Flucht aus dem militarischen Alltag: Ursachen und individuelle Auspragung der Desertion in der Armee Friedrichs des Grosen. Mit besonderer Bucksichtigung der Infanterie-Regimenter der Potsdamer Garnison (review)

Flight From Everyday Military Life examines the causes and individual manifestations of desertion in the army of Frederick the Great, largely upon the basis of an exhaustive exploitation of surviving primary documentation concerning the foot regiments stationed in the vicinity of the monarch's chateau of Sans Souci and hence the object of his singular care and supervision. The study was in fact done as part of the series, "Einzelschriften zur Militärgeschichte," sponsored by the Federal German Military Historical Research Office, a bureau that has moved from its previous site in Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg) to the former quarters of its defunct East German counterpart in Potsdam—another example of the widespread transfer of governmental entities from the western sections of the country to locations in the ex-DDR. The monograph may also be seen within the context of the ongoing scholarly reevaluation of Prussia's role in the history of the Fatherland. The book provides a more discriminating than usual account of how Frederick dealt with his troops. Disposing of legends about the alleged, peculiar harshness of Prussian military discipline, it demonstrates that the King was quite capable of humane behavior, perhaps because he had been treated so brutally (if effectively) by his own father, "der Soldatenkönig," Frederick William I. Apart from a discussion of a congeries of motivations—not merely, as on some occasions, a sense of unfair treatment by superiors but often due to reasons of a strictly personal, family nature—for relatively well-paid warriors going AWOL and a description of the various measures employed for curtailing this phenomenon, another outstanding feature of Muth's opus is his treatment of the structure of the army in a societal milieu. Particular emphasis is given to the operation of the often misunderstood cantonal recruitment system whereby the distinction between Inländer and Ausländer is explained. (Many of the so-called "foreigners" in fact represented a special category of indigenous Prussian subjects.) One point of special relevance is that being drafted into the army enabled many rustics to escape from perpetual bondage, Marx and Engels's "Second Serfdom." This was because even after a man's release from his regiment he remained under military jurisdiction for the remainder of his life and was no longer prey to the judicial whims of the local manorial lord, the odious Gutsherr. Thus the "feudal" social system, for which Frederick himself had no sympathy despite his predilection for officers of gentle birth, was greatly weakened well before its total abolition during the Revolution of 1848. Muth also notes that desertion was less of a problem when high-born commanders succeeded in establishing good personal rapport with the low class "grunts" under their control.

Another of the author's observations is that the privilege of retaining his initially excellent quality, used blue uniform upon discharge from the army not only increased a veteran's prestige in the rural communities from which most Prussian fighters stemmed but also influenced the development of civilian garb as well as military dress elsewhere in Europe and even in the New World (e.g., the Continental Army). The role of women, both soldiers' wives and officially tolerated, even financially subsidized lovers (Liebste), also receives due recognition, as does the topic of suicide while in service. The question of whether homosexuality existed in the Prussian military is not broached: of course it is conceivable that no data of this kind actually exist. (It remains unclear whether Frederick himself was a heterosexual.) The fineness of the...