[1] While the comparatively few infantrymen of the small Marinecorps (Seebataillon) were professional soldiers, the Imperial German Navy relied on conscripts.
Sailors of the Imperial German Navy served three years in active duty.
While sailors until 40 years of age became part of the Seewehr, there was no separately named institution like Seesturm for older soldiers, due to linguistic reasons.
One of the predecessors, the Prussian Seewehr, was created as a volunteer naval militia during the Franco-Prussian War by Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein.
[2] The Seewehr was abolished together with the Landwehr after World War I was lost and the Treaty of Versailles demanded a reduction of military forces in Germany.