Page 285 - 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 283

The new army at first was called “Austrian Wehrmacht” and then “Bundesheer”
(federal army) after 1 January 1922. The purpose of this “Wehrmacht” was spec-
ified in Paragraph 2 of the National Defence Act: «a) To protect the constitutional
institutions of the republic, as well as upkeeping order and safety in the interior,
b) to render assistance services during natural disasters and accidents of excep-
33
tional magnitude and c) to protect the borders of the republic». The National
Assembly held control over the army, deployments according to the above-men-
tioned cases a) and b) were bound to the civic lawful authority, the primacy of
politics, however, could generally be used by legal entities of the state, the federal
states, and municipalities. Thereby the new army’s basic orientation was fixed in
terms of its domestic impact, which seems to also have been politically undis-
puted between both coalition partners – the Social Democrats and the Christian
Social Party.

The core of this professional army with a maximum strength of 30,000 sol-
diers had been defined to consist of 1,500 officers and 2,000 NCOs with a max-
imum service length of 35 years – it was forbidden to train a general staff. The
service length for short-term enlisted soldiers was six years of active service and
six years in the reserves. Any measures which could have corresponded to a re-
inforcement of active forces by mobilisation were banned without exceptions.
34
Thereby any reserve cadre was effectively excluded right from the outset. How-
ever, this led to a contradiction, as the soldiers “of the reserve” explicitly men-
tioned in the treaty naturally were the equivalent of a mobilisation contingent.
There were two organisational options for this small army, either three infantry
divisions and one cavalry division or six combined-arms brigades; the second op-
tion was chosen. Each brigade had to consist of two infantry regiments of three
battalions each, one bicycle battalion, one dragoon squadron, one artillery bat-
talion of four batteries and one battalion of engineers. Brigade strength fluctuated
35
between 4,250 and 5,350 men, depending on the filling level. There were six in-
fantry and six alpine infantry regiments, some of the latter consisting of only
two battalions. Several independent alpine infantry, infantry and light infantry
battalions were raised as well. This framework remained more or less unchanged

33 Staatsgesetzblatt für die Republik Österreich, 43. Stück, Nr. 122, p. 232

34 Kristan, Geschichte Generalstabes, p. 37
35 Steinböck, Streitkräfte der Republik Österreich, p. 36 f.