Regions Central Europe

Regional Thematic Articles

Encyclopedic Entries

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Survey Articles (Regional)

  • The article surveys the social and military history of Austria-Hungary during the First World War. The war brought a harsh military dictatorship along with innovations in economy, labor deployment, … READ MORE

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  • When war broke out, in light of increasingly inflexible constellations and alliances among European powers, Germany was initially hoping to keep the war limited to Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Soon … READ MORE

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  • Blockades, part of economic warfare, had been employed throughout history. The Allied blockade (1914-1919), which aimed to prevent war supplies reaching Germany, ultimately also targeted the civilian … READ MORE

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Regional Thematic Articles

Encyclopedic Entries

  • Founded in 1889, ''Sektion IIIb'' (1915-1918: ''Abteilung IIIb'') was the military intelligence component of the Prussian-German general staff. During the First World War, ''IIIb'' developed into a … READ MORE

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  • Until his death in 1918, Victor Adler was the most prominent Austrian socialist leader and among the leading personalities of the Second Socialist International. During the war, he aimed to preserve … READ MORE

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  • The general trend in aircraft development during World War I was towards better-engined, stronger, higher flying, more heavily armed, and more capable airplanes. Strictly speaking, pure … READ MORE

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  • Much like fighter aircraft, World War I reconnaissance and bomber technology advanced rapidly throughout the war. As aircraft designs that combined lift, range, and stability were key to both … READ MORE

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  • Albrecht Duke of Württemberg was the commander-in-chief of the German 4th Army from 1914-1917 and the ''"Heeresgruppe Herzog Albrecht"'' ("Army Group Duke Albrecht") from 1917-1918. The … READ MORE

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  • The anti-war novel ''Im Westen nichts Neues'' (''All Quiet on the Western Front'') by Erich Maria Remarque (first published in 1928) and the movie directed by Lewis Milestone (USA 1930) are … READ MORE

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  • Alsace-Lorraine was a border region located between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains. Its role in French wartime propaganda, its geographic location, and its tumultuous recent history all … READ MORE

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  • On the night of 22-23 April 1918, the Royal Navy attacked the German occupied towns of Ostend and Zeebrugge in an effort to block the canals that linked the two cities to the German naval base at … READ MORE

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  • Artillery consisted of the military’s heavy firearms. As a branch of the armed forces, its purpose was to fire explosive-filled projectiles across relatively large distances. In contrast to the … READ MORE

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  • Between February 1915 and the Armistice, Germany conducted three submarine campaigns against British, Entente and neutral merchant shipping. The final unrestricted campaign that started in early 1917 … READ MORE

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  • Attrition warfare is the term used to describe the sustained process of wearing down an opponent so as to force their physical collapse through continuous losses in personnel, equipment and supplies … READ MORE

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  • Austrian and Hungarian citizens working in war-related industries were exempt from many restrictions on enemy aliens, but many labor leaders and intellectuals were arrested and interned, often … READ MORE

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  • The Austro-Hungarian automotive industry and the necessary equipment for military vehicles developed very slowly in comparison to other European states. During the First World War, the army had to … READ MORE

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  • The Imperial and Royal Ministry of the Imperial and Royal House and of Foreign Affairs, informally called “Ballhausplatz” after the Viennese square on which the central office was located, was … READ MORE

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  • Albert Ballin, chief executive of the Hamburg-America Line, was one of Imperial Germany’s most prominent business leaders. Between 1908 and 1914 he attempted to broker a naval agreement between … READ MORE

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  • Max Bauer was a German artillery expert and a key suborndinate in the German Supreme Command. A loyal suporter of Ludendorff, Bauer intrigued against Falkenhayn and consistently pushed for the … READ MORE

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  • Otto Bauer was a leading Austro-Marxist and socialist politician who served during the war as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. After returning from Russian internment to Vienna in 1917, he … READ MORE

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  • Gertrud Bäumer was one of the most well known leaders of the German women’s movement. In 1914, as the president of the Federation of German Women’s Associations (''Bund Deutscher … READ MORE

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  • Initially fascinated by the front, the painter quickly understood that the war was an absolute catastrophe. His despairing paintings of hospitals led to his labelling by the Nazis as a degenerate … READ MORE

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  • Edvard Beneš was a Czech politician, diplomat, and close collaborator of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. As Secretary General of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris from 1916 to 1918, he … READ MORE

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  • Graf Leopold Berchtold, Habsburg foreign minister from 1912 to 1915, was confronted with military action during and after the Balkan Wars, yet kept peace. Then, the Sarajevo assassinations, blamed on … READ MORE

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  • This article discusses the 9th of November 1918 in Berlin and its commemoration. The events of the day brought the Kaiser’s abdication and the proclamation of a Republic in … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, Berlin became an organisational hub for Indian nationalist and revolutionary activities. By September 1914, a group of South Asian emigrants had organized – with … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich von Bernhardi was one of the most important and most controversial military writers and armchair generals in pre-1914 Europe. During the First World War, he commanded German forces in … READ MORE

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  • Count Bernstorff was German ambassador to the United States from 1908 to 1917. He tried in vain to warn the Reich government against unrestricted submarine warfare which would result in America’s … READ MORE

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  • Hans Hartwig von Beseler was a German general and military engineer who oversaw the conquest of several fortresses early in the war. He was then named commander of German-occupied Poland, a post he … READ MORE

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  • Bethmann was a career civil servant who became Imperial Germany’s fifth Reich Chancellor and took Germany into the First World War. Despite heading the imperial German political administration, his … READ MORE

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  • The German Supreme Army Command created Bild- und Filmamt (BUFA) in January 1917 to coordinate and produce visual propaganda. Though it did not really succeed in its aims to boost morale, BUFA helped … READ MORE

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  • Moritz von Bissing was born on 30 January 1844, in Bellmannsdorf, Silesia, then part of the German Empire. He served as governor general of the Prussian Army from December 1914 until his death on 18 … READ MORE

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  • Following the decisions of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1882 onwards, members of all ethnicities in Bosnia-Herzegovina were … READ MORE

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  • In the narrow sense, the so-called “Bosnian Crisis” (or “Annexation Crisis”) of 1908 and 1909 was a political conflict between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire caused by the (formal) … READ MORE

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  • At Brest-Litovsk, from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918 (Julian calendar: 9 December − 28 January), Soviet representatives and the Central Powers negotiated a separate peace. On 3 March 1918, … READ MORE

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  • As an imperial diplomat, first Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, leader of the German Peace Delegation in Versailles and also first ambassador to the Soviet Union, he acted in decisive … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich Bronsart von Schellendorf was a Prussian-German lieutenant general. As Chief of Staff of the Ottoman Army, he was one of the closest collaborators of Enver Pasha during the First World War. … READ MORE

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  • During his career as a diplomat and courtier (knighted count in 1899 and prince in 1905), Bernhard von Bülow became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (after 1897) and German Chancellor … READ MORE

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  • István Burián was a leading Austro-Hungarian career diplomat and politician, rising to become the Monarchy’s longest-serving foreign minister during the First World War. Burián’s wartime … READ MORE

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  • A technique of concealment and protection, a means to deceive but not kill, camouflage was significantly developed during the First World War. The technique enabled many artists to put their talents … READ MORE

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  • The mutiny of the sailors on Cattaro, the Austrian-Hungarian Navy Base, occurred on 1 February 1918. The incident ended with the mutineers surrendering. Even if the revolt did not significantly … READ MORE

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  • By the beginning of the 20th century, field armies had integrated the combat arm of cavalry with the infantry and artillery branches for over a century. However, its involvement in battle … READ MORE

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  • In his youth, the archduke was introduced to the idea of federalism by Archduke Franz Ferdinand. During the first part of World War I, he became a skillful military leader without any political … READ MORE

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  • Extracurricular mobilization of children through literature took place between 1914 and 1918 on the home front of most belligerent countries. Propaganda for children depended on the war’s effects … READ MORE

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  • In December 1914, there were several truces between enemy soldiers along one part of the Western front. Widely publicized, they underscore how difficult it was for soldiers to adapt to the conditions … READ MORE

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  • The basic tactical question for all military powers prior to 1914 was how to approach and attack an enemy who was directing massive fire against the attacker and who was making use of natural or … READ MORE

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  • Before World War I, coffee had become a popular drink in countries in the northern hemisphere, but when the war broke out, it was not regarded as an essential commodity. This article describes the … READ MORE

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  • A selection of communication technologies, ancient and modern, was available at the outbreak of World War One. During the war, military communications evolved to meet new battlefield and military … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich Naumann’s ''Mitteleuropa'' (1915) was a liberal voice in the largely illiberal German discussion on the future of East Central and South East Europe. His reasoning, based on principles of … READ MORE

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  • Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was an Austrian officer and Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1906 to 1911 and from 1912 to … READ MORE

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  • On 1 November 1914, the German East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron defeated the 4th British Cruiser Squadron near the harbour of Coronel, … READ MORE

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  • From 1918–1920, Czechoslovakia and Hungary claimed their rights over Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, two former Hungarian provinces with a Slavic majority. Czech troops occupied Slovakia and … READ MORE

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  • Ottokar Graf Czernin was an Austrian politician and the minister of foreign affairs for Austria-Hungary from 1916 to … READ MORE

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  • Dada, a transnational movement of artists, was founded in Zurich in 1916. It disappeared in 1924, after a sham trial against Maurice Barrès in 1921. Far from pacifism, Dada declared war against war. … READ MORE

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  • Berthold von Deimling was a controversial Prussian general known for both his military rigidity and his political inconstancy. In 1919, he converted to … READ MORE

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  • In the First World War, the German Empire had two models of 42-centimeter mortars: the "Gamma-device" (caliber length L/16) and the "M-device" (L/12). For camouflage reasons, both were called "short … READ MORE

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  • In his oeuvre, the German painter Otto Dix dealt more intensively with wartime experiences than any other artist. Hundreds of drawings and gouaches capture industrialised combat. After the Great War, … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich Ebert became the most important leader of the SPD during the First World War, alongside Philipp Scheidemann. During the revolution, Ebert rose to the top position within party hierarchy and … READ MORE

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  • In the first months of World War I, a German raider, the light cruiser ''Emden'' brought the bulk of Allied cargo shipping in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean to a virtual halt. The ''Emden'' … READ MORE

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  • World War I was not simply a conflict among European states but a global war of empires. The fighting took place not only in Europe, but also in Africa, Asia, and across the Middle East, and it … READ MORE

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  • As a Member of Parliament 1917, Erzberger, the former annexationist, played an important role in drafting the Reichstag’s Peace Resolution and the setting up of the ''Interfraktioneller Ausschuss'' … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War both sides accused each other of employing illegal small arms ammunition – either expanding or explosive bullets. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 outlawed … READ MORE

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  • Expressionism is a movement that originated in Germany before World War I and extended to the period between the two major European wars. It promoted subjective representation and “expressive” … READ MORE

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  • Ludwig Freiherr von Falkenhausen was a German General and military writer who served in different leadership positions during World War One. From 1917 until the end of the war he was governor-general … READ MORE

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  • Falkenhayn was Prussian minister of War and Chief of Staff (1914-1916). He was one of the decision makers during the July crisis 1914 and responsible for the German strategy in the first half of the … READ MORE

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  • During the Battle of the Falklands, the British naval force commanded by Admiral Sturdee defeated the German force under Admiral von Spee off the Falkland Islands on 8 December … READ MORE

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  • Of the two world wars, the First World War was special in that fear figured prominently in a number of domains, including military tactics, psychiatry, and first-person sources. Fear was to be … READ MORE

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  • A minority section of the women’s movements opposed World War I and organized the International Congress of Women at The Hague in April 1915. Its participants demanded women’s rights and more … READ MORE

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  • The use of portable flamethrowers in combat was a First World War innovation. The German army took the lead in developing this form of warfare and remained the foremost practitioner of it throughout … READ MORE

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  • Walter Flex was a nationalist war poet and author of ''The'' ''Wanderer Between Two Worlds ''(1916), one of the most successful novels of the post-war … READ MORE

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  • European militaries considered fortifications before the First World War as vital to their strategic planning. Advancements in weapons technology after the mid-19th century caused … READ MORE

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  • Under the terms of the 1867 constitution, Francis Joseph retained his prerogatives in foreign policy. His decision to opt for war in 1914 was largely a result of the frustrations of Austria’s … READ MORE

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  • Ludwig Frank was a member of the Reichstag for the Social Democratic Party. When Germany entered the war, he strongly supported voting for war loans and volunteered for war service at the age of … READ MORE

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  • This biographical overview of Archduke Franz Ferdinand examines the evolution of his difficult personality through the traumatic experiences of barely surviving tuberculosis and fighting for the … READ MORE

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  • This article addresses the experience of Freiburg during the First World War, asking briefly how the problems that this city faced compared to those of other German … READ MORE

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  • ''Freikorps'' units were paramilitary formations which generally supported rightwing political causes, although they existed within a broader paramilitary environment. Many First World War veterans … READ MORE

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  • Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, expressed a war-weariness and disappointment with the barbarity of the war that, after the final dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, gave way to … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Friedrich was the founder of Germany’s only anti-war museum. When the museum was destroyed by the National Socialist regime, Friedrich went into exile in France and joined the resistance. … READ MORE

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  • Gas warfare is a method of war that employs weapons that are designed to cause casualties primarily through the use of harmful chemical agents. The First World War constitutes the most extensive … READ MORE

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  • After the German Army had occupied wide areas of Belgium, the “Imperial Government General in Belgium” was established on 23 August 1914 with a governor-general at its head. Organized into a … READ MORE

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  • In 1915, Germany set up the “''Generalgouvernement'' Warschau”, or General Governorate Warsaw, as the administrative unit for its occupied territories in Russian Poland. Under the leadership of … READ MORE

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  • The ''Große Hauptquartier'' (Great Headquarters or GHQ) was the strategic command centre of the German armed forces for the duration of the war. It comprised representatives of all political and … READ MORE

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  • The German Fatherland Party (1917-1918/1919) aspired to mobilize members of the broader radical right as well as the milieus of the German Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party. It aimed … READ MORE

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  • The Spring Offensives of 1918 were Germany’s last attempt to defeat the British and French armies on the Western Front, and thereby win total victory. Their failure by the mid-summer left the … READ MORE

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  • Germany’s offer of unconditional support to its Austro-Hungarian ally in July 1914 remains one of the most controversial decisions in modern history. Historians have interpreted the blank cheque in … READ MORE

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  • Colmar von der Goltz was one of pre-war Germany’s most outstanding and controversial military theoreticians. His publications had a considerable impact on military thought and the role of armed … READ MORE

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  • Count Rüdiger von der Goltz was a German army general during the First World War who commanded divisions on the western and the eastern fronts. In 1918, he was also the commander of the German … READ MORE

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  • Hermann Göring was a highly decorated and well-known fighter pilot of the First World War and later a high-ranking National Socialist … READ MORE

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  • As head of the Railway Section at the General Staff, Groener was responsible for the timely transport of troops to the front in August 1914. He was sacked from the Supreme Army Command (''Oberste … READ MORE

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  • The artist George Grosz was a keen observer of post-war Germany and highly critical of the bourgeois philistinism of his time. Deeply affected by his wartime experience, he was accusatory and … READ MORE

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  • Hugo Haase was a prominent social democrat in the ''Kaiserreich'', who opposed German war aims and formed the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) of Germany in 1917. He co-chaired the Council … READ MORE

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  • Haber was one of the most important German chemists. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1918 for his invention of ammonia synthesis, which was important for both the production of fertilizer and … READ MORE

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  • The hand grenade is a small hand-thrown bomb dating back to antiquity. Advances in chemistry and explosives technology saw the resurgence of the grenade shortly before World War I. Its effective use … READ MORE

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  • Maximilian Harden was one of the leading publicists and intellectuals both of the German Empire and of the early Weimar Republic. He achieved international fame as the originator of the Eulenburg … READ MORE

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  • Georg von Hertling was the chancellor of Germany from 1 November 1917 to 3 October … READ MORE

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  • In 1898, the German Reich began to build up a strong battle fleet. It was meant to be capable of withstanding a decisive battle against the Royal Navy in the case of war. However, in the end it … READ MORE

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  • Paul von Hindenburg shot to fame after the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. He was Germany’s national hero of wartime, soon eclipsing the Kaiser. Appointed to the Supreme Command in 1916, he … READ MORE

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  • Magnus Hirschfeld was one of the most important sexual scientists and reformers in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. He acquired international fame by founding the Scientific-Humanitarian … READ MORE

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  • After the First World War, Hitler created a mythical account of his war years for political gain. This account was a far cry from the realities of his war experience on the Western … READ MORE

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  • This article is about the career of Heinrich Leonhard Emanuel von Hoff under the Ottoman state. As a German military officer, he played an active role in the local branch of Stuttgart’s German … READ MORE

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  • Horthy was a naval officer of Austria-Hungary. During the First World War he was first in command of a cruiser and then chief commander of the navy. After the war he took part in the … READ MORE

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  • A champion of “peaceful imperialism” before the war, Humann served as an ''éminence grise'' in Turkish-German relations, helping to establish the alliance and deterring criticism of genocide. He … READ MORE

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  • The Hundred Days was the final campaign on the Western Front during the Great War. During this period a series of sequential Allied offensives finally broke through German resistance and compelled … READ MORE

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  • Husen was a child soldier in the “''Schutztruppe''” of German East Africa. He migrated to Germany, participated in the colonial revisionist movement and fought for his rights as a World War I … READ MORE

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  • At the beginning of the 20th century, two different systems of exercise and training were internationally known: gymnastics and sport. As a result of the First World War, the boundaries … READ MORE

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  • The First World War precipitated a revolution in infantry tactics that changed the course of warfare. Armies adapted to modern industrialized war along a four-year learning curve, moving from … READ MORE

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  • Although the Iron Cross was originally created only for the duration of the Wars of Liberation, it was revived in 1870, 1914 and finally 1939. It became the quintessence of Prussian, and ultimately … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, mobilizing Muslim soldiers and Islamic institutions became an important international concern for Austria-Hungary. This article looks at how the Habsburg Monarchy tried to … READ MORE

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  • Gottlieb von Jagow was a German diplomat. He served as the German Foreign Secretary from January 1913 to November … READ MORE

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  • In October 1916, the Prussian War Ministry conducted the ''Judenzählung'', also referred to as the “Jew Count” or “''Judenstatistik'',” a census of Jewish soldiers serving in the German … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Jünger was a German writer. His book ''Storm of Steel'' (''In Stahlgewittern'') is considered one of the best-known literary accounts of the experience of the First World … READ MORE

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  • On 31 May/1 June 1916 the British Grand Fleet and the German High Sea Fleet clashed at Jutland. It was the largest naval battle in history until the Battle of Leyte Gulf off the Philippines in 1944, … READ MORE

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  • The sailors’ mutiny in Kiel quickly escalated into an open rebellion against the Imperial German state, setting in motion a course of events that culminated with the Kaiser’s abdication and the … READ MORE

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  • The German poet Klabund emerged as a lyrical war propagandist during the first two years of the conflict. He moved to Switzerland in 1916 where he announced his conversion to pacifism. In July 1917, … READ MORE

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  • The German artist Käthe Kollwitz became one of the most influential artists of her generation. Her work often addressed the atrocities of war and emotional pain associated with human loss and … READ MORE

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  • The German light cruiser Königsberg made its name at the Battle of Zanzibar. After being scuttled, its guns were used by the German Schutztruppe to continue the Guerrilla campaign in East … READ MORE

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  • Karl Kraus was one of the 20th century’s most significant satirists. While his primary target was the Austrian press, his satire took aim at nationalism, parochialism, unrestrained … READ MORE

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  • A classic representative of pre-1914 Prussian officer education, Kuhl was a rising star within the peacetime general staff. Throughout the war, he served as chief of staff in three German armies and … READ MORE

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  • Béla Kun was a Hungarian communist politician. He began his career as a social democrat. During the First World War he was captured by the Russians and later became a Bolshevik in Russia. From 1918 … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm Lamszus was a progressive educator from Hamburg. He is known beyond the realm of education in particular for his book ''The Human Slaughter-House. Scenes from a War That Is Sure to Come'' … READ MORE

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  • The Langemarck Myth refers to the transformation of a WWI battle, in which the Germans suffered heavy losses, into a parable of nationalist martyrdom. The original battle between German and British … READ MORE

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  • In 1921 and 1922 the highest German court, the ''Reichsgericht'' in Leipzig, under pressure from the Allied powers, put seventeen Germans on trial for suspected war crimes in twelve trials. The … READ MORE

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  • In World War I Lemberg (German: Lemberg, Ukrainian: Lviv, Polish: Lwów) played an important role as a political and administrative center of Galicia and was of great strategic significance as one of … READ MORE

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  • Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was commander of the German colonial troops in East Africa from 1914 to 1918. Lettow-Vorbeck faced far superior British, South African, Belgian, and Portuguese forces, but … READ MORE

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  • Karl Liebknecht was the leading German socialist opponent of the First World War. He was the first member of parliament to vote against the financing of the war. On 1 May 1916 he was arrested and … READ MORE

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  • Liman von Sanders was the head of the German military mission in the Ottoman Empire from December 1913. As the commander of the 5th Army he was in charge of the defence of Gallipoli. In … READ MORE

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  • Germany’s aerial bombing campaign against Great Britain in the First World War, with London as its primary target, was the first sustained strategic bombing campaign in history. These raids, using … READ MORE

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  • Felix Graf von Luckner, the so-called “sea-devil”, was a German naval officer. During the Great War he became famous as a successful, but always gallant raider in the South Sea, until the … READ MORE

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  • Erich Ludendorff was the effective commander of the German armed forces during the war. He also became a quasi-dictatorial figure, the ruthless symbol of the army’s political power. After the war … READ MORE

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  • A Socialist and a vocal critic of the German Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) war policies, co-founder of the anti-war Spartacus League in 1916 and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1918, Rosa … READ MORE

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  • Between 1914 and 1918, the machine gun played an ever-increasing role on the battlefield. Today, even though artillery was responsible for the majority of deaths, the machine gun is the weapon most … READ MORE

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  • August von Mackensen was one of the most famous and successful German commanders during the First World War. He was engaged on the Eastern Front and campaigned in Russian Poland, Serbia and … READ MORE

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  • As an early critic of the social and political conditions of the Wilheminian society, Heinrich Mann was one of the few German authors who opposed the First World War from the beginning. The first … READ MORE

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  • In contrast to his brother Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann shared the widespread support of the war by the literary and academic elites. He even defended its atrocities as part of a defense of German … READ MORE

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  • During the years 1915 to 1918 in the internment camp in Markl (Windigsteig), in Lower Austria, up to 1,400 mostly Jewish persons of Russian-Polish and Russian origin were incarcerated. They already … READ MORE

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  • Martial law refers to the exercise of governmental power over the civilian population by military authorities. The use of martial law varied among belligerent countries, and its geographical scope … READ MORE

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  • Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was a Czech politician who started the Czechoslovak independence movement abroad. As head of the Czechoslovak National Council from 1916 to 1918, he provided an ideological … READ MORE

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  • The First World War represents the apex of the ideal of the male warrior hero. Between 1914 and 1918, both the soldiers themselves and combatant societies relied upon gendered language to make sense … READ MORE

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  • For many years Prince Maximilian of Baden was portrayed as a positive figure in German history - the liberal Chancellor who in 1918 helped to turn Germany into a republic. This view has been … READ MORE

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  • The Great War unfolded on multiple fronts and saw millions of men and women called up to serve in the armed forces. To recognise their military service as well as civilian efforts in wartime, … READ MORE

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  • The real naval war in the Mediterranean turned out to be a struggle against German and Austrian submarines and not a classic battle between major … READ MORE

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  • Georg Michaelis is usually portrayed as the politically failed chancellor of 1917. His resignation after fourteen weeks in office was the first overthrow of a Reich chancellor initiated by Reichstag … READ MORE

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  • Mine warfare or mining are the terms used to describe the digging of tunnels under the enemy’s line in order to place explosives to destroy a key location, to prevent an enemy from digging tunnels, … READ MORE

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  • Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke (the Younger), the Chief of the General Staff of the army in Berlin from 1906 to 1914 and the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army at the outbreak of the … READ MORE

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  • The two Moroccan crises represent the product of “rapacious joint imperialism.” Morocco could not escape the ambitions of its immediate neighbours, Spain and France, who secretly plotted to … READ MORE

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  • The First World War fundamentally changed the course of 20th century music. The era of late Romanticism, Symbolism and Expressionism had ended, the music culture of the European high … READ MORE

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  • The Austrian writer Robert Musil served as a soldier throughout the entire period of the war, first for border security in South Tyrol/Trentino, later on the Italian Front (“Mountain war”), and … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich Naumann was a key figure in German liberalism in the late Kaiserreich, where he tried to reunite Left and National Liberals. In 1915, he published a widely read book on … READ MORE

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  • The Anglo-German naval race was the most spectacular strand of the general maritime arms build-up before World War I. Often, albeit misleadingly, described as both the first and the prototypical arms … READ MORE

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  • Gustav Noske was a social democratic politician and the first politician to be awarded with military responsibilities. His role as first ''Reichswehrminister'' (Reich minister of defense) during the … READ MORE

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  • Over the entire course of German occupation in Eastern Europe during the First World War, the Ober Ost administration wavered between domination by military leaders – and their efforts to create a … READ MORE

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  • The ''Oberste Heeresleitung'' (Supreme Army Command or OHL) was the mobile wartime formation of the Great General Staff of the Prussian Army. Due to Imperial Germany's geostrategic position as a … READ MORE

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  • The Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive of May/June 1915 was a major military success for Austria-Hungary and Germany on the Eastern Front. Following the joint campaign of the Central Powers, the Russian army … READ MORE

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  • In 1912, the 1916 Olympic Games were awarded to Berlin. In consultation with the International Olympic Committee, the German organizers started their work. However, the outbreak of World War I led to … READ MORE

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  • Operation Alberich involved the systematic destruction of 1,500 square kilometres of French territory by the German army after Ludendorff’s decision to retreat to a newly constructed defensive line … READ MORE

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  • The Pan-German League (''Alldeutscher Verband'') mobilized members of the ''Bildungsbürgertum'' and the broader middle classes in the service of a class-based vision of ''Volksgemeinschaft'', … READ MORE

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  • Panslavism was a movement based on the conviction that all speakers of Slavic languages belong to a single nation. This was a starting point for the activities that aimed to bring Slav cultures and … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich von Payer was vice-chancellor of the German Empire from November 1917 to November 1918. In November 1918, he was offered the position of Reich chancellor, which he declined. After the First … READ MORE

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  • In World War I, the mobility of troops was of major strategic importance. New transportation means like trucks, as well as war planes, submarines and tanks, which began to revolutionize warfare … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, sport competitions became very popular amongst the soldiers of the Central Powers and the Allies. Especially on the Western Front, the transition of the war into a battle of … READ MORE

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  • The Socialists’ opposition to war in France, Germany and Italy during the period of the Second International (1889-1914) was contradictory. They tried to combine internationalism, antiwar … READ MORE

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  • The Prochaska Affair was a diplomatic dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, ostensibly concerning the fate of the Austro-Hungarian consul in Prizren. However, it carried deeper implications for … READ MORE

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  • Prostitution was considered among the most important societal problems facing civilian-military authorities in belligerent countries during World War I. Despite growing military control of the … READ MORE

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  • The Prussian War Ministry (''Preußisches Kriegsministerium'') was the highest administrative agency in the German army and was responsible for the organization of military personnel, the procurement … READ MORE

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  • During the first half of the war, many German cities tried to solve local food supply problems by introducing public kitchens. Subsequently, all German municipalities were requested to implement … READ MORE

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  • Although rape was not usually systematic, it occurred frequently on all fronts during the First World War, during both invasion and occupation periods. It was often used in propaganda to discredit … READ MORE

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  • Walther Rathenau was one of the most influential entrepreneurs before the First World War. In 1914/1915 he became one of the main organizers of Germany’s war economy. After World War I he supported … READ MORE

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  • The rear area was the space behind the front, linking the operational zone with the home territory. While this area constituted a place of calm and recreation for soldiers returning from front duty, … READ MORE

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  • Reconnaissance was aviation’s most important mission in the Great War. When war began, aircraft only performed observation and reconnaissance. The speed of intelligence gathered by aircraft changed … READ MORE

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  • On 25 May 1913 Colonel Alfred Redl, the former head of Austria-Hungary’s military espionage, committed suicide in Vienna. As it turned out, Redl had betrayed Austria-Hungary’s spy-network in … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, about 1.1 million refugees sought refuge in the interior of Austria-Hungary. The coexistence between the host communities and refugees in the interior was difficult, due to … READ MORE

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  • Erich Maria Remarque was a German writer and pacifist who became world-famous for his anti-war novel ''Im Westen nichts Neues'' (''All Quiet on the Western Front'') … READ MORE

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  • Karl Renner quickly became one of the main theoreticians of a policy of support for the war effort. He saw World War I as a chance for social democratic advance, with state intervention laying the … READ MORE

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  • Dominik Richert was a German soldier who deserted during the First World War. He is best known for his wartime memoir, published posthumously in 1989, which highlights the experience of conscripts at … READ MORE

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  • One of the most famous fighter pilots of the First World War, Manfred von Richthofen was credited with the destruction of eighty aircraft, the most of any aviator of the war, and earned the nickname … READ MORE

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  • Riezler was a German politician, diplomat, journalist and philosopher, as well as a trusted assistant of the chancellor. Although some of his surviving diary entries dated from July and August 1914 … READ MORE

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  • The rifle was by far the most common weapon used in the world war. When the major powers entered the conflict, they possessed around 11 million rifles. During the war, they either manufactured or … READ MORE

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  • Joseph Roth was a Jewish writer and journalist. His experiences at the Eastern Front in Galicia in 1916–1917 and the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after the war had a lasting impact on … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, motor vehicles took on a key role as transport facilities for troops and equipment. They needed tires made of rubber, which as a result became a raw material of strategic … READ MORE

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  • Camillo Ruggera was an officer of the General Staff in the Austro-Hungarian army. Assigned to the Supreme Command, on 29 October 1918 he was commissioned to make contact with the leaders of the … READ MORE

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  • The Ruhleben internment camp, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, held British civilian internees from its opening in November 1914 to its closure in November 1918. While the camp suffered from … READ MORE

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  • The 1923-1925 Ruhr occupation by France and Belgium was triggered when Germany defaulted on its reparations obligations. A passive resistance campaign obstructed the invaders but collapsed in … READ MORE

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  • Crown Prince Rupprecht was the heir to the Bavarian throne and one of Germany's most senior generals on the Western Front during the First World … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed by Austria and twenty-seven Allied and associated countries in the ''Château Neuf'' in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, southwest of Paris, on 10 September 1919. It … READ MORE

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  • Although ''sanjak'' usually means any one of many Ottoman administrative units, one has become known as “the Sanjak.” Following the Treaty of Berlin the Sanjak of Novi Pazar became the symbol of … READ MORE

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  • The Sarajevo incident refers to the events surrounding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Archduchess Sophie during a state visit to … READ MORE

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  • Stephan Baron von Sarkotić was an Austro-Hungarian general who had already made his mark as a political officer prior to the outbreak of World War I. During the war, he formulated different … READ MORE

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  • The renowned archaeologist Friedrich Sarre used his local knowledge to support the German-Ottoman war effort in western Persia in various leading functions. After the war, he sheltered the fugitive … READ MORE

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  • This article deals with the activities of journalist and photographer Alice Schalek as war correspondent during the Great War. Between 1915 and 1917 Schalek reported from the South Tyrolean, Isonzo … READ MORE

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  • Philipp Scheidemann was a key figure in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the First World War. On 9 November 1918, Scheidemann proclaimed the republic in Germany and became the first … READ MORE

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  • Max Scheler was a German philosopher and sociologist. The author of the widely known ''Der Genius des Kriegs und der Deutsche Krieg (The Spirit of War and the German War)'' is best known as an … READ MORE

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  • Count Alfred Schlieffen was chief of the Great General Staff of the Prussian-German Army between 1891 and 1905. He devised the so-called Schlieffen Plan, a strategic plan for a campaign against … READ MORE

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  • Heinrich Schnee was the governor of German East Africa between 1912 and 1919. During the war, he remained with the German colonial troops under the command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck until their … READ MORE

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  • ''Schwarze Schmach ''was a racist epithet for France’s colonial troops stationed in the German Rhineland after World War I. This early 1920s propaganda campaign focused on alleged sexual crimes by … READ MORE

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  • Seeckt became one of Germany’s best staff officers during the Great War. After 1918, he was the central figure of the Weimar Republic’s ''Reichswehr'' and a major contributor to the mobile … READ MORE

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  • A shell is a streamlined steel metal projectile, filled with a variety of explosive and chemical payloads, and detonated by an impact or time fuse. Delivered by complex systems to the point of … READ MORE

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  • In 1914, quick-firing field artillery could fire more shells than domestic industries, geared to peacetime consumption levels, could supply. Armies, although recognizing the dangers, had … READ MORE

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  • The Sixtus Affair was the failed attempt by Emperor Charles I. of Austria and his bother-in-law Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma to conclude a compromise peace with the members of the Entente-Powers … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, governments, civilians and soldiers alike prized smoking for its morale-boosting qualities, in addition to a medicinal effect following combat and periods of intense … READ MORE

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  • Social Darwinism was an intellectual movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that merged Charles Darwin’s biological theory of evolution with theories about human … READ MORE

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  • At the outbreak of the First World War, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) voted, as the largest party in the German Empire, for the granting of war loans. However, the thus-introduced … READ MORE

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  • The soldier’s personal equipment had a dual purpose: it was intended to enable him to carry out his military duties, and it was supposed to guarantee, independent of stationary installations, the … READ MORE

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  • Soldier’s humour, as expressed in jokes, songs and slang, reflected a dark, ironic and sardonic mind-set common among combatants. It usually contributed to individual psychological resilience, … READ MORE

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  • Starting in 1915, periods of leave known as "permissionnaires" played a vital role in supporting the morale of troops, allowing fighters to rest, and letting some families come together. These … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm Solf, long-term governor of German Samoa, served as Colonial Secretary between 1911 and 1918 and as the last imperial Foreign Secretary in winter 1918. During the war Solf supported … READ MORE

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  • Werner Sombart was a German political economist and pioneering sociologist who became notorious during World War I for his 1915 anti-English screed ''Händler und Helden'' (Traders and … READ MORE

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  • Spy Fever describes an anxiety or paranoia that enemy spies might be active within one’s own nation. The phenomenon was widespread in all theatres of World War I from at least August of 1914. Most … READ MORE

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  • Upon their defeat in the First World War, German citizens developed strong conspiracies that their war efforts had been ruined by internal forces. These theories came to be known as … READ MORE

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  • The steel helmet was invented and fielded in response to increased lethality on the battlefield due to advances in artillery and fragmentation. World War I witnessed the first wide-spread use of the … READ MORE

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  • Milan Rastislav Štefánik was a Slovak astronomer, diplomat, politician, general, one of the organizers of the Czechoslovak legions and one of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia. In today’s … READ MORE

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  • Deputy General Commands, also referred to as Home Military Commands, were German military authorities led by a general. From 1914 on they enhanced capacity across the twenty-five Army Corps districts … READ MORE

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  • This article summarises the main wartime stereotypes that defined war propaganda in Germany, France, Great Britain, the USA and Russia. It focuses less on particular details of each national enemy … READ MORE

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  • Hugo Stinnes was a highly successful and politically influential heavy industrialist. During the First World War, he adopted a German nationalist position and advocated the colonisation of Belgium … READ MORE

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  • Storm troopers were soldiers in specialized assault units, which emerged in the German army during the First World … READ MORE

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  • Stresemann was a leading wartime annexationist and proponent of moderate domestic reforms. Committed to restoring national strength after defeat and revolution, he became one of the Weimar … READ MORE

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  • Karl Graf von Stürgkh was an Austrian member of the Imperial Council, Minister for Education, and Minister President of Cisleithania from 3 November 1911 until his assassination on 21 October 1916 … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War the German government made extensive use of submarines, initially against warships and then, as the war progressed, most heavily against merchant shipping. However, the … READ MORE

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  • Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. She wrote an internationally acclaimed antiwar novel ''Die Waffen nieder!'' (''Lay Down Your Arms!'') and co-founded the … READ MORE

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  • World War I introduced new technologies and doctrine in a quest to overcome the tactical stalemate of the trenches. The first tanks had great potential that would be capitalized upon during the next … READ MORE

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  • The Battle of Tannenberg (26-30 August 1914), in which General Aleksandr Samsonov’s 2nd Russian (''Narevskaia'') Army was surrounded and completely annihilated, was one of the largest … READ MORE

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  • The myth of Tannenberg emerged after the defeat of the Russian army on the Eastern Front in 1914. After the war, Tannenberg was used to rework the military experience of World War One in both Soviet … READ MORE

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  • Whether on the Western or Eastern Front, by German, French, British, Canadian, American and other armies, shows were regularly organized on the front lines and at base camps during the Great War. … READ MORE

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  • ''Osudy dobrého vojaka Švejka za světové války'' (''The Good Soldier Švejk'') by Jaroslav Hašek belongs to the most valuable and informative artistic accounts of the Great War. Despite an … READ MORE

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  • The Last Days of Mankind (''Die letzten Tage der Menschheit'') is the major work by Vienna’s most prolific satirist, Karl Kraus. Published in full in 1922, the drama ridicules the interconnected … READ MORE

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  • ''Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften'' (''The Man without Qualities'') is a novel by Robert Musil, begun in 1918. The first book was published in 1931, and the first part of the second book was published in … READ MORE

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  • Grand Admiral Tirpitz was Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office from 1897 until 1916. Quickly losing his former great influence on German politics after the outbreak of war, he was … READ MORE

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  • István Tisza was a Hungarian politician and minister. He served as Prime Minister from 1903 to 1905 and from 1913 to 1917. Austria-Hungary entered the First World War during Tisza's second period as … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Toller was one of Germany’s best-known playwrights and a leading left-wing and pacifist intellectual during the 1920s and 1930s. He started his career as a playwright during the First World … READ MORE

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  • "Trench Art" is a genre of folk art comprised of items created in wartime, or from war materiel. It may be made by servicemen and women or by civilians, and is particularly associated with the First … READ MORE

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  • Trentino is an Italian-speaking region which was the southernmost part of the Tyrol. With Italy’s entry into the war, it found itself in the front area. After the war it was annexed to the Kingdom … READ MORE

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  • Before and at the beginning of World War I, various proposals concerning the creation of a third part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were brought up for discussion. Each of the aspiring groups … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Trianon is one of the Paris peace treaties that ended the First World War. It was concluded between Hungary and the Allied and Associated Powers on 4 June 1920 in the Grand Trianon … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Udet was the second-highest scoring German “ace” fighter pilot of the First World War, with sixty-two confirmed victories, and the highest-scoring German pilot to survive the war. Udet … READ MORE

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  • Fritz von Unruh was a German cavalry officer and a pacifist writer who, in his writings, tried to reflect the experience of the First World War, but served instead to transform it into modern … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Versailles was the first peace treaty that the victorious powers signed with a former adversary. The treaty with Germany was the most important treaty for the Allied and Associated … READ MORE

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  • War veterans’ associations had a significant public voice in Weimar Germany as they claimed to represent the demands of those who had fought for the country. Divided into national, regional, and … READ MORE

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  • The Austro-Hungarian battleship ''Viribus Unitis'' was commissioned in reaction to the newly built Italian dreadnought, ''Dante Alighieri''. The ''Viribus Unitis'' was the first Austro-Hungarian ship … READ MORE

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  • The ''Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.'' (German War Graves Commission or VDK) was established after the First World War to protect German war graves. During the Weimar Republic it … READ MORE

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  • The latter Austrian ''Land'' Vorarlberg saw the rise of a grass root movement for a political union with Switzerland between autumn 1918 and spring 1919. These ideas never materialized, however, as … READ MORE

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  • Baron Hans von Wangenheim was the German ambassador to the Ottoman capital between 1912 and … READ MORE

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  • The War Archives (''Kriegsarchiv''), centre of the official historiography of the Imperial and Royal Army in the pre-war period, changed, during the First World War, into a repository for recent war … READ MORE

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  • The governments of all belligerent countries issued special loans to finance their expenditure after the war began. To mobilize the financial resources of their peoples required concerted war bonds … READ MORE

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  • During the interwar years, mourning and political exploitation were often closely linked in the commemoration of those killed in the First World War. While the development of German war cemeteries in … READ MORE

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  • German war memorials were sites of both political conflict and personal mourning. Monumental displays of revanchism caused much controversy, but they were not prevalent. A nation without a national … READ MORE

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  • This article examines the concept of war poetry and considers the range of poetic responses generated by the Great War from an international … READ MORE

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  • The War Press Office, or ''Kriegspressequartier'' (KPQ) was the central propaganda institution of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces during World War I. Initially, the KPQ co-ordinated only print … READ MORE

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  • As a long-lasting industrial war, the Great War led to the realization of considerable profits throughout industrialized countries. Both real and imagined, they structured many wartime facets, from … READ MORE

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  • The War Requirements Acts were passed in Austria-Hungary in 1912. They placed military requisitions under parliamentary control and helped the army to obtain the most needed products and services … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, Austria-Hungary implemented a state of emergency with several emergency laws overseen by the ''kaiserlich und königlich ''(''k.u.k.'') ''Kriegsüberwachungsamt'' (war … READ MORE

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  • In the First World War, war toys were regarded as a means to strengthen children’s identification with the war effort. Production and consumption of war toys in 1914 to 1915 reached heights never … READ MORE

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  • One third of the 9.7 million soldiers killed or declared missing during the Great War left behind a widow. The mourning of these women was conditioned as much by the social conventions practiced … READ MORE

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  • As an adviser in the imperial office of the treasury (1916-1918), the Heidelberg economist Alfred Weber helped establish Poland and Lithuania as satellite states under the hegemony of the German … READ MORE

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  • Otto Weddigen was among the best-known German submarine commanders in the First World War. He died in March 1915 after HMS Dreadnought rammed and sank his submarine as it undertook a failed attack on … READ MORE

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  • Karl Henry von Wiegand was the leading American foreign correspondent during the first half of the 20th century. His interviewees included Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler, Kemal … READ MORE

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  • The Vienna Philharmonic, a music institution typical of the high bourgeoisie before the First World War, played patriotic music in many charity concerts during the conflict and was sent to neutral … READ MORE

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  • Adolf Wild von Hohenborn served as Prussian war minister from January 1915 to October 1916. He is best known for his role in the ''Judenzählung'' (Jewish census), a census of Jewish soldiers in the … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm’s education was dominated by a strict regime focused on preparing him for the military. As pro forma commander of the 5th Army at the Battle of Verdun, Wilhelm weakened his own … READ MORE

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  • Kaiser Wilhelm II’s ambitious policies played a major part in bringing about the First World War, yet with the onset of hostilities he was sidelined by his generals. In certain key areas, however, … READ MORE

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  • Wireless telegraphy became an integral part of warfare on the ground, in the air, and at sea by 1918. Wireless helped to make the war global, though historians still debate its impact on the course … READ MORE

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  • Witkop was professor of German literature at the University of Freiburg. He was responsible for the publication of ''Kriegsbriefe gefallener Studenten'' (War Letters of Fallen Students) which, in the … READ MORE

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  • ''Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau'' was a news agency that was the central source for news in Germany during the war. Because of censorship mechanisms, newspapers tended to reprint Wolff’s news … READ MORE

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  • At the end of the First World War, Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils spread throughout Germany, culminating in a mutiny among sailors at the end of October in Kiel that inaugurated the revolution … READ MORE

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  • Zeppelins heralded the potential of strategic bombing. Although airships were originally used for maritime and army reconnaissance, Germany was first to employ them as a strategic weapon. The German … READ MORE

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  • Referred to as the “grandmother of German communism” at the time of her death in 1933 by the ''Manchester Guardian'', Clara Zetkin was a prominent feminist leader within the German social … READ MORE

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See also

  • This article considers the use and evolution of air power during the First World War. By focusing on the principal air power roles – control of the air, tactical, strategic, and naval and maritime … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Alliances were an important feature of the international system on the eve of World War I. The formation of rival blocs of Great Powers has previously considered a major cause of the outbreak of war … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • During the First World War millions of animals were utilised for war work, and creatures great and small were a day-to-day part of most soldiers’ lives. Horses, dogs, and pigeons were used … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War and its direct repercussions in the postwar period (revolution, counterrevolution, the founding of republics, and the Paris peace treaties) mark a profound caesura not only in the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • New weapons produced during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s heightened existing tensions among European nations as countries strove to outpace their enemies technologically. This … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The nature of the First World War put an end to traditions for battle painting. Instead, war art by younger more progressive artists was the best received because it was judged the most authentic. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The term "atrocity" describes an act of violence condemned by contemporaries as a breach of morality or the laws of war. "Atrocities" are culturally constructed; by 1914, an international discourse … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • In the modern era, new forms of mourning and meaning-making for fallen soldiers emerged. The human losses of the First World War were largely mourned, honoured and remembered within … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Soldiers’ attitudes towards the Great War are a controversial issue, as they prove difficult to assess and raise complex methodological questions. They evolved during the course of the conflict, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • France and Germany remained principal protagonists of the First World War. This essay will examine the reasons why both nations believed they were in a legitimate war of defense, for which domestic … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article presents cartoonists as patriotic propagandists mobilizing their pens and brushes for the national cause during the war. It analyses their techniques for arousing emotions such as … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Censorship was an indispensable war weapon: its task was to keep the people in an atmosphere of utter ignorance and unshaken confidence in the authorities, and to allow their boundless indoctrination … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The centenary of the First World War revealed palpable anxieties around a loss of connection to an event that was now 100 years old and without any living survivors. As a result, a good degree of … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Innovative historical scholarship played an important role in the shaping of memory during the centenary of the First World War. It guided international public memory, was part of it and as such … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The centenary events surrounding the First World War have produced a significant amount of digital content in various forms, and thus has set a precedent for how large scale post-war memorisation can … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Libraries (local, specialist, and national) contributed in numerous and important ways to commemorative activities during the centenary of the First World War. These included making use of their … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article discusses how European museums – in particular, national war museums – dealt with the centenary of World War I. These museums still tend to tell the story of World War I from a … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The commemorative period between 2014 and 2018 was marked globally by numerous exhibitions of original artworks that had been commissioned and created during and immediately after World War 1. Most … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Mass conscription recast relationships in families, raised minors’ potential as wage earners, and decreased supervision over them. War ravaged the health of young people in Central Europe while … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • By 1914 the leading states had succumbed to varying degrees of militarism, subordinating other interests to those of the armed forces, yet all were governed by regimes in which the ultimate authority … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article deals with civilian morale during the First World War. Between 1915 and 1918, governments “discovered” the importance of civilian morale and developed vast systems of surveillance to … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War ushered in an unprecedented wave of commemorations. Mass death elicited a construction spree in memorial objects and sites across all countries and territories involved in the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The article discusses the role of the media in the complex international process leading to the First World War with a focus on the press of the great powers. Recent research has shown that the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Total war is a controversial term used in the past by politicians, publicists and military officers as well as by computer specialists and academics in the present. Since its conception by French … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The idea that World War I was a watershed in gender relations has pervaded both contemporary narratives and historiography. In contrast to earlier studies, research now tends to give a more nuanced … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • During the First World War, Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (called “Yugoslavia” from 1929) emerged as new national states on the territories of the crumbling … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The end of fighting in 1918 raised hopes for swift and equitable military demobilization amongst soldiers and civilians. The timing and nature of demobilization varied greatly, though, due to … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article examines the First World War’s ecological impact and shows that protracted environmental transformations resulted more from expanded industrial modes of production than heavy combat. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Throughout history, intoxicants were an important part of the war experience. The First World War was by no means an exception in that respect: its main “war drugs” were alcohol (mostly beer, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article surveys the financial and economic planning for war before 1914 in the European Great Powers that initially entered the conflict – Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany and Russia. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The internment of enemy aliens in the First World War was a global phenomenon. Camps holding civilian as well as military prisoners could be found on every continent, including in nation-states and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • During the entire war, warring powers used the “secret war” to try to break the balance of the battlefield. Generally created in the previous few decades, intelligence and security services saw … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War was not only the precondition of the rise of fascist movements in a general way: more definitely, the fascists presented themselves as the heirs of the trench combatants. German … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War played a significant role in the evolution of film both as a medium for reporting war and as a tool for the propagandist manipulation of public opinion to support the war effort. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • During the First World War, food became a major issue for military and civilian matters. This contribution aims to discuss the food situation in the belligerent countries in connection with global … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article examines the conditions, forms and consequences of forced labor and recruitment during the First World War, especially in German-occupied northern France, Belgium, Russian-Poland and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • One sees a wide range of political regimes from a democratic republic with universal male suffrage (France) to parliamentary, constitutional, or even oligarchical monarchies in the countries that … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article discusses the close relationships between national governments, advertising trades and print media industries and assesses their significance for liberal democracy and national identity … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The rapid spread of epidemics ravaged military personnel and civilians in and outside Europe’s warzones during the Great War. Further, the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 became a global … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • There have been four generations of historical writing about the 1914-1918 war. The first was composed of contemporaries who either fought in the war or helped run it, and spanned the period … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Hospitals framed and configured the convalescence of wounded and sick soldiers during the Great War. Medical facilities behind the lines and in the rear often operated under difficult conditions. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article focuses on the extent to which imperialism contributed to the outbreak of the First World War. The first part describes the emergence of specific imperialist cultures and attitudes in … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • By examining the origins, pathways, demographic impact and consequences for the public, the medical profession and governments, of the so-called “Spanish” influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, this … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919, establishing both the League of Nations and another international organization: the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO was founded … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The article examines international efforts to curb states’ war-making prerogatives in the second half of the “long” 19th century. It captures new humanitarian sentiments circulating … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The international crisis that began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 and culminated in the British declaration of war on Germany on 4 August is referred … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Across the major belligerent powers, industrial production and the mobilization and organization of industrial labor became central to the conduct of the First World War. States and private … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article compares the history of labour movements during the war across a range of European countries. It charts the impact of the economic realities of the war upon labour and analyses the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • While public memory of the First World War in Europe often focusses on the deaths caused by the conflict, soldiers who served not only died in the war; they also lived. That process of living … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article seeks to present an overview of First World War literature across many of the combatant nations from the outbreak of the conflict up to the beginning of the Second World War. Taking a … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Claims to “just war” formed the basis for the propaganda campaigns of the First World War. Propaganda on all sides focused on three interrelated issues to endorse the decision to enter the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The discourse about the Great War during the interwar period was shaped by numerous factors. The emergence of new media facilitated the use of new forms of expression and profoundly changed the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • It is impossible to talk about “the” medical care or “the” medical service of World War I. Medical care varied greatly, depending on geography, strategy, and national, social, or economic … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • What role do representations of the First World War play in media that reach a wide audience beyond the circle of experts? The following contribution focuses on this important question. Given the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • There is an ongoing debate among historians whether the First World War did in fact lead to drastic changes in migration and migration policies. The war certainly resulted in numerous severe … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Militarism is a vague term that has meant different things to different people at different times. It can be analysed as a popular phenomenon, or as a feature more at home in the halls of power, or … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Despite World War I’s reputation as a senseless bloodbath whose military operations were devoid of any intelligent thought, the period 1914-1918 was history’s single largest revolution in … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This essay offers a comparative survey of the practice of military justice among several of the key belligerent powers. Accused soldiers enjoyed little in the way of legal protection, and punishment … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article examines the lessons derived by the military organizations that participated in the First World War on land, at sea, and in the air. It demonstrates that while military and naval … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Change and continuity marked belligerent societies’ norms and values during the First World War. Normative institutions such as marriage and the family proved basically resilient but … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article describes the lives and afterlives of the First World War museums in France, Russia, Germany, and in Britain and its Dominions Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In all these polities, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War created disfigured and mutilated bodies on a grand scale. Never before had the bodies of soldiers been so devastated by a conflict. Developments in established weapons such as … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article offers an overview of the progress of nationalism and the national idea starting with its origins as a mass political programme during the French Revolution and tracing its passage up to … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • All of the great belligerent states of World War I were naval powers and engaged in operations around the globe. While the course of the war did not unfold as predicted by naval officials, it did … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Many issues surrounding the conduct of war in the years 1914-1918 were impervious to international negotiation or mediation, due either to a complete lack of consensus or to an absence of trust and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • After an initial wave of interest in 1914 and the immediate post-war period, international historiography long neglected the wartime occupation of territories inhabited by large civilian populations. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Great War was never considered the “war to end all wars” by the states and armed forces in conflict. The war’s legacies were processed in a wide variety of ways depending on forms of … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War was a global conflict that caught most of the participants ill-prepared for the demands of total war. Economic mobilization beyond the initial needs of the troops involved … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • In August 1914, a targeted and systematic manipulation of opinion by the media, intellectuals and authorities started. Atrocities were attributed to the enemies that arose from preformed images or … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The idea of peace in total war may seem irrelevant, but pacifism, or peace activism, did exist during the First World War. A seemingly robust European peace movement existed before 1914, but it … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • While World War I featured the largest armies ever assembled, it was also fought by unprecedented numbers of paramilitary fighters. In a situation where the line between combatant and non-combatant … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This paper examines major peace initiatives during World War I. It describes efforts by the chief European belligerents to split apart enemy coalitions with separate peace settlements as well … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War represents a watershed in the history of war photography. It was the first conflict to be photographed in detail by all the participants and the first in which photography was … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Post-war economies were beset with problems, ultimately leading to the Great Depression that ruined the world economy and resulted in “beggar-thy-neighbour” national policies. Roosevelt’s … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War caused unprecedented disruption to societies across the globe, from Western and (especially) Central and Eastern Europe to East Africa. While many survivors could celebrate an end … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Great War gave new impulses to the further development of public welfare systems which had emerged in previous decades. The desire for the social protection of the population and the restoration … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Word War I had a significant impact on the evolution of the European media scene. Before the start of the war, newspapers in Europe were increasingly popular, free and independent, and transnational. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • German and British war planning has attracted a great deal of attention, but also generated a great deal of controversy. This entry charts and evaluates these debates. In the process it outlines the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The First World War marked the shift from a 19th century, relatively ''ad hoc'' management of prisoners of war, to the 20th century’s sophisticated prisoner of war camp … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article summarizes and compares the principal arguments and strategies of propaganda at the home front, the military front, as well as in neutral and enemy countries. These included the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Propaganda played an important part in the politics of the war, but was only successful as part of wider political and military strategies. For each belligerent, the most effective and important … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article explores the policies adopted and implemented against enemy property from the beginning of the Great War to the signing of the peace treaties in Europe. Breaking a long-standing … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Raw materials were vital during the First World War. Due to the armaments production, the belligerents’ needs increased significantly, while the available resources fell. Each country intended both … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • National Red Cross societies played a very important role in the First World War. They supported armies’ medical services, brought relief to prisoners of war and sometimes organized their … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article addresses the scale of wartime population displacement in continental Europe, the relief efforts made on behalf of refugees, their impact on host communities, and the cultural … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • From the cradle to the grave, popular religion formed a necessary and vital, if analytically messy, part of the human experience of the Great War. The war had the potential to atomize and alienate … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The conduct of warfare in 1914-1918 included extensive population resettlement in all theatres of war in Europe, both as a result of pre-emptive decisions by civilians to flee in order to evade the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article surveys the various movements toward social, national, and political revolution that emerged during and in the wake of World War I. The Russian revolutions of 1917 serve as the first … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The paper describes the impact of war on peasantry and its mobilisation in the war effort. While observers portrayed the countryside as rich and callous towards urban shortages or waging war, the … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The military service of teachers and the mobilization of schoolchildren for voluntary war work deeply disrupted schooling, especially in Central Europe. In continental Europe, war infused curricula … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Wartime science and technology developed in the context of the Second Industrial Revolution, with far-reaching consequences for national and international scientific institutions and social … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Allied capacity at sea to sustain global transport and supply determined their ability to prevail in the First World War. The deployment of convoys to triumph over submarine warfare was an important … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article provides an international overview of the history of sexuality in the Great War, including (1) the venereal disease epidemic, prostitution, and expanding state surveillance of sexuality; … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article examines the changing dynamics of national tensions in the Habsburg, Romanov, and Ottoman empires during three distinct phases of the Great War. The outbreak and early months of the war … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article deals with the nature of social conflict during the war. The length of the conflict and growing food shortages on the home front strained relations between individuals and between social … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article explores how the anticipation, reality, and memory of sacrifice informed experiences and legacies of World War I. Drawing on representative examples from multiple nations, I suggest that … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Soldier newspapers are a massive, yet little used primary source of the First World War. They were read and written by the almost universally literate men at or near the front in the French, British, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • From 1914 to 1918, theatres in all major European cities staged plays – comedies, operettas, revues, classical and modern dramas, music hall shows or sensational plays – day after day. The lively … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • A vast array of initiatives designed to counteract the destructiveness of the First World War was developed by states and societies across the world. Protecting the bodies and minds of soldiers from … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Reflecting current historiography, this article focuses primarily on Christian churches centered in the main European theater of the Great War, including more global interactions with the other … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This essay examines how the "everyday" functions in war, not only for those on the home fronts, but for those in combat roles and for those living between the lines. Five important qualities, among … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The debate about the origins of the war remains a vibrant area of historical research. It has been characterised by a number of features. First, from the outset, political concerns shaped the debate, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Regardless of whether it was based on volunteer enlistment or conscription, mass mobilization in all of the countries at war between 1914 and 1918 completely upended the pre-war relationships that … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • October 1918 witnessed the collapse of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, both greatly affected by war-weariness and starvation. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy lost any remaining loyalty from its … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article offers an overview of peacemaking after the First World War from the armistices of 1918 until 1923. It considers the outcomes of the five Parisian treaties (Versailles, Saint-Germain and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Imperialism shaped almost every facet of international politics from 1898 to 1914. Imperial concerns brought Britain into entente relationships with France and Russia. This Triple Entente often … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Great War witnessed mass armies battling with modern, quick-firing weapons systems and using consumables of all kinds - ammunition, food, water, soldiers - at rates that had not been seen before. … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Cities — with their comparatively large and dense but also vulnerable populations — went from being theaters of mass mobilization in favor of the political status quo to being sites of domestic … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This essay traces belligerent policies toward venereal disease (VD) on the fighting and home fronts in Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and later, the United States. VD rates … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Veterans’ associations formed an influential social movement during the interwar period. They provided the platform for former soldiers to commemorate the war and their fallen comrades and to … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This piece explores the visualisation of violence for home front audiences and shows that violence was often hinted at very strongly, but the actual act was avoided. All home front audiences were … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Despite what some believe, there is still a lot to say and learn about the First World War, particularly with regard to war aims. A lot of focus is currently placed on the cultural, social and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • At its outbreak, newspapers in the Allied and neutral democracies hoped to present vivid descriptions of the First World War. They were soon frustrated. Censorship obstructed the adventurous style of … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Static “trench warfare” belied a dynamic transformation in warfare between 1914 and 1918. Every army grappled with the same issues: how to end a strategic stalemate occasioned by their ability to … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Great War required war-making states to mobilize and sustain the financial resources for a global war on an unprecedented scale. What made war finance during the conflict so special is that this … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • There are in the literature on the economic history of the Great War different approaches to the interpretation of war finance and inflation in Germany. Some scholars have analysed war finance and … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • In nations where literacy was well-established by 1914, letter-writing was critical to the emotional well-being of soldiers and their families. Men in uniform often circumvented the censors and sent … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Military sources provide the primary statistics of war losses and casualties during World War I. In order to review and eventually revise their figures, one must understand how military statistics … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • During the First World War soldiers from all combatant nations suffered from a wide range of debilitating nervous complaints as a result of the stresses and strains of modern warfare. War … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Through investigating the pivotal role of honour in private and public matters, in foreign and domestic relations, and in propaganda and everyday life during the First World War, this article … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • To understand the Great War, one has to understand weapons. Weapons are linked to bodies, to attacks on bodily integrity, to suffering. Hand weapons form an extension of the body while at the same … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • The Western Front, a 400-plus mile stretch of land weaving through France and Belgium from the Swiss border to the North Sea, was the decisive front during the First World War. Whichever side won … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • It may surprise us to learn that some sectors of the European public were in favour of the war in 1914. The impact of modern weapons was not well understood and many people in the government, … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article explores women’s economic, social, and political responses to the First World War. It addresses their mobilization including their engagement with the war effort as well as their … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • Female war reporters from belligerent and neutral countries were present in the major war theatres in Europe and the Middle East throughout 1914 to 1918. While admission of journalists to the war … READ MORE

    Thematic
  • This article provides an overview of xenophobia during the First World War - namely, the ways in which the conflict was justified and sustained by the growth of hatred for external enemies, and … READ MORE

    Thematic

Survey Articles (Regional)

  • The article surveys the social and military history of Austria-Hungary during the First World War. The war brought a harsh military dictatorship along with innovations in economy, labor deployment, … READ MORE

    Regional
  • When war broke out, in light of increasingly inflexible constellations and alliances among European powers, Germany was initially hoping to keep the war limited to Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Soon … READ MORE

    Regional
  • Blockades, part of economic warfare, had been employed throughout history. The Allied blockade (1914-1919), which aimed to prevent war supplies reaching Germany, ultimately also targeted the civilian … READ MORE

    Regional

Regional Thematic Articles

Encyclopedic Entries

  • Founded in 1889, ''Sektion IIIb'' (1915-1918: ''Abteilung IIIb'') was the military intelligence component of the Prussian-German general staff. During the First World War, ''IIIb'' developed into a … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Until his death in 1918, Victor Adler was the most prominent Austrian socialist leader and among the leading personalities of the Second Socialist International. During the war, he aimed to preserve … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The general trend in aircraft development during World War I was towards better-engined, stronger, higher flying, more heavily armed, and more capable airplanes. Strictly speaking, pure … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Much like fighter aircraft, World War I reconnaissance and bomber technology advanced rapidly throughout the war. As aircraft designs that combined lift, range, and stability were key to both … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Albrecht Duke of Württemberg was the commander-in-chief of the German 4th Army from 1914-1917 and the ''"Heeresgruppe Herzog Albrecht"'' ("Army Group Duke Albrecht") from 1917-1918. The … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The anti-war novel ''Im Westen nichts Neues'' (''All Quiet on the Western Front'') by Erich Maria Remarque (first published in 1928) and the movie directed by Lewis Milestone (USA 1930) are … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Alsace-Lorraine was a border region located between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains. Its role in French wartime propaganda, its geographic location, and its tumultuous recent history all … READ MORE

    Entry
  • On the night of 22-23 April 1918, the Royal Navy attacked the German occupied towns of Ostend and Zeebrugge in an effort to block the canals that linked the two cities to the German naval base at … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Artillery consisted of the military’s heavy firearms. As a branch of the armed forces, its purpose was to fire explosive-filled projectiles across relatively large distances. In contrast to the … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Between February 1915 and the Armistice, Germany conducted three submarine campaigns against British, Entente and neutral merchant shipping. The final unrestricted campaign that started in early 1917 … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Attrition warfare is the term used to describe the sustained process of wearing down an opponent so as to force their physical collapse through continuous losses in personnel, equipment and supplies … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Austrian and Hungarian citizens working in war-related industries were exempt from many restrictions on enemy aliens, but many labor leaders and intellectuals were arrested and interned, often … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The Austro-Hungarian automotive industry and the necessary equipment for military vehicles developed very slowly in comparison to other European states. During the First World War, the army had to … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The Imperial and Royal Ministry of the Imperial and Royal House and of Foreign Affairs, informally called “Ballhausplatz” after the Viennese square on which the central office was located, was … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Albert Ballin, chief executive of the Hamburg-America Line, was one of Imperial Germany’s most prominent business leaders. Between 1908 and 1914 he attempted to broker a naval agreement between … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Max Bauer was a German artillery expert and a key suborndinate in the German Supreme Command. A loyal suporter of Ludendorff, Bauer intrigued against Falkenhayn and consistently pushed for the … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Otto Bauer was a leading Austro-Marxist and socialist politician who served during the war as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. After returning from Russian internment to Vienna in 1917, he … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Gertrud Bäumer was one of the most well known leaders of the German women’s movement. In 1914, as the president of the Federation of German Women’s Associations (''Bund Deutscher … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Initially fascinated by the front, the painter quickly understood that the war was an absolute catastrophe. His despairing paintings of hospitals led to his labelling by the Nazis as a degenerate … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Edvard Beneš was a Czech politician, diplomat, and close collaborator of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. As Secretary General of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris from 1916 to 1918, he … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Graf Leopold Berchtold, Habsburg foreign minister from 1912 to 1915, was confronted with military action during and after the Balkan Wars, yet kept peace. Then, the Sarajevo assassinations, blamed on … READ MORE

    Entry
  • This article discusses the 9th of November 1918 in Berlin and its commemoration. The events of the day brought the Kaiser’s abdication and the proclamation of a Republic in … READ MORE

    Entry
  • During the First World War, Berlin became an organisational hub for Indian nationalist and revolutionary activities. By September 1914, a group of South Asian emigrants had organized – with … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Friedrich von Bernhardi was one of the most important and most controversial military writers and armchair generals in pre-1914 Europe. During the First World War, he commanded German forces in … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Count Bernstorff was German ambassador to the United States from 1908 to 1917. He tried in vain to warn the Reich government against unrestricted submarine warfare which would result in America’s … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Hans Hartwig von Beseler was a German general and military engineer who oversaw the conquest of several fortresses early in the war. He was then named commander of German-occupied Poland, a post he … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Bethmann was a career civil servant who became Imperial Germany’s fifth Reich Chancellor and took Germany into the First World War. Despite heading the imperial German political administration, his … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The German Supreme Army Command created Bild- und Filmamt (BUFA) in January 1917 to coordinate and produce visual propaganda. Though it did not really succeed in its aims to boost morale, BUFA helped … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Moritz von Bissing was born on 30 January 1844, in Bellmannsdorf, Silesia, then part of the German Empire. He served as governor general of the Prussian Army from December 1914 until his death on 18 … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Following the decisions of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1882 onwards, members of all ethnicities in Bosnia-Herzegovina were … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In the narrow sense, the so-called “Bosnian Crisis” (or “Annexation Crisis”) of 1908 and 1909 was a political conflict between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire caused by the (formal) … READ MORE

    Entry
  • At Brest-Litovsk, from 22 December 1917 to 10 February 1918 (Julian calendar: 9 December − 28 January), Soviet representatives and the Central Powers negotiated a separate peace. On 3 March 1918, … READ MORE

    Entry
  • As an imperial diplomat, first Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, leader of the German Peace Delegation in Versailles and also first ambassador to the Soviet Union, he acted in decisive … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Friedrich Bronsart von Schellendorf was a Prussian-German lieutenant general. As Chief of Staff of the Ottoman Army, he was one of the closest collaborators of Enver Pasha during the First World War. … READ MORE

    Entry
  • During his career as a diplomat and courtier (knighted count in 1899 and prince in 1905), Bernhard von Bülow became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (after 1897) and German Chancellor … READ MORE

    Entry
  • István Burián was a leading Austro-Hungarian career diplomat and politician, rising to become the Monarchy’s longest-serving foreign minister during the First World War. Burián’s wartime … READ MORE

    Entry
  • A technique of concealment and protection, a means to deceive but not kill, camouflage was significantly developed during the First World War. The technique enabled many artists to put their talents … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The mutiny of the sailors on Cattaro, the Austrian-Hungarian Navy Base, occurred on 1 February 1918. The incident ended with the mutineers surrendering. Even if the revolt did not significantly … READ MORE

    Entry
  • By the beginning of the 20th century, field armies had integrated the combat arm of cavalry with the infantry and artillery branches for over a century. However, its involvement in battle … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In his youth, the archduke was introduced to the idea of federalism by Archduke Franz Ferdinand. During the first part of World War I, he became a skillful military leader without any political … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Extracurricular mobilization of children through literature took place between 1914 and 1918 on the home front of most belligerent countries. Propaganda for children depended on the war’s effects … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In December 1914, there were several truces between enemy soldiers along one part of the Western front. Widely publicized, they underscore how difficult it was for soldiers to adapt to the conditions … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The basic tactical question for all military powers prior to 1914 was how to approach and attack an enemy who was directing massive fire against the attacker and who was making use of natural or … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Before World War I, coffee had become a popular drink in countries in the northern hemisphere, but when the war broke out, it was not regarded as an essential commodity. This article describes the … READ MORE

    Entry
  • A selection of communication technologies, ancient and modern, was available at the outbreak of World War One. During the war, military communications evolved to meet new battlefield and military … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Friedrich Naumann’s ''Mitteleuropa'' (1915) was a liberal voice in the largely illiberal German discussion on the future of East Central and South East Europe. His reasoning, based on principles of … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was an Austrian officer and Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1906 to 1911 and from 1912 to … READ MORE

    Entry
  • On 1 November 1914, the German East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron defeated the 4th British Cruiser Squadron near the harbour of Coronel, … READ MORE

    Entry
  • From 1918–1920, Czechoslovakia and Hungary claimed their rights over Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, two former Hungarian provinces with a Slavic majority. Czech troops occupied Slovakia and … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Ottokar Graf Czernin was an Austrian politician and the minister of foreign affairs for Austria-Hungary from 1916 to … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Dada, a transnational movement of artists, was founded in Zurich in 1916. It disappeared in 1924, after a sham trial against Maurice Barrès in 1921. Far from pacifism, Dada declared war against war. … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Berthold von Deimling was a controversial Prussian general known for both his military rigidity and his political inconstancy. In 1919, he converted to … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In the First World War, the German Empire had two models of 42-centimeter mortars: the "Gamma-device" (caliber length L/16) and the "M-device" (L/12). For camouflage reasons, both were called "short … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In his oeuvre, the German painter Otto Dix dealt more intensively with wartime experiences than any other artist. Hundreds of drawings and gouaches capture industrialised combat. After the Great War, … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Friedrich Ebert became the most important leader of the SPD during the First World War, alongside Philipp Scheidemann. During the revolution, Ebert rose to the top position within party hierarchy and … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In the first months of World War I, a German raider, the light cruiser ''Emden'' brought the bulk of Allied cargo shipping in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean to a virtual halt. The ''Emden'' … READ MORE

    Entry
  • World War I was not simply a conflict among European states but a global war of empires. The fighting took place not only in Europe, but also in Africa, Asia, and across the Middle East, and it … READ MORE

    Entry
  • As a Member of Parliament 1917, Erzberger, the former annexationist, played an important role in drafting the Reichstag’s Peace Resolution and the setting up of the ''Interfraktioneller Ausschuss'' … READ MORE

    Entry
  • During the First World War both sides accused each other of employing illegal small arms ammunition – either expanding or explosive bullets. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 outlawed … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Expressionism is a movement that originated in Germany before World War I and extended to the period between the two major European wars. It promoted subjective representation and “expressive” … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Ludwig Freiherr von Falkenhausen was a German General and military writer who served in different leadership positions during World War One. From 1917 until the end of the war he was governor-general … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Falkenhayn was Prussian minister of War and Chief of Staff (1914-1916). He was one of the decision makers during the July crisis 1914 and responsible for the German strategy in the first half of the … READ MORE

    Entry
  • During the Battle of the Falklands, the British naval force commanded by Admiral Sturdee defeated the German force under Admiral von Spee off the Falkland Islands on 8 December … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Of the two world wars, the First World War was special in that fear figured prominently in a number of domains, including military tactics, psychiatry, and first-person sources. Fear was to be … READ MORE

    Entry
  • A minority section of the women’s movements opposed World War I and organized the International Congress of Women at The Hague in April 1915. Its participants demanded women’s rights and more … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The use of portable flamethrowers in combat was a First World War innovation. The German army took the lead in developing this form of warfare and remained the foremost practitioner of it throughout … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Walter Flex was a nationalist war poet and author of ''The'' ''Wanderer Between Two Worlds ''(1916), one of the most successful novels of the post-war … READ MORE

    Entry
  • European militaries considered fortifications before the First World War as vital to their strategic planning. Advancements in weapons technology after the mid-19th century caused … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Under the terms of the 1867 constitution, Francis Joseph retained his prerogatives in foreign policy. His decision to opt for war in 1914 was largely a result of the frustrations of Austria’s … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Ludwig Frank was a member of the Reichstag for the Social Democratic Party. When Germany entered the war, he strongly supported voting for war loans and volunteered for war service at the age of … READ MORE

    Entry
  • This biographical overview of Archduke Franz Ferdinand examines the evolution of his difficult personality through the traumatic experiences of barely surviving tuberculosis and fighting for the … READ MORE

    Entry
  • This article addresses the experience of Freiburg during the First World War, asking briefly how the problems that this city faced compared to those of other German … READ MORE

    Entry
  • ''Freikorps'' units were paramilitary formations which generally supported rightwing political causes, although they existed within a broader paramilitary environment. Many First World War veterans … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, expressed a war-weariness and disappointment with the barbarity of the war that, after the final dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, gave way to … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Ernst Friedrich was the founder of Germany’s only anti-war museum. When the museum was destroyed by the National Socialist regime, Friedrich went into exile in France and joined the resistance. … READ MORE

    Entry
  • Gas warfare is a method of war that employs weapons that are designed to cause casualties primarily through the use of harmful chemical agents. The First World War constitutes the most extensive … READ MORE

    Entry
  • After the German Army had occupied wide areas of Belgium, the “Imperial Government General in Belgium” was established on 23 August 1914 with a governor-general at its head. Organized into a … READ MORE

    Entry
  • In 1915, Germany set up the “''Generalgouvernement'' Warschau”, or General Governorate Warsaw, as the administrative unit for its occupied territories in Russian Poland. Under the leadership of … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The ''Große Hauptquartier'' (Great Headquarters or GHQ) was the strategic command centre of the German armed forces for the duration of the war. It comprised representatives of all political and … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The German Fatherland Party (1917-1918/1919) aspired to mobilize members of the broader radical right as well as the milieus of the German Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party. It aimed … READ MORE

    Entry
  • The Spring Offensives of 1918 were Germany’s last attempt to defeat the British and French armies on the Western Front, and thereby win total victory. Their failure by the mid-summer left the … READ MORE

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  • Germany’s offer of unconditional support to its Austro-Hungarian ally in July 1914 remains one of the most controversial decisions in modern history. Historians have interpreted the blank cheque in … READ MORE

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  • Colmar von der Goltz was one of pre-war Germany’s most outstanding and controversial military theoreticians. His publications had a considerable impact on military thought and the role of armed … READ MORE

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  • Count Rüdiger von der Goltz was a German army general during the First World War who commanded divisions on the western and the eastern fronts. In 1918, he was also the commander of the German … READ MORE

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  • Hermann Göring was a highly decorated and well-known fighter pilot of the First World War and later a high-ranking National Socialist … READ MORE

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  • As head of the Railway Section at the General Staff, Groener was responsible for the timely transport of troops to the front in August 1914. He was sacked from the Supreme Army Command (''Oberste … READ MORE

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  • The artist George Grosz was a keen observer of post-war Germany and highly critical of the bourgeois philistinism of his time. Deeply affected by his wartime experience, he was accusatory and … READ MORE

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  • Hugo Haase was a prominent social democrat in the ''Kaiserreich'', who opposed German war aims and formed the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) of Germany in 1917. He co-chaired the Council … READ MORE

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  • Haber was one of the most important German chemists. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1918 for his invention of ammonia synthesis, which was important for both the production of fertilizer and … READ MORE

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  • The hand grenade is a small hand-thrown bomb dating back to antiquity. Advances in chemistry and explosives technology saw the resurgence of the grenade shortly before World War I. Its effective use … READ MORE

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  • Maximilian Harden was one of the leading publicists and intellectuals both of the German Empire and of the early Weimar Republic. He achieved international fame as the originator of the Eulenburg … READ MORE

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  • Georg von Hertling was the chancellor of Germany from 1 November 1917 to 3 October … READ MORE

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  • In 1898, the German Reich began to build up a strong battle fleet. It was meant to be capable of withstanding a decisive battle against the Royal Navy in the case of war. However, in the end it … READ MORE

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  • Paul von Hindenburg shot to fame after the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. He was Germany’s national hero of wartime, soon eclipsing the Kaiser. Appointed to the Supreme Command in 1916, he … READ MORE

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  • Magnus Hirschfeld was one of the most important sexual scientists and reformers in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. He acquired international fame by founding the Scientific-Humanitarian … READ MORE

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  • After the First World War, Hitler created a mythical account of his war years for political gain. This account was a far cry from the realities of his war experience on the Western … READ MORE

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  • This article is about the career of Heinrich Leonhard Emanuel von Hoff under the Ottoman state. As a German military officer, he played an active role in the local branch of Stuttgart’s German … READ MORE

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  • Horthy was a naval officer of Austria-Hungary. During the First World War he was first in command of a cruiser and then chief commander of the navy. After the war he took part in the … READ MORE

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  • A champion of “peaceful imperialism” before the war, Humann served as an ''éminence grise'' in Turkish-German relations, helping to establish the alliance and deterring criticism of genocide. He … READ MORE

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  • The Hundred Days was the final campaign on the Western Front during the Great War. During this period a series of sequential Allied offensives finally broke through German resistance and compelled … READ MORE

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  • Husen was a child soldier in the “''Schutztruppe''” of German East Africa. He migrated to Germany, participated in the colonial revisionist movement and fought for his rights as a World War I … READ MORE

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  • At the beginning of the 20th century, two different systems of exercise and training were internationally known: gymnastics and sport. As a result of the First World War, the boundaries … READ MORE

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  • The First World War precipitated a revolution in infantry tactics that changed the course of warfare. Armies adapted to modern industrialized war along a four-year learning curve, moving from … READ MORE

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  • Although the Iron Cross was originally created only for the duration of the Wars of Liberation, it was revived in 1870, 1914 and finally 1939. It became the quintessence of Prussian, and ultimately … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, mobilizing Muslim soldiers and Islamic institutions became an important international concern for Austria-Hungary. This article looks at how the Habsburg Monarchy tried to … READ MORE

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  • Gottlieb von Jagow was a German diplomat. He served as the German Foreign Secretary from January 1913 to November … READ MORE

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  • In October 1916, the Prussian War Ministry conducted the ''Judenzählung'', also referred to as the “Jew Count” or “''Judenstatistik'',” a census of Jewish soldiers serving in the German … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Jünger was a German writer. His book ''Storm of Steel'' (''In Stahlgewittern'') is considered one of the best-known literary accounts of the experience of the First World … READ MORE

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  • On 31 May/1 June 1916 the British Grand Fleet and the German High Sea Fleet clashed at Jutland. It was the largest naval battle in history until the Battle of Leyte Gulf off the Philippines in 1944, … READ MORE

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  • The sailors’ mutiny in Kiel quickly escalated into an open rebellion against the Imperial German state, setting in motion a course of events that culminated with the Kaiser’s abdication and the … READ MORE

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  • The German poet Klabund emerged as a lyrical war propagandist during the first two years of the conflict. He moved to Switzerland in 1916 where he announced his conversion to pacifism. In July 1917, … READ MORE

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  • The German artist Käthe Kollwitz became one of the most influential artists of her generation. Her work often addressed the atrocities of war and emotional pain associated with human loss and … READ MORE

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  • The German light cruiser Königsberg made its name at the Battle of Zanzibar. After being scuttled, its guns were used by the German Schutztruppe to continue the Guerrilla campaign in East … READ MORE

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  • Karl Kraus was one of the 20th century’s most significant satirists. While his primary target was the Austrian press, his satire took aim at nationalism, parochialism, unrestrained … READ MORE

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  • A classic representative of pre-1914 Prussian officer education, Kuhl was a rising star within the peacetime general staff. Throughout the war, he served as chief of staff in three German armies and … READ MORE

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  • Béla Kun was a Hungarian communist politician. He began his career as a social democrat. During the First World War he was captured by the Russians and later became a Bolshevik in Russia. From 1918 … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm Lamszus was a progressive educator from Hamburg. He is known beyond the realm of education in particular for his book ''The Human Slaughter-House. Scenes from a War That Is Sure to Come'' … READ MORE

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  • The Langemarck Myth refers to the transformation of a WWI battle, in which the Germans suffered heavy losses, into a parable of nationalist martyrdom. The original battle between German and British … READ MORE

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  • In 1921 and 1922 the highest German court, the ''Reichsgericht'' in Leipzig, under pressure from the Allied powers, put seventeen Germans on trial for suspected war crimes in twelve trials. The … READ MORE

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  • In World War I Lemberg (German: Lemberg, Ukrainian: Lviv, Polish: Lwów) played an important role as a political and administrative center of Galicia and was of great strategic significance as one of … READ MORE

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  • Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was commander of the German colonial troops in East Africa from 1914 to 1918. Lettow-Vorbeck faced far superior British, South African, Belgian, and Portuguese forces, but … READ MORE

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  • Karl Liebknecht was the leading German socialist opponent of the First World War. He was the first member of parliament to vote against the financing of the war. On 1 May 1916 he was arrested and … READ MORE

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  • Liman von Sanders was the head of the German military mission in the Ottoman Empire from December 1913. As the commander of the 5th Army he was in charge of the defence of Gallipoli. In … READ MORE

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  • Germany’s aerial bombing campaign against Great Britain in the First World War, with London as its primary target, was the first sustained strategic bombing campaign in history. These raids, using … READ MORE

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  • Felix Graf von Luckner, the so-called “sea-devil”, was a German naval officer. During the Great War he became famous as a successful, but always gallant raider in the South Sea, until the … READ MORE

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  • Erich Ludendorff was the effective commander of the German armed forces during the war. He also became a quasi-dictatorial figure, the ruthless symbol of the army’s political power. After the war … READ MORE

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  • A Socialist and a vocal critic of the German Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) war policies, co-founder of the anti-war Spartacus League in 1916 and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1918, Rosa … READ MORE

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  • Between 1914 and 1918, the machine gun played an ever-increasing role on the battlefield. Today, even though artillery was responsible for the majority of deaths, the machine gun is the weapon most … READ MORE

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  • August von Mackensen was one of the most famous and successful German commanders during the First World War. He was engaged on the Eastern Front and campaigned in Russian Poland, Serbia and … READ MORE

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  • As an early critic of the social and political conditions of the Wilheminian society, Heinrich Mann was one of the few German authors who opposed the First World War from the beginning. The first … READ MORE

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  • In contrast to his brother Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann shared the widespread support of the war by the literary and academic elites. He even defended its atrocities as part of a defense of German … READ MORE

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  • During the years 1915 to 1918 in the internment camp in Markl (Windigsteig), in Lower Austria, up to 1,400 mostly Jewish persons of Russian-Polish and Russian origin were incarcerated. They already … READ MORE

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  • Martial law refers to the exercise of governmental power over the civilian population by military authorities. The use of martial law varied among belligerent countries, and its geographical scope … READ MORE

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  • Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was a Czech politician who started the Czechoslovak independence movement abroad. As head of the Czechoslovak National Council from 1916 to 1918, he provided an ideological … READ MORE

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  • The First World War represents the apex of the ideal of the male warrior hero. Between 1914 and 1918, both the soldiers themselves and combatant societies relied upon gendered language to make sense … READ MORE

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  • For many years Prince Maximilian of Baden was portrayed as a positive figure in German history - the liberal Chancellor who in 1918 helped to turn Germany into a republic. This view has been … READ MORE

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  • The Great War unfolded on multiple fronts and saw millions of men and women called up to serve in the armed forces. To recognise their military service as well as civilian efforts in wartime, … READ MORE

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  • The real naval war in the Mediterranean turned out to be a struggle against German and Austrian submarines and not a classic battle between major … READ MORE

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  • Georg Michaelis is usually portrayed as the politically failed chancellor of 1917. His resignation after fourteen weeks in office was the first overthrow of a Reich chancellor initiated by Reichstag … READ MORE

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  • Mine warfare or mining are the terms used to describe the digging of tunnels under the enemy’s line in order to place explosives to destroy a key location, to prevent an enemy from digging tunnels, … READ MORE

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  • Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke (the Younger), the Chief of the General Staff of the army in Berlin from 1906 to 1914 and the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army at the outbreak of the … READ MORE

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  • The two Moroccan crises represent the product of “rapacious joint imperialism.” Morocco could not escape the ambitions of its immediate neighbours, Spain and France, who secretly plotted to … READ MORE

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  • The First World War fundamentally changed the course of 20th century music. The era of late Romanticism, Symbolism and Expressionism had ended, the music culture of the European high … READ MORE

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  • The Austrian writer Robert Musil served as a soldier throughout the entire period of the war, first for border security in South Tyrol/Trentino, later on the Italian Front (“Mountain war”), and … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich Naumann was a key figure in German liberalism in the late Kaiserreich, where he tried to reunite Left and National Liberals. In 1915, he published a widely read book on … READ MORE

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  • The Anglo-German naval race was the most spectacular strand of the general maritime arms build-up before World War I. Often, albeit misleadingly, described as both the first and the prototypical arms … READ MORE

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  • Gustav Noske was a social democratic politician and the first politician to be awarded with military responsibilities. His role as first ''Reichswehrminister'' (Reich minister of defense) during the … READ MORE

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  • Over the entire course of German occupation in Eastern Europe during the First World War, the Ober Ost administration wavered between domination by military leaders – and their efforts to create a … READ MORE

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  • The ''Oberste Heeresleitung'' (Supreme Army Command or OHL) was the mobile wartime formation of the Great General Staff of the Prussian Army. Due to Imperial Germany's geostrategic position as a … READ MORE

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  • The Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive of May/June 1915 was a major military success for Austria-Hungary and Germany on the Eastern Front. Following the joint campaign of the Central Powers, the Russian army … READ MORE

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  • In 1912, the 1916 Olympic Games were awarded to Berlin. In consultation with the International Olympic Committee, the German organizers started their work. However, the outbreak of World War I led to … READ MORE

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  • Operation Alberich involved the systematic destruction of 1,500 square kilometres of French territory by the German army after Ludendorff’s decision to retreat to a newly constructed defensive line … READ MORE

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  • The Pan-German League (''Alldeutscher Verband'') mobilized members of the ''Bildungsbürgertum'' and the broader middle classes in the service of a class-based vision of ''Volksgemeinschaft'', … READ MORE

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  • Panslavism was a movement based on the conviction that all speakers of Slavic languages belong to a single nation. This was a starting point for the activities that aimed to bring Slav cultures and … READ MORE

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  • Friedrich von Payer was vice-chancellor of the German Empire from November 1917 to November 1918. In November 1918, he was offered the position of Reich chancellor, which he declined. After the First … READ MORE

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  • In World War I, the mobility of troops was of major strategic importance. New transportation means like trucks, as well as war planes, submarines and tanks, which began to revolutionize warfare … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, sport competitions became very popular amongst the soldiers of the Central Powers and the Allies. Especially on the Western Front, the transition of the war into a battle of … READ MORE

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  • The Socialists’ opposition to war in France, Germany and Italy during the period of the Second International (1889-1914) was contradictory. They tried to combine internationalism, antiwar … READ MORE

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  • The Prochaska Affair was a diplomatic dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, ostensibly concerning the fate of the Austro-Hungarian consul in Prizren. However, it carried deeper implications for … READ MORE

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  • Prostitution was considered among the most important societal problems facing civilian-military authorities in belligerent countries during World War I. Despite growing military control of the … READ MORE

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  • The Prussian War Ministry (''Preußisches Kriegsministerium'') was the highest administrative agency in the German army and was responsible for the organization of military personnel, the procurement … READ MORE

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  • During the first half of the war, many German cities tried to solve local food supply problems by introducing public kitchens. Subsequently, all German municipalities were requested to implement … READ MORE

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  • Although rape was not usually systematic, it occurred frequently on all fronts during the First World War, during both invasion and occupation periods. It was often used in propaganda to discredit … READ MORE

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  • Walther Rathenau was one of the most influential entrepreneurs before the First World War. In 1914/1915 he became one of the main organizers of Germany’s war economy. After World War I he supported … READ MORE

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  • The rear area was the space behind the front, linking the operational zone with the home territory. While this area constituted a place of calm and recreation for soldiers returning from front duty, … READ MORE

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  • Reconnaissance was aviation’s most important mission in the Great War. When war began, aircraft only performed observation and reconnaissance. The speed of intelligence gathered by aircraft changed … READ MORE

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  • On 25 May 1913 Colonel Alfred Redl, the former head of Austria-Hungary’s military espionage, committed suicide in Vienna. As it turned out, Redl had betrayed Austria-Hungary’s spy-network in … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, about 1.1 million refugees sought refuge in the interior of Austria-Hungary. The coexistence between the host communities and refugees in the interior was difficult, due to … READ MORE

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  • Erich Maria Remarque was a German writer and pacifist who became world-famous for his anti-war novel ''Im Westen nichts Neues'' (''All Quiet on the Western Front'') … READ MORE

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  • Karl Renner quickly became one of the main theoreticians of a policy of support for the war effort. He saw World War I as a chance for social democratic advance, with state intervention laying the … READ MORE

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  • Dominik Richert was a German soldier who deserted during the First World War. He is best known for his wartime memoir, published posthumously in 1989, which highlights the experience of conscripts at … READ MORE

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  • One of the most famous fighter pilots of the First World War, Manfred von Richthofen was credited with the destruction of eighty aircraft, the most of any aviator of the war, and earned the nickname … READ MORE

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  • Riezler was a German politician, diplomat, journalist and philosopher, as well as a trusted assistant of the chancellor. Although some of his surviving diary entries dated from July and August 1914 … READ MORE

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  • The rifle was by far the most common weapon used in the world war. When the major powers entered the conflict, they possessed around 11 million rifles. During the war, they either manufactured or … READ MORE

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  • Joseph Roth was a Jewish writer and journalist. His experiences at the Eastern Front in Galicia in 1916–1917 and the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after the war had a lasting impact on … READ MORE

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  • During World War I, motor vehicles took on a key role as transport facilities for troops and equipment. They needed tires made of rubber, which as a result became a raw material of strategic … READ MORE

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  • Camillo Ruggera was an officer of the General Staff in the Austro-Hungarian army. Assigned to the Supreme Command, on 29 October 1918 he was commissioned to make contact with the leaders of the … READ MORE

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  • The Ruhleben internment camp, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, held British civilian internees from its opening in November 1914 to its closure in November 1918. While the camp suffered from … READ MORE

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  • The 1923-1925 Ruhr occupation by France and Belgium was triggered when Germany defaulted on its reparations obligations. A passive resistance campaign obstructed the invaders but collapsed in … READ MORE

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  • Crown Prince Rupprecht was the heir to the Bavarian throne and one of Germany's most senior generals on the Western Front during the First World … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed by Austria and twenty-seven Allied and associated countries in the ''Château Neuf'' in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, southwest of Paris, on 10 September 1919. It … READ MORE

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  • Although ''sanjak'' usually means any one of many Ottoman administrative units, one has become known as “the Sanjak.” Following the Treaty of Berlin the Sanjak of Novi Pazar became the symbol of … READ MORE

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  • The Sarajevo incident refers to the events surrounding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Archduchess Sophie during a state visit to … READ MORE

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  • Stephan Baron von Sarkotić was an Austro-Hungarian general who had already made his mark as a political officer prior to the outbreak of World War I. During the war, he formulated different … READ MORE

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  • The renowned archaeologist Friedrich Sarre used his local knowledge to support the German-Ottoman war effort in western Persia in various leading functions. After the war, he sheltered the fugitive … READ MORE

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  • This article deals with the activities of journalist and photographer Alice Schalek as war correspondent during the Great War. Between 1915 and 1917 Schalek reported from the South Tyrolean, Isonzo … READ MORE

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  • Philipp Scheidemann was a key figure in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the First World War. On 9 November 1918, Scheidemann proclaimed the republic in Germany and became the first … READ MORE

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  • Max Scheler was a German philosopher and sociologist. The author of the widely known ''Der Genius des Kriegs und der Deutsche Krieg (The Spirit of War and the German War)'' is best known as an … READ MORE

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  • Count Alfred Schlieffen was chief of the Great General Staff of the Prussian-German Army between 1891 and 1905. He devised the so-called Schlieffen Plan, a strategic plan for a campaign against … READ MORE

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  • Heinrich Schnee was the governor of German East Africa between 1912 and 1919. During the war, he remained with the German colonial troops under the command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck until their … READ MORE

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  • ''Schwarze Schmach ''was a racist epithet for France’s colonial troops stationed in the German Rhineland after World War I. This early 1920s propaganda campaign focused on alleged sexual crimes by … READ MORE

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  • Seeckt became one of Germany’s best staff officers during the Great War. After 1918, he was the central figure of the Weimar Republic’s ''Reichswehr'' and a major contributor to the mobile … READ MORE

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  • A shell is a streamlined steel metal projectile, filled with a variety of explosive and chemical payloads, and detonated by an impact or time fuse. Delivered by complex systems to the point of … READ MORE

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  • In 1914, quick-firing field artillery could fire more shells than domestic industries, geared to peacetime consumption levels, could supply. Armies, although recognizing the dangers, had … READ MORE

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  • The Sixtus Affair was the failed attempt by Emperor Charles I. of Austria and his bother-in-law Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma to conclude a compromise peace with the members of the Entente-Powers … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, governments, civilians and soldiers alike prized smoking for its morale-boosting qualities, in addition to a medicinal effect following combat and periods of intense … READ MORE

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  • Social Darwinism was an intellectual movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that merged Charles Darwin’s biological theory of evolution with theories about human … READ MORE

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  • At the outbreak of the First World War, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) voted, as the largest party in the German Empire, for the granting of war loans. However, the thus-introduced … READ MORE

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  • The soldier’s personal equipment had a dual purpose: it was intended to enable him to carry out his military duties, and it was supposed to guarantee, independent of stationary installations, the … READ MORE

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  • Soldier’s humour, as expressed in jokes, songs and slang, reflected a dark, ironic and sardonic mind-set common among combatants. It usually contributed to individual psychological resilience, … READ MORE

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  • Starting in 1915, periods of leave known as "permissionnaires" played a vital role in supporting the morale of troops, allowing fighters to rest, and letting some families come together. These … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm Solf, long-term governor of German Samoa, served as Colonial Secretary between 1911 and 1918 and as the last imperial Foreign Secretary in winter 1918. During the war Solf supported … READ MORE

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  • Werner Sombart was a German political economist and pioneering sociologist who became notorious during World War I for his 1915 anti-English screed ''Händler und Helden'' (Traders and … READ MORE

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  • Spy Fever describes an anxiety or paranoia that enemy spies might be active within one’s own nation. The phenomenon was widespread in all theatres of World War I from at least August of 1914. Most … READ MORE

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  • Upon their defeat in the First World War, German citizens developed strong conspiracies that their war efforts had been ruined by internal forces. These theories came to be known as … READ MORE

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  • The steel helmet was invented and fielded in response to increased lethality on the battlefield due to advances in artillery and fragmentation. World War I witnessed the first wide-spread use of the … READ MORE

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  • Milan Rastislav Štefánik was a Slovak astronomer, diplomat, politician, general, one of the organizers of the Czechoslovak legions and one of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia. In today’s … READ MORE

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  • Deputy General Commands, also referred to as Home Military Commands, were German military authorities led by a general. From 1914 on they enhanced capacity across the twenty-five Army Corps districts … READ MORE

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  • This article summarises the main wartime stereotypes that defined war propaganda in Germany, France, Great Britain, the USA and Russia. It focuses less on particular details of each national enemy … READ MORE

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  • Hugo Stinnes was a highly successful and politically influential heavy industrialist. During the First World War, he adopted a German nationalist position and advocated the colonisation of Belgium … READ MORE

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  • Storm troopers were soldiers in specialized assault units, which emerged in the German army during the First World … READ MORE

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  • Stresemann was a leading wartime annexationist and proponent of moderate domestic reforms. Committed to restoring national strength after defeat and revolution, he became one of the Weimar … READ MORE

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  • Karl Graf von Stürgkh was an Austrian member of the Imperial Council, Minister for Education, and Minister President of Cisleithania from 3 November 1911 until his assassination on 21 October 1916 … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War the German government made extensive use of submarines, initially against warships and then, as the war progressed, most heavily against merchant shipping. However, the … READ MORE

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  • Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. She wrote an internationally acclaimed antiwar novel ''Die Waffen nieder!'' (''Lay Down Your Arms!'') and co-founded the … READ MORE

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  • World War I introduced new technologies and doctrine in a quest to overcome the tactical stalemate of the trenches. The first tanks had great potential that would be capitalized upon during the next … READ MORE

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  • The Battle of Tannenberg (26-30 August 1914), in which General Aleksandr Samsonov’s 2nd Russian (''Narevskaia'') Army was surrounded and completely annihilated, was one of the largest … READ MORE

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  • The myth of Tannenberg emerged after the defeat of the Russian army on the Eastern Front in 1914. After the war, Tannenberg was used to rework the military experience of World War One in both Soviet … READ MORE

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  • Whether on the Western or Eastern Front, by German, French, British, Canadian, American and other armies, shows were regularly organized on the front lines and at base camps during the Great War. … READ MORE

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  • ''Osudy dobrého vojaka Švejka za světové války'' (''The Good Soldier Švejk'') by Jaroslav Hašek belongs to the most valuable and informative artistic accounts of the Great War. Despite an … READ MORE

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  • The Last Days of Mankind (''Die letzten Tage der Menschheit'') is the major work by Vienna’s most prolific satirist, Karl Kraus. Published in full in 1922, the drama ridicules the interconnected … READ MORE

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  • ''Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften'' (''The Man without Qualities'') is a novel by Robert Musil, begun in 1918. The first book was published in 1931, and the first part of the second book was published in … READ MORE

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  • Grand Admiral Tirpitz was Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office from 1897 until 1916. Quickly losing his former great influence on German politics after the outbreak of war, he was … READ MORE

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  • István Tisza was a Hungarian politician and minister. He served as Prime Minister from 1903 to 1905 and from 1913 to 1917. Austria-Hungary entered the First World War during Tisza's second period as … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Toller was one of Germany’s best-known playwrights and a leading left-wing and pacifist intellectual during the 1920s and 1930s. He started his career as a playwright during the First World … READ MORE

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  • "Trench Art" is a genre of folk art comprised of items created in wartime, or from war materiel. It may be made by servicemen and women or by civilians, and is particularly associated with the First … READ MORE

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  • Trentino is an Italian-speaking region which was the southernmost part of the Tyrol. With Italy’s entry into the war, it found itself in the front area. After the war it was annexed to the Kingdom … READ MORE

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  • Before and at the beginning of World War I, various proposals concerning the creation of a third part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were brought up for discussion. Each of the aspiring groups … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Trianon is one of the Paris peace treaties that ended the First World War. It was concluded between Hungary and the Allied and Associated Powers on 4 June 1920 in the Grand Trianon … READ MORE

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  • Ernst Udet was the second-highest scoring German “ace” fighter pilot of the First World War, with sixty-two confirmed victories, and the highest-scoring German pilot to survive the war. Udet … READ MORE

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  • Fritz von Unruh was a German cavalry officer and a pacifist writer who, in his writings, tried to reflect the experience of the First World War, but served instead to transform it into modern … READ MORE

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  • The Treaty of Versailles was the first peace treaty that the victorious powers signed with a former adversary. The treaty with Germany was the most important treaty for the Allied and Associated … READ MORE

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  • War veterans’ associations had a significant public voice in Weimar Germany as they claimed to represent the demands of those who had fought for the country. Divided into national, regional, and … READ MORE

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  • The Austro-Hungarian battleship ''Viribus Unitis'' was commissioned in reaction to the newly built Italian dreadnought, ''Dante Alighieri''. The ''Viribus Unitis'' was the first Austro-Hungarian ship … READ MORE

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  • The ''Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.'' (German War Graves Commission or VDK) was established after the First World War to protect German war graves. During the Weimar Republic it … READ MORE

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  • The latter Austrian ''Land'' Vorarlberg saw the rise of a grass root movement for a political union with Switzerland between autumn 1918 and spring 1919. These ideas never materialized, however, as … READ MORE

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  • Baron Hans von Wangenheim was the German ambassador to the Ottoman capital between 1912 and … READ MORE

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  • The War Archives (''Kriegsarchiv''), centre of the official historiography of the Imperial and Royal Army in the pre-war period, changed, during the First World War, into a repository for recent war … READ MORE

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  • The governments of all belligerent countries issued special loans to finance their expenditure after the war began. To mobilize the financial resources of their peoples required concerted war bonds … READ MORE

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  • During the interwar years, mourning and political exploitation were often closely linked in the commemoration of those killed in the First World War. While the development of German war cemeteries in … READ MORE

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  • German war memorials were sites of both political conflict and personal mourning. Monumental displays of revanchism caused much controversy, but they were not prevalent. A nation without a national … READ MORE

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  • This article examines the concept of war poetry and considers the range of poetic responses generated by the Great War from an international … READ MORE

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  • The War Press Office, or ''Kriegspressequartier'' (KPQ) was the central propaganda institution of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces during World War I. Initially, the KPQ co-ordinated only print … READ MORE

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  • As a long-lasting industrial war, the Great War led to the realization of considerable profits throughout industrialized countries. Both real and imagined, they structured many wartime facets, from … READ MORE

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  • The War Requirements Acts were passed in Austria-Hungary in 1912. They placed military requisitions under parliamentary control and helped the army to obtain the most needed products and services … READ MORE

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  • During the First World War, Austria-Hungary implemented a state of emergency with several emergency laws overseen by the ''kaiserlich und königlich ''(''k.u.k.'') ''Kriegsüberwachungsamt'' (war … READ MORE

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  • In the First World War, war toys were regarded as a means to strengthen children’s identification with the war effort. Production and consumption of war toys in 1914 to 1915 reached heights never … READ MORE

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  • One third of the 9.7 million soldiers killed or declared missing during the Great War left behind a widow. The mourning of these women was conditioned as much by the social conventions practiced … READ MORE

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  • As an adviser in the imperial office of the treasury (1916-1918), the Heidelberg economist Alfred Weber helped establish Poland and Lithuania as satellite states under the hegemony of the German … READ MORE

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  • Otto Weddigen was among the best-known German submarine commanders in the First World War. He died in March 1915 after HMS Dreadnought rammed and sank his submarine as it undertook a failed attack on … READ MORE

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  • Karl Henry von Wiegand was the leading American foreign correspondent during the first half of the 20th century. His interviewees included Paul von Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler, Kemal … READ MORE

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  • The Vienna Philharmonic, a music institution typical of the high bourgeoisie before the First World War, played patriotic music in many charity concerts during the conflict and was sent to neutral … READ MORE

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  • Adolf Wild von Hohenborn served as Prussian war minister from January 1915 to October 1916. He is best known for his role in the ''Judenzählung'' (Jewish census), a census of Jewish soldiers in the … READ MORE

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  • Wilhelm’s education was dominated by a strict regime focused on preparing him for the military. As pro forma commander of the 5th Army at the Battle of Verdun, Wilhelm weakened his own … READ MORE

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  • Kaiser Wilhelm II’s ambitious policies played a major part in bringing about the First World War, yet with the onset of hostilities he was sidelined by his generals. In certain key areas, however, … READ MORE

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  • Wireless telegraphy became an integral part of warfare on the ground, in the air, and at sea by 1918. Wireless helped to make the war global, though historians still debate its impact on the course … READ MORE

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  • Witkop was professor of German literature at the University of Freiburg. He was responsible for the publication of ''Kriegsbriefe gefallener Studenten'' (War Letters of Fallen Students) which, in the … READ MORE

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  • ''Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau'' was a news agency that was the central source for news in Germany during the war. Because of censorship mechanisms, newspapers tended to reprint Wolff’s news … READ MORE

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  • At the end of the First World War, Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils spread throughout Germany, culminating in a mutiny among sailors at the end of October in Kiel that inaugurated the revolution … READ MORE

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  • Zeppelins heralded the potential of strategic bombing. Although airships were originally used for maritime and army reconnaissance, Germany was first to employ them as a strategic weapon. The German … READ MORE

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  • Referred to as the “grandmother of German communism” at the time of her death in 1933 by the ''Manchester Guardian'', Clara Zetkin was a prominent feminist leader within the German social … READ MORE

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