Landsturm and Landwehr

Both names date from the Napoleonic Wars: in Prussia in 1813 the Landwehr was a militia backing the standing army, and the Landsturm a levy of last resort. In the German army of 1914 the Landwehr comprised men who had completed active service and the reserve, while the Landsturm took the oldest men, up to 45, and those who had never served. Both formed brigades and divisions for frontier defence, guard duty and quieter sectors of the front.

Austria-Hungary was different. The Austrian Landwehr and the Hungarian Honvéd had been separate standing armies since 1868, and in the war they fought alongside the common army on equal terms. The Landsturm, drawn from older age groups and often armed with obsolete weapons, garrisoned fortresses such as Przemyśl and held weaker sectors. As losses mounted, its battalions were increasingly sent into the front line.