ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of one generally accepted instance of German army political predominance—the peacetime manpower increase of almost 120,000 through the Arms Bill of 1913. Militarism involves the excessive influence of the military elements of society over civilian authority. The War Council meeting of December 8, 1912 might well then be interpreted as a good example of the level at which militarism existed within the fabric of the German government. The international situation, then, seemed to call for some military increases, but given the limitations of the tax resources, the German government ultimately had to choose between strengthening either the army or the navy. The resulting Arms Bill passed in May 1912 by the Reichstag was a modest peacetime manpower increase of approximately 29,000 in response to the changing international conditions that moderately affected German security in a negative manner.
