Thank you to Irmgard Ellingson, MA for the following research:
“The Austro-Hungarian Army 1914-1918” by John Dixon-Nuttall.
The following excerpts from Chapter 2 are particularly noteworthy:
“Every male in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had to be available for military service from 1st January of the year in which his 19th birthday fell until 31st December of the year in which he became 42. The population was made up of many races, each with its own language: German speaking Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenians, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians, Italians and Islamic Slavs. Thus it was necessary to arrange, whenever possible, that men from one area who spoke one tongue, served together. The Army therefore was based upon a ‘territorial’ model, and the Monarchy was broken down into areas for manning purposes. These areas were called Ergänzungsbezirke; literally, districts that found complements of men for the Army and the Navy. On the same lines the Army was organised in peacetime in sixteen corps Districts (Militärterritorial(Korps)bezirke), each having under command a number of divisions, each with its own brigades, and all units that it required to operate in the field …”
“…It should be remembered that there was a great number of men who did no full time service. Those that were physically fit took the Oath of Allegiance and were placed on a general list called the Ersatz Reserve. Certain categories of men were placed automatically in this reserve: sole dependants of families, schoolmasters, seminary students and certain classes of forestry and agricultural workers for example. Men on the Ersatz Reserve did ten weeks basic military training and remained liable for full time service in peace and war, being placed on their Landsturm rolls at the age of 33 …”
http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/ contains a link to Hungarian-German military terms which will be useful as well.
Older family photographs from Bukovina are rare. Treasured family photos of our forefathers pictured in uniform were handed down from one generation to the next. Back in their villages, families would be proud to receive a picture of their sons or relatives in uniform.