ABSTRACT
The history of the German army in the nineteenth century is very largely, though not exclusively, that of the Prussian army. The victory over France and the founding of the Second Empire in 1871 confirmed the army's claim to be regarded as the founder of Germany's new status in the world. The social prestige of the officer corps in Prussian-dominated German society was everywhere evident from 1871 onwards. The wealthy and influential nobles thronged to join the cavalry or guards regiments, or those attached to the court of a German sovereign. A vivid external sign of the militarization of German society in the Second Empire was the proliferation of nationalist political organizations. The importance of extra-parliamentary control of the army in German Empire lay principally in the fact that it questioned the whole validity of Germany as a constitutional state. In south Germany and in Saxony, which had retained certain regalian rights in the 1871 constitution, things were initially somewhat different.
