Creation
The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (German: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, and was dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I (1914–1918). In the Federal Republic of Germany, the term Deutsches Heer identifies the German Army, the land component of the Bundeswehr.
Germany entered the First World War as one of the era’s mightiest military powers. In 1914, Germany’s understanding of war was strongly influenced by four decades of peace and by its geostrategic situation. The army’s and navy’s expectations and operational preparations shared little common ground. This article provides an introduction to the structure, doctrine, operational development, and military performance of the two branches of the German armed forces.
When the First World War broke out, Germany fielded about 3,822,450 men – the second largest army in the world, outnumbered only by the Russian army. The navy mustered 161,500 men and had commissioned fifteen Dreadnought battleships, twenty-two pre-Dreadnought battleships, four battle cruisers, nine armoured cruisers, forty-one protected cruisers, 149 destroyers, and twenty-eight submarines. In its African colonies, Germany also had 5,600 men in the Schutztruppe and police forces and 7,800 indigenous forces.