Surrogate beings
In the military in the broadest sense, the substitute system administers the addition of personnel and material to the armed forces . In a narrower sense, replacement means the addition of personnel, while the addition of material is referred to as replenishment . This article deals with personnel replacement.
Personnel replacement in peace
In peacetime, they are replaced by young men who first go through military training and then take the place of those who have been discharged home. This happens in different ways, depending on the legal situation either through the recruitment of conscripts and / or through recruited regular and professional soldiers .
Personnel replacement in war
In the war , personnel replacement serves to compensate for the losses (dead, wounded, prisoners, missing) that occur at the front .
Prussia / Empire
The organization of the replacement system for the entire German army was organized according to the Prussian model from the 1870s. The legal basis was formed by the Reich Military Law of May 2, 1874 and the Defense Regulations of November 22, 1888. The army supplement was organized in three phases through the cooperation of civil and military authorities ( District Administrator , Substitute Commission, District Command of the Landwehr District , Senior Substitute Commission , Ministerial Instance) 1st registration, 2nd drafting and 3rd drafting (convocation). Their organization was diversified by the establishment of registration offices , main registration offices and Landwehr inspections until the First World War , and in principle formed the model for all later supplementary systems developed in Germany. Conscripts who came from the so-called nautical or semi-nautical population should be used to supplement the Imperial Navy .
Reichswehr
The Versailles peace treaty forbade mobilization preparations for the Reichswehr . There was therefore (officially) no planning for personnel replacement. Such planning was carried out covertly, however , from 1926 the Army Command under Wilhelm Heye began to secretly expand a nationwide state protection organization (LO). The so-called L officers of the Reichswehr were officially considered civilian employees of the Reichswehr. However, they were also responsible for the surveillance of secretly stored weapons and equipment as well as the registration of the able-bodied population.
Wehrmacht
With the reintroduction of compulsory military service in the Third Reich in 1935, a reserve potential for personnel replacement was built up again. During the mobilization on August 26, 1939, parts of the General Army Office (AHA) were then used to form a Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces Department (BdE) in the Wehrmacht High Command . A total of around 18 million soldiers served in World War II . Reservists formed the backbone of the Wehrmacht . However, the proportion of white cohorts with only a short training was very high, since before the war only the four cohorts born 1915–18 had been called up for 1 or 2-year military service.
German Democratic Republic
The forerunner of the NVA was the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP), which was set up from 1952. From 1956 the NVA was founded. During this phase of the establishment of a regular army in the GDR , district commands formed the lowest level of territorial substitute systems. Such a command was formed in every city and district in the GDR. After the construction of the Wall in 1961, the exodus of young men before convening prevented that in 1962 conscription introduced. The military district command (WKK) responsible for the place of residence of the conscript was now drafted and called up for basic military service . The district commandos were renamed to military district commandos in 1962. In addition to drafting and drafting, the military district commands were also responsible for reservist service, for recruiting long-term soldiers and non-commissioned officers as well as professional officers, for military propaganda and military training . From 1967 tasks in mobilization and territorial defense were added, the respective military district command became the staff of the district operations command (KEL). The military district commands were subordinate to the military district commands (WBK). According to the territorial administrative structure, there were 214 military district commands at the district level and 15 military district commands at the district level in the GDR .
Federal Republic of Germany
The drafting and the draft for basic military service were carried out by the responsible district military replacement office , to which the registration authorities report the conscripts . With the suspension of compulsory military service in 2011, personnel will be replaced by recruiting volunteers . As part of the reclassification to the “completely renewed Bundeswehr ” in 2001, the territorial army and with it the organization intended for personnel replacement were dissolved. An increase in the Bundeswehr for the case of defense is currently not planned and would only be possible in the context of reconstitution (rebuilding the ability to defend the country against an attack with conventional armed forces within a manageable longer time frame).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Matuschka: Organization of the Reichsheeres , p. 216
- ^ Wehrkreiskommandos (inventory), Federal Archives , BArch DVW 7, inventory period: 1952–1990.
- ↑ Defense Policy Guidelines 2003, Part I, p. 11
literature
- Dictionary of German military history, Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin (East) 1985, p. 176/177
- Hermann Rahne: Mobilization. Military mobilization planning and technology in Prussia and the German Empire from the middle of the 19th century to the Second World War . Military Publishing House of the GDR , Berlin (East), 1983. Zugl .: Leipzig, Univ., Diss., 1972