According to family oral history, August served in the Kaiser’s
Guard.During August’s life in
Prussia, the Kaiser was Wilhelm I, and the Gardes-du-Corps was his personal
bodyguard.The Garde-du-Corps
served in the Franco-Prussian in the war and consisted of one division with
four infantry brigades and a Special Jäger Brigade (rifle brigade).The Franco-Prussian War lasted between July 19, 1870 and May
10, 1871.
August was 20 years old when he was married in 1870, which was the year
of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.August had an obligation to serve in the military, with three
years being on active duty. It is not know whether August fulfilled his
commitment prior to getting married, or afterward; however, it is possible
that he served his active duty just prior to his 1870 marriage.His first child was Emma who was born on
15 October 1871, just six months after the end of the war; therefore, he
must not have participated in the Franco-Prussian War.Prussian Corps reservists rarely lived
more than a day’s travel from their regiment’s depot.Consequently, August probably served in
the reserve locally in, or near, Konitz.
Prussian Guards at the Battle di
Gravelotte-Saint Privat (Franco-Prussian war)
By sconosciuito - scan
da 'Gravelotte-Saint Privat', di P.Elliot-Wright, Osprey publ. 1993, Public
Domain,
Between 1807 and 1813 Prussia had developed a conscript system that
became the model for the nations of Europe.Every able bodied man had to serve in the army for three
years, then he was released to the reserves for four years and after that
he was on call to the national guard for five more years.The Prussians bypassed Napoleon's
imposition of limitations on the size of their army by calling up the
permitted number of men (42,000), training them rigorously for a few
months, and then releasing the majority and calling up a new complement.
They were thus able to build up a powerful reserve of trained men without
openly defying Napoleon.
After the Napoleonic era Prussia continued to employ this system, so
that by the time of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) it had a mass army of
conscripts reinforced with large reserve units, in contrast to France's
smaller standing professional army.When Bismarck was installed as Chancellor in 1861, his first act was
to overrule a parliament that wanted to reduce military service obligations
from three to two years and he pushed through numerous army reforms.Bismarck said, "The great questions
of the day will not be decided by speeches and resolutions of majorities,
but by blood and iron."To maintain
its large army, conscription was enforced and 63,000 men were conscripted
each to serve 3 years on active duty and 4 more years in active
reserve.The Prussian Army was
composed not of regulars, but conscripts and reservists.Service was compulsory for all men of
military age, thus Prussia and its North and South German allies could
mobilize and field some 1.2 million soldiers in time of war, which it did
within 18 days of mobilization.The
sheer number of soldiers available made possible the mass-encirclement and
destruction of entire enemy formations.Compared to the French, the Prussian soldiers were better educated
with compulsory primary education that was not the law in France till after
the war.An estimated 33,100
officers and 1,113,000 men took part in the war.
This is a picture of aCavalryman assigned to the Heavy Calvalry Regiment of the Guard
Calvalry Division
Prussian
cuirassier of the Garde-du-Corps(artist: Anton von Werner, year: 1882,
dimensions: 50 × 35 cm, method: water
colour, privately owned
Anton von Werner [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Click on picture
below to see You Tube video with Prussian song
