The defeat of Napoleon brought enormous prestige to the military. Berlin: Verlag für Standesamtswesen, 1939. Conscription in France The French system was similar to the German one with men undertaking compulsory training and service aged 20-23, followed by a period as reservists until the age of 30. After defeat at the hands of Napoleon, Prussian Army reformers Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Boyen, and others sought to create a modern new army. (LDS film 477,807). Since most German states had conscription laws, most young men were required to register for military service. The Prussian forces brought into being by conscription in 1813 differed in kind from those of the old standing army. Service was compulsory for all men of military age, thus Prussia and its North and South German allies could mobilize and field some 1.2 million soldiers in … A young man who had not yet served had to get special permission before he could emigrate. Military records identify individuals who served in the military or who were eligible to serve. In 1740s Prussia owned 85.000 troops which gave her the 4th largest army in Europe, even though her lands stood at 10th in order of size and only 13th in population ! Conscription, sometimes called the draft, is the mandatory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. sippenkundlichen Quellen" (Old Prussian army and its genealogical sources, 1807-1867). Glory Years of the Prussian Army. Prussia adopted universal conscription during the Napoleonic Wars. 155 While it is true that the Kantonreglement (1733) made military service compulsory in theory, it did so by assigning each regiment of the army a recruitment district, from which it found its quota of ‘native’ troops. Prussian Infantry during the time of Frederick the Great of Prussia. German states each had their own system of keeping military records before 1867. Like the French, the Prussians maintained that every citizen has a moral obligation to the fatherland. By maintaining this large pool of trained men the German army could expand rapidly and in 1914 it grew in 12 days from 808,280 to 3,502,700 men. Shooting the Dreyse M.41. * * * * * Records at German State Archives "There is no central archive for German military records. Frederick the Great imposed so spartan discipline that 400 officers "are said to have asked to resign". Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. At the same time, public awareness of the military changed: from a dubious place for forcibly conscripted lower classes to a respected “school of the nation”. I think a very important reason for the origin of the Prussian militarism going over to the Second and Third Reich is the realization of their weakness after the drubbing received at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Grand Armee. The Prussian Army was composed not of regulars but conscripts and reservists. The introduction of universal conscription marked the start of the fundamental militarisation of society in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Germany had a large army and a small navy.