1948: John J. Pershing Lies In State At The U.S. Capitol

General John J. Pershing lies in state at the U.S. Capitol in 1948.

Pershing was born one year before the onset of the American Civil War and died three years after the conclusion of World War II.

During his lifetime, Pershing saw Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant make their reputations—and he saw George S. Patton and Dwight David Eisenhower make theirs.

Pershing is the sole U.S. general from World War I whose name is known today to the general public.

26 April 1925: The DNVP Campaigns For Hindenburg

Supporters of the German National People’s Party (DNVP) campaign for Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg in Berlin in April 1925.

Believing that a Leftist candidate was destined to win that year’s Presidential Election in Germany, the DNVP withdrew its own candidate and—with the support of other conservative parties—pressured Hindenburg to enter the race.

Hindenburg, always a political independent, agreed with great reluctance to become a candidate—solely to prevent the election of a Leftist.

Hindenburg, as expected, won the election for a seven-year term—and won reelection in 1932, dying in office in 1934.

Kaiser Wilhelm’s Library At Manor Doorn

After abdicating the German throne, Kaiser Wilhelm lived in exile in The Netherlands for the final twenty-three years of his life. Twenty-one of those years were spent at Manor Doorn, a stately mansion the Kaiser purchased as his residence-in-exile.

Wilhelm spent hours and hours in his library at Manor Doorn, corresponding with a wide range of persons.

The anti-Semitic comments in his letters are legion. In a 1940 letter to his sister, Princess Margaret, Wilhelm wrote:

The hand of God is creating a new world and working miracles. We [Germany] are becoming the United States Of Europe under German leadership, a united European continent. The Jews are being thrust out of their nefarious positions in all countries, which they have driven to hostility for centuries.

Wilhelm’s death occurred at the height of German conquest: he died seven days before Germany’s invasion of Russia.

January 1917: Military Conference

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II and General Erich Ludendorff confer in January 1917.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff were at each other’s throats from 1916 onward—and they continued to battle, mercilessly, until Hindenburg’s death in 1934 (Ludendorff died in 1937).

During the war, they argued about military operations and domestic wartime policy.

After the war, they argued about who should receive credit for wartime military victories and who should receive blame for wartime military losses—as well as which of the two was more responsible for the final war settlement so disastrous for Germany.

During The Weimar Republic, both were important politicians with important power bases. Both were inherent conservatives, yet both men diverged on all important issues of the day.

Their personal grudge was to outlast The Weimar Republic and continue into The Period Of National Socialism, a period during which Adolf Hitler learned to play both men like violins.

1918: The Kiel Mutiny

The Kiel Mutiny began on November 3, 1918, and spread like wildfire throughout Germany.

Within six days, the Hohenzollern dynasty had fallen.

The Nightmarish Wasteland Of Armentières, 1918

The nightmarish wasteland of Armentières in April 1918.

Armentières was destroyed in ten days during The Spring Offensive that had begun in March 1918, a campaign the Germans had hoped would break the four-year stalemate on The Western Front. From April 9 to April 18, Armentières was subjected to unprecedented destruction.

Although there is scant evidence of such in the photograph, the area depicted had been a near-impenetrable forest, for centuries, prior to The Spring Offensive.

Once The Spring Offensive—initially successful—ground to a halt, Germany knew that the war was no longer winnable.

Street In Arras

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Street In Arras
1918
Imperial War Museum, London

Watercolor On Paper
20 13/16 Inches By 15 5/8 Inches

Homeward Bound

German troops returning from The Western Front cross the Belgian-Dutch border in November 1918.

Berlin Food Riots

A Berlin butcher shop in the early months of 1919, the morning after the shop had been raided for its stock.

In the first six months of 1919, food riots occurred all over Germany.

Germany, never self-sufficient in food, had been in a state of virtual starvation since the early months of the war, a result of the British Naval Blockade.

To the consternation of the United States, Britain continued its Naval Blockade after the war ended—and it did so in order to force Germany to sign the Treaty Of Versailles.

The U.S. vigorously protested the continuation of the blockade once the war was over—the U.S. saw no need to starve the German public after cessation of hostilities—but Britain was firm in its resolve to continue the blockade.

The U.S. was unable to gather support from other nations in an effort to convince Britain to end the blockade. France was utterly indifferent to the post-war needs of the German populace, as were all other nations with a voice at the Versailles treaty table.

Herbert Hoover, who had traveled to Germany and witnessed for himself the widespread starvation and death, had a series of near-violent encounters with top British officials, including Prime Minister Lloyd George, urging that the blockade be ended for foodstuffs.

U.S. newspapers expressed outrage over Britain’s deliberate starvation of Germany.

On humanitarian grounds, the U.S. government contemplated using the U.S. Navy to break the blockade.

And yet Britain maintained its blockade until Germany affixed its signature to the treaty.

No one knows precisely how many persons starved to death as a direct result of the eight-month post-war blockade—but the figure is believed to be unimaginable.

Street Clashes In Berlin During The Spartacist Uprising January 1919

Distribution Of Flour Vienna 1915

Crossing The Rhine

November 1918: German troops returning from the Western Front cross the Rhine at Cologne.

The men returned to a country already in revolution.

96 Years Ago This Morning

Kaiser Wilhelm inspecting German troops on the Eastern Front on New Year's Day 1916.

Reims 1917

The Old Women Of Reims 1917

During World War I, the French government commissioned thousands of color photographs.

Color film was to remain rare for another two decades, and the color film used in France during the war was undeniably primitive, yet France’s photographic archive of World War I is of an amazing standard, historic and unparalleled among countries fighting in the war.

In March and April 1917, photographers descended upon the destroyed city of Reims to photograph the city’s destruction—as well as the city’s inhabitants.


The photograph above was taken on March 28, 1917.

The photograph below was taken on April 5, 1917.

Diksmude

Diksmude, Belgium, in the early months of World War I.

By war's end, the town had been obliterated.

One Of The Most Striking Images Of The Great War

This remarkable World War I photograph from the very earliest weeks of the conflagration shows a German shell bursting against Reims Cathedral on September 20, 1914. The photograph provides one of the most striking images captured by the camera on any front during more than four years of The Great War.

Before the conflict was over, Reims Cathedral was largely destroyed.

With American funds, the cathedral was rebuilt from 1919 to 1938. One year after reconstruction had been completed, war between Germany and France was renewed.

The cathedral was damaged but not destroyed in World War II. Repairs were completed by 1962.

Reims Cathedral’s stained glass lost in World War I is still being replaced to this very day. Indeed, a new series of stained glass windows at Reims Cathedral was unveiled early this morning in France.

Ypres 1919

Ypres, Belgium, in 1919, one year after the war, when the ruined city had become a tourist destination, overrun with visitors curious to see for themselves the extent of the destruction.

Ypres 1916

Ypres, Belgium, in 1916, "after two years of war" in the words inscribed on this British photograph commissioned by The Royal Artillery.

Ypres 1915

Ypres, Belgium, in 1915, shortly after the First Battle Of Ypres, which occurred in 1914.

There were to be four more Battles Of Ypres before war's end.

Bad as Ypres had been damaged by early 1915, there were no visible city remnants at all by November 1918. Literally everything in Ypres had been obliterated. The city had been shelled into the stone age.