'Militarized Citizenship' or the Citizens' Military: Liberalism and Militarism in Germany 1813—1862 / אזרחות צבאית' או צבא האזרחים ליברליזם ומיליטריזם בגרמניה, 1862-1813'

Militarism is defined as the influence of military costumes, prestige, practice and values on civic aspects of life, such as politics, economy and culture. Militarism is, therefore, generally seen as standing in opposition to liberalism and modernism. However, an examination of the attitude of German liberals towards the armed forces during the period between the Wars of Liberation (1813—1815) and the constitutional crisis in Prussia over the army reform (1861—1862), reveals that militarism had a major influence on their behavior. After the German armies were defeated by Napoleon, German liberals believed that reforms initiated by different governments would gradually create a popular armed forces. These forces were supposed to serve as a substitute for the old regular army and reduce the aristocratic conservative domination over the armed forces — a change they believed would be part of a more comprehensive liberal political reform. However, the liberals' activities led to the popularization of military discipline, education, costumes, symbols and patterns of organization and thus actually blurred the boundaries between the civic and the military spheres. This militarization was manifested during the Vormärz, when the liberals tried to define the meaning of citizenship and the importance of the armed citizen; in the militaristic organization and demands of revolutionaries in 1848; and in the support of war as a mean for achieving national unification during the 1850s. It was also reflected in the ambivalent reaction of the Prussian liberals to the proposed reforms in the army in early 1860s. This process reached its peak in the period of the German Empire through the adaptation of nationalistic and chauvinistic militarism that spread throughout the German public.