Imperial-Royal Landwehr


The Imperial-Royal Landwehr, also called the Austrian Landwehr, was the territorial army of the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1869 to 1918. Its counterpart was the Royal Hungarian Landwehr. The two Landwehrs, together with the Common Army and the Imperial and Royal Navy, made up the armed forces of Austria-Hungary.
Unlike the German Empire, where the Landwehr mainly comprised reservists and volunteers, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr consisted of regular units. It was fully established with regular troops and not partly mobilized or cadred. The Landwehr should not be confused with the Landsturm which was a volunteer militia.

History

The roots of the Landwehr go back to the 16th century when there were calls on all able-bodied men to defend their country.
During the Napoleonic Wars a Landwehr was established by imperial decree dated 9 June 1808 as a standing and common institution to complement the regular Austrian army. This army was used in 1809 and in 1813/14. In 1859, the Landwehr was abolished.
After the Austrian Empire had lost the war against Prussia, the Kingdom of Hungary succeeding in gaining its independence from the Austria in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. Hungary now wanted its own forces under command of the Hungarian government alongside the existing Imperial and Royal Army and Navy, which were commanded by the Emperor and Austro-Hungarian Minister of War. So the Compromise included the right of Hungary to establish the Royal Hungarian Landwehr, often colloquially known as the Honved or Honvéd.
As a consequence, the Cisleithanian counterpart of the Honved, known as the Imperial-Royal Landwehr, was established in the "kingdoms and lands represented in the Reichsrat", i.e. the remaining Empire of Austria. Its tasks were finally confirmed in 1889 in the Austrian Defence Act as follows:
§ 4. The Landwehr is tasked in time of war to support the Army and to defend the homeland; in peacetime, and by exception, also to maintain law and order and security of the homeland.
In § 14 Wehrgesetz 1889 the annual recruiting quota for the Landwehr was set at 10,000 men.
Conscription in the Landwehr was from age 21 up to 32 and included two or three years on active duty. The one-year volunteer served just one year, but received no wages and had to pay for their own equipment. After age 32, conscripted Landwehr soldiers were transferred to the Landsturm militia. As there were more conscripts available than were needed, a lot decided who was assigned to the army, who to the militia and who to the reserve.
The monarch became the supreme warlord, holding all authority over the structure, organization, and administration of the army. He appointed the senior officials, had the right to declare war, and was the commander-in-chief of the army.
The Landwehr's "March No. 1", which Beethoven composed in 1808, as the "March of the Bohemian Landwehr", is known nowadays as the Yorck March. As an element of the Grand Tattoo, performed e.g. by the Bundeswehr, it is now one of the best known German military marches.

Colours

The Imperial-Royal Landwehr initially had no colours. However, in September 1915, Emperor Franz Joseph I granted the authority for the "M 1915" colours in recognition of "exceptionally meritorious achievements" by the Imperial Landwehr, which was then manufactured under the supervision of the Army Museum in 1916. These were to be handed over to the various regiments after the war. The process was regulated by the ordinances of the Imperial-Royal Landwehr, Standard Regulations, Part 22, dated 8 September 1915, in which the procedure for the award of colours was laid down by Special Order 4 Sep 1915, Presentation No. 14,256. For this, the following letter was issued:
"His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, in gracious recognition of late of the exceptionally meritorious achievements by the Imperial Royal Landwehr, which fought throughout the recent war alongside troops of the Imperial and Royal Army, demonstrating stalwart and faithful discharge of duty before the enemy, and repeatedly earning the very highest tribute, graciously condescends to permit the Imperial Royal Landwehr troops to bear colours. In view of the design and material requirements of these colours, as well as their production and ceremonial presentation, they will only be available after the end of the war. This very highest act of grace is intended to spur the troops of the Imperial Royal Landwehr further to new deeds of heroism and, of course by further brilliant performance against the enemy, will prove they are worthy, time and again, of this most high honour!"
Freiherr von Georgi m.p.

General of Infantry
The colours were not issued during the period of the monarchy, but only later to traditional units. How many of these colours were made is not known. Records show that at least the colours of the 2nd Linz Landwehr Infantry Regiment were transferred to the Kameradschaftsbund ehemaliger Zweierschützen in Linz on 8 June 1924. Also the existence of the colours of the 1st Vienna Imperial Royal Landwehr Infantry Regiment are known to have existed.

Structure

The Austrian Landwehr reported to the Imperial-Royal Ministry of Defence.
The k.k. State Ministry of Defence was located in Vienna at Babenbergerstraße 5. The Landwehr high command was housed on the first floor of the former Imperial Department of Justice at Schillerplatz 4. Landwehr staffs and the Landwehr Base Command were quartered in private homes. During the First World War, the k.k. Ministry of Defence was responsible under the War Office for homeland defence.
The Landwehr had its own barracks, depots and officer training establishments. The training of Landwehr officers took place in the Imperial-Royal Franz Joseph Military Academy in Boerhaavegasse in Vienna, one of five military academies in Austria-Hungary. In addition, there was a military upper school in Vienna and a military lower school in Bruck an der Leitha.
The Landwehr barracks in Vienna were the Kaiserebersdorf Landwehr Artillery Barracks, the Emperor Franz Josef Landwehr Barracks and Siebenbrunnengasse Landwehr Barracks. Next to the last-named barracks was the Landwehr Equipment Depot. The Imperial-Royal Landwehr Arms Depot was the Arsenal in Vienna.
The Imperial-Royal Landwehr was the standing army of Austria responsible for the defence of Austria itself. Its order of battle at the outbreak of the First World War was as follows:
The mountain infantry had the following units:
Although the Landwehr infantry regiments were weaker in personnel than Imperial and Royal Infantry regiments, they were often superior in terms of equipment. The parliaments of Cisleithania and Transleithania were rather more willing, to support "their" troops with financial resources than the common army.
A special feature was the title of the Landwehr regiments, which bore the name of the garrison location of their regimental staff. The same was true of the state's rifle units, which also belonged to the Landwehr. In this way, the closeness of each regiment with its garrison was emphasized.

Infantry

On 11 April 1917 the infantry units of the Landwehr were renamed. The title "Landwehr" was replaced by "Schützen". The changes were as follows:

Landwehr infantry regiments

The infantry regiment consisted of only three battalions instead of the usual four found in the Common Army.
The garrison name is always the location of regimental HQ.
From 1906 the state rifles became the Imperial-Royal Mountain Corps and were renamed the Kaiserschützen in 1917. They were given various titles depending on the period.
Landwehr infantry wore the hat of the rifle corps as their parade headdress: a matt black hat of waterproof felt. It consisted of the crown and brim adorned with a hatband of green cord, a hunting horn and a hackle or plume of black cock feathers. The hat cord was made of sheep's wool, had a button and, at each end, an acorn covered with green wool and braided at the ends. The two acorns were attached to the rear of the hat crown. The cord for officers was made of interwoven black and gold thread.
The crown was in the shape of an oval cone, with a slight dent at the top. The brim was flat in front and behind, but "snapped up" on both sides. The brim was edged with black, varnished calfskin.
On the left side of the crown, there was a rearward, tilted socket for attaching the hackle. The hat badge - of gold-coloured metal - was a hunting horn. The battalion number in nickel silver was set in the centre formed by the loop of the horn. The badge was fastened over the socket for the feathers so that the number was inclined at the same angle as the socket. The hackle was formed in the shape of a rooster's tail around a 1.5 mm thick piece of steel wire. The length of the hackle was 29 cm. The hackle was inserted into the socket on the hat such that the feathers were swept back in an arc.
On the march the Landwehr used the normal infantry field cap.
The uniform jacket of the Landwehr infantry - for officers and men - was on average the same as that of the infantry. The other ranks jacket was made of pike grey cloth with epaulettes, shoulder trim, collar and cuffs of grass-green colour. The buttons for all regiments were white and marked with the battalion number.
The shirts worn by the Landwehr infantry were of the same colour as the jacket with grass-green gorget patches to indicate their arm of service. Their remaining usual items of dress were no different from those of the line infantry.
Trousers were of pike grey cloth and cut long in accordance with the regulations for German regiments. The trousers of the officers had grass-green lampasses; NCOs and other ranks had grass-green piping along the side seam.
Dress variations for 4th and 27th Infantry
The uniforms of the 4th and 27th Infantry were an exception to the Landwehr infantry regulations; instead, they had the same dress pattern as the State Rifles.
The parade hat was no different from that of the Landwehr infantry and, in marching order, they used the infantry field cap. One special feature was a small, forward-sloping pocket on the left side of the cap into which a spray of black grouse feathers was fixed. On individual hats the feathers could be fixed directly to the cap in order that the white feathers could be displayed to best effect.
The uniform jacket of the two regiments was, like the State Rifles jackets - both for officers and men - cut in two rows unlike the infantry and had two rows each of eight silver buttons. The buttons bore the regimental number in Arabic numerals. The soldiers' jackets were made of pike grey material and had grass-green epaulettes, shoulder bars, collars and cuffs. On the collars there was a matt white edelweiss on each side, behind the rank badge.
The rifleman's shirt was the same colour as his jacket; the arm of service being signified by grass-green gorgets. There were also other differences in the uniform compared with that of the infantry units of the Imperial and Royal Army.
The trousers were the same pattern as those of the Landwehr infantry.

Mounted State Rifles

The history of Austro-Hungarian forces is documented in detail in the Military History Museum in Vienna, which was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I as the Imperial-Royal Court Armaments Museum. In a special display cabinet in Hall V of the museum, several uniforms of the Imperial Royal Landwehr are displayed, a relief on the rear of the cabinet shows the territories from which the Hungarian Honvéd and Imperial-Royal Landwehr recruited.

Literature