and it was composed of recruits from the Cisleithanian parts of the empire. Intended as a national defence force alongside the Royal Hungarian Landwehr (or Hungarian Honved), the Landwehr was officially established by order of Emperor Franz Josef on 5 December 1868. Yet while the Hungarian force was generously supported early on by the parliament in Budapest, legislators in Vienna generally failed to advance the cause of the Landwehr, leaving it by the 1870s as a skeletal force with only the appearance of parity. In 1887, Archduke Albert wrote that Landwehr units were not ready, in terms of training or discipline, for use in the first two weeks of a war. Yet the 1880s saw an expansion in the force's numbers, as the high command was unable to obtain increases in manpower for the joint Imperial and Royal army and sought to increase overall numbers through the Landwehr. Additionally, Austrian fears of the development of the Honved caused the Austrian Reichsrat to vote to increase the Landwehr's strength to 135,000. These nationalist interests led to a gradual strengthening and improvement of the force, so that by the start of the First World War, Landwehr units were considered equal to the units of the joint army in readiness and equipment.