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For the Fatherland? The Motivations of Austrian and Prussian Volunteers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Leighton James Orcid Logo

War Volunteering in Modern Times: From the French Revolution to the Second World War, Pages: 40 - 58

Swansea University Author: Leighton James Orcid Logo

Abstract

This book chapter examines the motivation for military service in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe. The chapter argues that contrary to nineteenth-century interpretations of the German and Austrian war effort, patriotism and nationalism were relatively weak factors underpin...

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Published in: War Volunteering in Modern Times: From the French Revolution to the Second World War
Published: Basingstoke Palgrave 2011
Online Access: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=357085
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11211
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Abstract: This book chapter examines the motivation for military service in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe. The chapter argues that contrary to nineteenth-century interpretations of the German and Austrian war effort, patriotism and nationalism were relatively weak factors underpinning the decision to enlist. It was usually more pragmatic concerns, such as subsistence, career advancement or the allure of military life, that often led men to volunteer for the army. This applied even to the German volunteers of the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815), who were subsequently lionized as forerunners of German nationalism.
Item Description: Christine G. Krueger and Sonja Levsen (eds), War Volunteering in Modern Times: From the French Revolution to the Second World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011), pp. 40-58.
Keywords: Revolutionary War, Napoleonic War, Motivation, Enlistment
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Start Page: 40
End Page: 58