Military Commander (German Empire)

The military commanders were a function of the deputy general commands in the army corps districts and some fortress commanders in the German Empire . In the Kingdom of Bavaria they were used by the ordinance of July 31, 1914. This function came into effect during the First World War . On the basis of the right to siege, they could intervene in all areas of political, social and economic life. The function of the military commander contributed to the militarization of all public and economic life during the world war. At the same time, the system of military commanders was highly inefficient.

tasks

After the declaration of war on July 31, 1914, the tasks of the commanding generals in the districts of the twelve army corps were transferred to their deputies. Their main tasks were the supply of the field army and the training of new recruits .

As military commanders, they were also entitled to all executive powers in their districts. They could issue orders in their areas of command almost without restriction. The legal basis was inconsistent in the individual federal states because a corresponding imperial law no longer came into existence before the war began. In Bavaria, for example, there was a law from 1912 that precluded a complete suspension of basic rights. In Prussia and the rest of the Reich, on the other hand, the law on the state of siege of 1852 applied. This gave the military commander the right to issue instructions to civil authorities, including state ministers. They could also encroach on the fundamental rights of every individual citizen. The military commanders outside Bavaria were only responsible to the emperor. There was therefore no central and even control of the state of siege.

In addition to the holders of the Deputy General Command, governors and commanders of the fortresses also had the function of a military commander. In 1914 there were 57 military commanders in total. In Bavaria this function was carried out by the War Ministry for the three deputy general commands there. The number of military commanders decreased during the war. Some areas were directly subordinate to the armies of the front and the commanders of some fortresses renounced the function of a military commander in favor of a deputy general command. Other fortress commanders resisted submission.

The problem was that the geographical areas of responsibility of the military commanders often did not coincide with those of the civilian territories. Only in rare cases did provinces or states agree with those of the army corps, as was the case in the provinces of Brandenburg or Württemberg . In some cases they even overlapped within a government district. Other military commanders were responsible for several (mostly small) countries.

The interventions of the deputy general commands in the course of the Patriotic Aid Service Act or the Hindenburg program as a whole in the labor market and other civil areas were not only carried out on instructions from higher-level authorities, but were also carried out by the military commander himself. Ultimately, the military commanders claimed interventions in almost all areas of society in order to ensure public safety. This concerned the regulation of the food supply or the allocation of labor in agriculture.

The military commanders played an important role in monitoring political and social movements as well as censorship. The military commanders interfered with the right of assembly. With regard to censorship, they made use of the police in addition to military and civil authorities. The central censorship instructions were not infrequently changed by the military commanders due to their powers. In this respect, too, no real standardization was achieved. They also organized pro-government propaganda.

There were various approaches to standardization, including through the creation of new central institutions. Especially after the war lasted for a long time, it became clear that the individual military commanders were overwhelmed with their tasks, for example with regard to assessing the political situation, and were therefore quite ready to give up their powers. The creation of the War Office responsible for questions of war economy was important. However, the war office branches soon got into conflicts of competence with the deputy general commandos. It was not until mid-October 1918 that the Prussian war minister was directly authorized to issue instructions to the military commanders.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Achim Fuchs, Deputy General Command, 1914-1918 / 1939-1945, in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns , accessed on February 25, 2011.

literature

• Peter Mertens: Civil-Military Cooperation during the First World War. The "subsidiary governments" of the military commanders in the Kingdom of Saxony . Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-937209-57-3 .
• Wilhelm Deist: Requirements for domestic political action by the military in the First World War. In: Ders .: Military, State and Society . Munich 1991, especially pp. 126-137.
• H. Christian Wagner: The Palatinate military commanders in World War I: a double special case. In: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz , vol. 112 (2014), pp. 173–200.
• Armed Forces (German Empire). In: Encyclopedia First World War. Paderborn 2009, p. 873.