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Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1848-1918: Introduction
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html><head> <title>Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1848-1918: Introduction</title> <link href="mailto:glenn.jewison@btinternet.com" rev="made"/> <meta content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0" name="generator"/> <meta content="Glenn Jewison" name="author"/> <meta content="2001 Glenn Jewison & J枚rg C. Steiner" name="COPYRIGHT"/> <meta content="Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1848-1918: Introduction" name="description"/> <meta content="k.u.k, k.k., Austro-Hungarian army, Austro-Hungarian Land Forces, Austro-Hungarian Army Higher Commands 1914-1918, Austrian Army, Italian Front, Galicia, Isonzo" name="keywords"/> <style type="text/css"> TD { font-size:10pt; } P { } </style> <script language="JavaScript"> if (top!=self) top.location.href=/self.location.href; </script> </head> <body alink="#0000FF" bgcolor="#FFF8DC" link="#0000FF" text="#400040" vlink="#DB7093"> <p align="center">聽聽<b><a href="/" name="Introduction"><font size="4">Introduction</font></a> </b></p> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td colspan="4" width="100%"><a href="/biog/stoeger.htm"><img align="left" alt="Generaloberst Rudolf Baron St枚ger-Steiner von Steinst盲tten" border="0" hspace="10" src="/Stoeger1.JPG"/></a><font size="3">The land forces of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were</font><font size="3"> essentially composed of three separate armies; the common army, which was recruited from both the German and Hungarian portions of the empire, the Austrian Landwehr, which was recruited from the so-called German provinces of the empire, which in practice contained Poles, Ukrainians, Slovenians and Czechs and the Hungarian Landwehr (Honv茅d), recruited from the Hungarian administered provinces of the empire. It should be stressed that the latter two organisations were in no way second line or militia forces. Its members, like those of the common army were either professionally enlisted soldiers or conscripts performing their military obligation in the normal fashion. The existence of three separate forces was a throwback to an earlier political decision of 1867 in which the right was conceded to the Hungarians to raise and maintain their own armed forces. This force was known as the Hungarian Landwehr (Honv茅d). A similar balancing force was then raised in Austria and named the Landwehr. In practice, during wartime all three forces fought side by side together, the only difference actually being the nomenclature of the individual regiments. The regiments of the common army were designated "Imperial and Royal" - kaiserlich und k枚niglich or k.u.k. The Austrian Landwehr regiments were titled "Imperial Royal" - kaiserlich k枚niglich or k.k. Finally the Landwehr (Honv茅d) were styled "Royal Hungarian" - k枚niglich ungarisch or k.u.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" width="50%"><font color="#B0D0CF">-</font></td> <td width="50%"><font color="#B0D0CF">-</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" width="50%"> <p align="center"><b><font size="4"> J枚rg C. Steiner's Publications</font></b></p></td> <td width="50%"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="17%"> <p align="center"><a href="/joerg.htm"><img align="left" border="0" hspace="10" src="/books.JPG"/></a></p></td> <td width="17%"><font size="3">Books available from J枚rg C. Steiner. Click on a book to go directly to the catalogue page</font></td> <td width="16%"> <p align="center"><a href="/joerg.htm"><img align="right" border="0" hspace="10" src="/book2.JPG"/></a></p></td> <td valign="top" width="50%"> <hr color="#000000"/> <p><font size="3">Books wanted. Glenn is always on the look out for quality books and rank lists on the Austro-Hungarian聽 armed forces. For a list of current wants click <a href="/search.htm">here</a>.</font></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" width="50%"> <font color="#B0D0CF">-</font></td> <td valign="top" width="50%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" width="50%"> <p align="center"><font size="4"><a href="/sources.htm">Further Reading and Sources</a></font></p></td> <td valign="top" width="50%"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p><a href="/index.htm">Back to Homepage</a>聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 <a href="#Introduction"><img border="0" height="26" src="/btn_up.gif" width="54"/></a></p> </body></html>