Page 275 - Il 1919. Un’Italia vittoriosa e provata in un’Europa in trasformazione. Problematiche e prospettive - Atti 11-12 novembre 2019

IV Sessione - L’Italia a Versailles. Aspetti di politica internazionale 273

Maximum strength for Volkswehr formations was pinpointed for the individual
territorial areas, with an overall strength of approximately 50,000 soldiers, how-
ever, this was already exceeded by December 1918. The already mentioned State
Military Office operated as the “temporary” supreme political authority, charged
with controlling the formation and expansion of Volkswehr units as well as plan-
ning for the eventual transformation of Volkswehr cadres into a militia army. A
“civilian commissariat” was also attached to the State Office and tasked with
complying with the formalities of recruitment, day-to-day management, fees and
taxes, rations, billeting as well as educating Volkswehr soldiers about their civic
rights and duties and promoting democratic principles within the Volkswehr – an-
other conscious breakaway from the old Imperial and Royal military tradition.
The headquarters and especially the soldiers’ councils (men of confidence) of
the battalions served as points of contact with the civilian commissariat. Each
company sent two soldiers and each battalion two officers to the committees es-
tablished at the individual headquarters. Additionally, deserving rank-and-file sol-
diers were allowed to become officers as so-called “´Volkswehr lieutenants” even
without Matura (high school diploma). This institution, however, was often
abused, as suitable candidates had to be elected by the respective soldiers’ council,
10
which in most cases prioritised party politics over quality. The Volkswehr was
also intended to look significantly different from the Imperial and Royal Army.
However, because of the general lack of fabrics, the old uniforms stayed in use
after removing all imperial rank insignia and emblems. Demeaned as “reac-
tionary” at first, it was understood that there would be no smooth functioning
within the formations without rank insignia. The corresponding regulation was
11
only issued relatively late, in April 1919, and principally consisted of an adoption
of the contemporary German system, which had abolished or rather transformed
the old imperial rank insignia in January 1919: azure collar and coat cuffs in ad-
dition to rank insignia in the form of chevrons on the upper arm (for junior
NCOs and NCOs) or lower arm (officers), quite unusual for Austrian military
tradition. To these were added breast badges labelled “Volkswehr” and red-white-
red cockades for caps. All of this met the political intention of German-Austria
12

10 Ibid, p. 29 ff.
11 Verordnungsblatt des deutsch-österreichischen Staatsamtes für Heerwesen Nr. 14 vom 2.
April 1919
12 Erwin Steinböck: Die Uniformen des Bundesheeres. In: Das Bundesheer der Ersten Republik