[Ger. = ‘land-defence.’] In Germany and some other countries, that part of the organized land forces (corresponding to the militia of Great Britain) of which continuous service is required only in time of war. Also transf. (quot. 1855).
1815. Hel. M. Williams, Pres. St. France, xiv. 313. A great part of these troops were of the landwehr, or Prussian levy in mass.
1855. Grote, Greece, II. xcii. (1856), XII. 77. The poor and hardy Landwehr of Macedonia, constantly on the defensive against predatory neighbours.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 552. To every district was assigned a detachment of the Landwehr proportionate to its population.
1878. Seeley, Stein, II. 130. The Prussian Landwehr dates … from 1813.
b. attrib., as landwehr man.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 553. The Landwehrmen were to provide their own uniforms.
