Wehrbauer

Also known as defensive peasant

thumb|German Lebensraum|colonisation of Eastern European regions as envisaged in a Nazi-era propaganda map published in 1943 '''' (, ; ) is a German term for settlers living on the marches of a realm who were tasked with holding back foreign invaders until the arrival of proper military reinforcements. In turn, they were granted special liberties. Wehrbauern in their settlements, known as Wehrsiedlungen'' (-en being the plural suffix), were mainly used on the eastern fringes of the Holy Roman Empire and later Austria-Hungary to slow attacks by the Ottoman Empire. This historic term was resurre