Field Service Regulations

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One of the central service regulations for the German army during the German Reich was published under the title Felddienstordnung . It was issued by the emperor as the supreme warlord of the German army, with the war ministry being authorized to allow explanations and necessary changes to occur. The forerunner, the "Ordinances on the training of troops for field service and on major troop exercises", was also referred to as field service regulations.

The field service regulations of 1908 comprised 176 pages without appendices, they made specifications for many activities: From the march protection by a vanguard , side cover and rear guard to the organization and the necessary space for a bivouac to the use of carrier pigeons to transmit messages. The content also included the effects of weapons or the organization of ammunition supplies. For the practical exercise of field service, leeway was intentionally left, this leeway was not allowed to be restricted by senior officers.

In 1886 a draft prepared by the General Staff first appeared, which was tested by the troops in autumn 1886. This was followed by a complete revision, which was then submitted to the emperor for approval in April 1887.

On April 23, 1887, the field service regulations were approved by the Kaiser. New editions appeared on July 20, 1894, January 1, 1900, and March 23, 1908.

In 1911 the field service regulations were amended in 1908: In order to implement the Hague Land Warfare Regulations that came into force for Germany on January 26, 1910 , the War Ministry decreed on December 12, 1911 that the wording of the Hague Land Warfare Regulations should simply be appended to the field service regulations.

This new international humanitarian law was not codified into simple rules for soldiers and officers. The pure juxtaposition of the Field Service Regulations of 1908 and the Hague Land Warfare Regulations is seen as one of the causes of war crimes committed by German soldiers in the First World War .

Trivia

In the film Der Hauptmann von Köpenick , the protagonist learned the field service regulations by heart.

Issues of the field service regulations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ottomar Osten-Sacken and von Rhein (Freiherr von der): Prussia's army from its beginnings to the present. Berlin 1914, p. 163.
  2. ^ Latest communications, Official Press Prussia, VI. Volume, Tuesday, June 7, 1887 (No. 58), p. 4, online edition, accessed on June 20, 2014 .
  3. ^ Teltower Kreisblatt (Berlin), April 9, 1887, p. 1, online edition, accessed on June 20, 2014
  4. ^ Latest communications, Official Press Prussia, VI. Volume, Tuesday, June 7, 1887 (No. 58), p. 4, online edition, accessed on June 20, 2014
  5. ↑ Jost Dülffer : Making Peace. De-escalation and peace policy in the 20th century. 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20117-3 , p. 85.
  6. ^ John Horne, Alan Kramer: German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial. 2002, ISBN 0-300-08975-9 , p. 149.