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Strength of the German Army (1890-1914)

While the navy was the focus of increased popular attention after 1897, the army underwent slower growth. It registered increases in the number of officers and non-commissioned officers, but its overall size remained stable as a proportion of the population. One reason for this slow growth was that conservatives feared that rapid expansion would bring Socialist workers into the army and dilute the officer corps of aristocrats. In 1911, nationalist critics began to lament the neglect of the army. They claimed that the country was in mortal danger, as the growing strength of the Russian and French armies threatened to outstrip Germany’s capacity to fight a two-front war.

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Size of the Army (1)

Year Overall size Officers Personnel Noncommissioned Officers Total size as a percentage of the population
1880 422,589 17,227 401,659 48,531 0.937
1881 449,257 18,128 427,274 51,586 0.989
1887 491,825 19,262 468,409 (2) 55,447 1.035
1891 511,657 20,400 486,983 (3) 58,448 1.028
1894 584,548 22,534 557,112 (4) 77,883 1.138
1900 600,516 23,850 571,692 (5) 80,556 1.065
1905 609,758 24,522 580,158 (6) 82,582 1.006
1910 622,483 25,718 589,672 85,226 0.959
1914 800,646 30,739 761,438 105,856 1.181

Years were selected in which the army’s overall size increased due to laws governing its peacetime size.

In fact, personnel numbers should have been presented in relation to the male population, but since the ratio between the sexes remains relatively constant in peacetime, the relation to the entire population serves the same purpose. Average population was used as a reference value.

A sizable portion of the army’s overall personnel numbers comprised new recruits. Whereas the number of new recruits stood at 151,180 in 1880, by 1910 the figure had risen to 267,554. Some of the recruits were voluntary: 16,069 in 1875; 18,767 in 1880; 25,954 in 1889 (13,125 of whom were younger than the mandatory age for military service); 49,122 (22,738) in 1900; 69,146 (29,186) in 1910. (7)

In the 1870s and 1880s, a relatively large number of recruits managed to avoid military service by emigrating illegally; they were convicted by the courts. There were 17,451 such cases in 1875; 11,446 in 1880; and 19,139 in 1889. Figures on the number of convictions due to illegal emigration are not available for subsequent periods; however, the number of emigrants fell sharply during this time (from the mid-1890s on).

(1) The size of the navy was comparatively small. The figures are:

1880: 11,116 1894: 20,498
1881: 11,352 1900: 28,326
1887: 15,244 1905: 40,862
1891: 17,083 1910: 57,374

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