The article wants to demonstrate that parameters used today in the disability legislationhave been already applied on a large scale during World War I and the years after 1918.Developed in the 1880s in association with the legislation on workers' compensationinsurance, the concept of the reduction of earning capacity for example, was now usedto categorize the disabled veterans, who - together with the bereaved of the war -represented a considerable group of needy persons after the war. The state had toadopt an efficient system to support these persons, who - no longer invalid professionalsoldiers, but recruited civilians - were supposed to go back to their professions andto contribute to their earning as much as they could. The article arranges the remarksalong three chapters: First, a glimpse on the definition of terms shows a shift from anolder term (invalid) to a newer one (war disabled). Second, the concept of the reductionof earning capacity is presented, and at last, with a view to the contemporary statisticsthe problem is shown that too less was known on the quantity and the composition ofthe group of disabled veterans.