VIII Army Corps (German Confederation)

The VIII Army Corps (German: VIII. Armee-Korps) was a mixed corps of the army of the German Confederation (the Bundesheer), which was made up of contingents from Württemberg, Baden and Hesse. Until 1830 contingents from Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Liechtenstein also belonged to this corps.

The Corps was intended to assemble on mobilisation. In peacetime no specific units or formations were assigned to it; only the strengths of the individual contingents were laid down.

The commandant of the mixed corps was appointed by joint agreement of the contributing nations. The individual states appointed the commanders of the subordinate units.

The lack of standardization of the Bundesheer was also reflected in the VIII Corps. It had no standard regulations, the rank badges differed from another as did the "promotion criteria, wages and salaries, the rations, the norms for general service and the operation of the military justice system, the lengths of service and the methods of reimbursement were also different. ...even in 1859 the Württemberg attack signal was the same as the Baden signal to withdraw.". The VIII Army Corps only had an understanding of the need to introduce weapons of the same calibre and train in joint manoeuvres.

The Corps had a planned ORBAT of two divisions each of two brigades, each with two regiments.

The planned strengths of the contingents are given below

In addition, until 1830 there were the following:

The Corps' mobilisation for the Crimean War in 1855 and the Upper Italian War in 1859 both proved to be a disaster. "An atmosphere of depressing amateurism reigned at the headquarters of the VIII Army Corps in Stuttgart; this applied even more to its troops which had few trained or even useful men. The mobilised army conveyed the impression of a rusty mess. Although it had given itself three months to mobilise instead of the allocated four weeks, it was still only partly ready for war.".

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