Military district (Germany)
The military districts, also known in some English-language publications by their German name as Wehrkreise (singular: Wehrkreis),[1]: 27–40 were administrative territorial units in Nazi Germany before and during World War II.
Wehrkreis I was headquartered at Königsberg and contained the territory of the German exclave of East Prussia, making it also a coastal state on the Baltic Sea coast.
[5]: 95 Wehrkreis III was headquartered at Berlin and contained roughly the territories of the modern-day German state of Brandenburg and the historic province of Neumark.
[1]: 32 Wehrkreis V was headquartered at Stuttgart, containing roughly the historic provinces of Baden, Württemberg, and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (about equivalent to the modern-day German state of Baden-Württemberg).
[1]: 32 Wehrkreis VII was headquartered at Munich and contained the south of the modern-day German state of Bavaria.
[6]: 53 Wehrkreis VIII was headquartered at Breslau and contained the territory of the historic province of Silesia.
After the German invasion of Poland (1939), the territory was further extended to include parts of East Upper Silesia.
[1]: 32 Wehrkreis IX was headquartered at Kassel and contained territories in central Germany, including parts of modern-day Hesse and Thuringia.
It contained territories in northern-central Germany, including large parts of what in the modern day is southeastern Lower Saxony and northern Saxony-Anhalt.
Its territory was roughly equivalent to the modern-day German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, with the addition of a small part of northern Baden (around Heidelberg).
After the German victory over France (1940), Wehrkreis XII was expanded through the addition of parts of Lorraine (such as the Nancy area).
It contained the territories of the historic provinces of Franconia and Upper Palatinate in what is today the northern half of modern-day Bavaria.
The four corps were not inherently bound to one particular military district (but naturally ended up with some connections to their respective peacetime headquarters regardless).
[10] The agreement forced Indonesian military commanders such as Sudirman, T. B. Simatupang, and Abdul Haris Nasution to abandon the traditional linear defense formation of their army; this was formalized in a "strategy command order" issued by Sudirman that same year, which formally adopted the Wehrkreis system, since they viewed the German military district system enabled the Defence in depth in response to the Dutch positional advantages in artificial line that covered in that agreement.
[13] General Nasution viewed the Wehrkreise system were important for each Indonesian army districts to mount resistance independently.
[11] He also noted the similarities of Nasution Wehrkreise with theterritorial warfare conducted by Josip Broz Tito.
