LANDWEHR, Itint'var (Ger., land-defense). A military term originating in Prussia. and since applied to a branch of the national reserve forces of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. The Prussian Landwehr was first proposed• in 1806' by Major Knesebeck, of tho Prussian Army; but it was not until the com mencement of the campaign of 1313 that the Prussian system of national defense, for which it was originally solely devised. came into actual being. It was then organized on Seharnhorst's plan, by a royal edict, dated March 17, 1813. By the Constitution of April, 1871, the Prussian regulations were extended to the German Em pire. In Austria-Hungary, the Landwchr of Aus tria and llonMlm'g of Hungary were organized in 1889, citizens who have been transferred from the common army serving two years, and others twelve years. After quitting the reserve of the regular army, the German conscript serves twelve years in the Landwehr, five years in the first class or 'ban,' and sewn years in the second ban. In Japan those who have served their
period in the active army perform five years' land wehr service. All able-bodied citizens of the Swiss Republic are compelled to serve in the na tional Landwehr from the thirty-third to the completed forty-fourth year of their age. Like the German Landwehr, it is divided into two bans, the first consisting of men from thirty three to forty years of age, and the second ban of men from forty to forty-four.
The general evolution of the Landwehr has been from a force organized entirely for home de fense to an important part of the trained defen sive or offensive forces of the nation. See ARMIES.