The Prussian General Staff, which developed out of meetings of the Great Elector with his senior officers and the informal meeting of the Napoleonic Era reformers, was formally created in 1814. In the same year Boyen and Grolman drafted a law for universal conscription, by which men would successively serve in the standing army, the "Landwehr" and the local "Landsturm" until the age of 39. Troops of the 156,000-strong standing army served for three years and were in the reserves for two, while militiamen of the 163,000-strong "Landwehr" served a few weeks annually for seven years. Boyen and Blücher strongly supported the civilian army of the "Landwehr", which was to unite military and civilian society, as an equal to the standing army.