According to historian and television documentary producer , Christopher Hale , there are indications that the term '' Bandenbekämpfung '' may go back as far as the Thirty Years ' War . Under the German Empire established by Bismarck in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War — formed as a union of twenty-five German states under the Hohenzollern king of Prussia — Prussian militarism flourished ; martial traditions that included the military doctrine of Antoine-Henri Jomini 's 1837 treatise , '' Summary of the Art of War '' were put into effect . Some of the theories laid out by Jomini contained instructions for intense offensive operations and the necessity of securing one 's " lines of operations " . German military officers took this to mean as much attention should be given to logistical operations used to fight the war at the rear as those in the front ; this most certainly entailed security operations to protect the " lines of operations " . Following Jomini 's lead , '' Oberstleutnant '' Albrecht von Boguslawski published lectures entitled '' Der Kleine Krieg '' ( " The Small War " , a literal translation of '' guerrilla '' ) , which outlined in detail the tactical procedures related to partisan and anti-partisan warfare — likely deliberately written without clear distinctions between combatants and non-combatants . To what extent this contributed to the intensification of unrestrained warfare can not be known , but Prussian officers like Alfred von Schlieffen encouraged their professional soldiers to embrace a dictum advocating that " for every problem , there was a military solution . " Prussian security operations during the Franco-Prussian War included the use of the '' Landwehr '' reservists , whose duties ranged from guarding railroad lines , to taking hostages , and carrying out reprisals to deter activities of the '' francs-tireurs '' . Bismarck wanted all '' francs-tireurs '' hanged or shot , and encouraged his military commanders to burn down villages that housed them . More formal structures like Chief of the Field Railway , a Military Railway Corps , District Commanders , Special Military Courts , intelligence units , and military police of varying duties and nomenclature were integrated into the Prussian system to bolster security operations all along the military 's operational lines . Such was the heritage of German anti-partisan warfare . Operationally , the first attempts to use tactics that would later develop into '' Bandenbekämpfung '' or be recognized as such were carried out in China in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion , after two German officers went missing , which was followed up with more than fifty operations by German troops , who set fire to a village and held prisoners . Shortly after these operations , the infantry was provided with a handbook for " operations against Chinese bandits " ( '' Banden '' ) . The first full application of '' Bandenbekämpfung '' in practice , however , was the Herero and Namaqua genocide , a campaign of racial extermination and collective punishment that the German Empire undertook in German South West Africa ( modern-day Namibia ) against the Herero and Nama people
Herero and Namaqua genocide
Herero and Namaqua genocide
Bandenbekämpfung