page_title: Prussian Reform Movement
section_title: Military service
hierarchical_section_title: Prussian Reform Movement / Other areas / Military / Military service
caption_attribution_description: Gneisenau Statue in Berlin by Christian Daniel Rauch
context_page_description: The Prussian Reform Movement was a series of constitutional, administrative, social and economic reforms early in the nineteenth-century Kingdom of Prussia. They are sometimes known as the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms, for Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg, their main initiators. Before the Second World War, German historians, such as Heinrich von Treitschke, saw the reforms as the first steps towards the unification of Germany and the foundation of the German Empire.
  The reforms were a reaction to the defeat of the Prussians by Napoleon I at Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, leading to the second Treaty of Tilsit, in which Prussia lost about half its territory and was forced to make massive tribute payments to France. To make those payments, it needed to rationalize its administration. Prussia's defeat and subjection also demonstrated the weaknesses of its absolute monarchy model of statehood and excluded it from the great powers of Europe.
  To become a great power again, it initiated reforms from 1807 onwards, based on Enlightenment ideas and in line with reforms in other European nations.
context_section_description: The experiences of 1806 showed that the old organisation of the Prussian army was no longer a match for the might of the French army.  Compared to the French defensive tactics, Prussian tactics were too immobile.  Its officers treated their soldiers as objects and punished them severely – one of the most severe punishments, the Spießrutenlaufen, consisted of making a soldier pass between two ranks of men and be beaten by them.  The French instead had compulsory military service and the Prussian army's adoption of it was the centre of Prussia's military reforms.
  Frederick William III hesitated about the military reforms, the officer corps and nobility resisted them and even the bourgeoisie remained sceptical.  The start of the German campaign of 1813 was the key factor.  On 9 February 1813 a decree replaced the previous conscription system with an obligation to serve by canton (Kantonpflichtigkeit), and this new system had to last for the whole war.  Thus it looked to restore the pride and position of the common soldier in adapting army discipline to civil law.  The punishments and in particular the 'schlague' (consisting of a soldier being beaten) were abolished.  The social differences had to disappear.  The Treaty of Tilsit had reduced the Prussian army to 42,000 men, but Scharnhorst put in place the "Krümper system", which consisted of training a number of soldiers in rotation without ever exceeding the numbers authorised by the Treaty.  Between 30,000 and 150,000 supplementary men were also trained – the training system changed several times and so it is difficult to work out precise numbers. Compulsory military service was ordered by Frederick William III on 27 May 1814 then fixed by a military law on 3 September the same year:
  Every man of 20 years is obliged to defend the fatherland. To execute this general obligation, particularly in time of peace, in such manner that the progress of science and industry will not be disturbed, the following exclusion must be applied in taking into account the terms of service and the duration of service.
caption: Statue of Gneisenau in Berlin (1855)
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