A Swiss postcard of 'The European War' in 1914. The Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary face enemies to the east, west, and south. Germany is fighting the war it tried to avoid, battling Russia to the east and France to the west. Germany had also hoped to avoid fighting England which came to the aid of neutral (and prostrate) Belgium, and straddles the Channel. Austria-Hungary also fights on two fronts, against Russia to the east and Serbia and Montenegro to the south. Italy, the third member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality, and looks on. Other neutral nations include Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. Japan enters from the east to battle Germany. The German Fleet stays close to port in the North and Baltic Seas while a German Zeppelin targets England. The Austro-Hungarian Fleet keeps watch in the Adriatic. Turkey is not represented, and entered the war at the end of October, 1914; Italy in late May, 1915.
Image text: Der Europäische KriegThe European WarReverse:Kriegskarte No. 61. Verlag K. Essig, BaselKunstanstalt (Art Institute) Frobenius A.G. Basel
Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, Vienna, 1914. By the end of that year he had lost as many as one million men, much of his country's rolling stock, and the northeastern region of Galicia. His forces had also been defeated by Serbia three times.
Image text: Generalstabschef Conrad von HötzendorfChief of the General Staff Conrad von HötzendorfCh. Skolik jun.Wien, 1914I. Wallfischg. 11Reverse:Postkartenverlad Brüder Kohn Wien I
General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was commander of German forces in Africa, and successfully battled Allied forces for four years. Postcard from a painting by Fritz Grotemeyer.
Image text: Kolonial-Krieger-Spende - Colonial Warrior donationvon Lettow-VorbeckSigned: Grotemeyer 191?Reverse:Kolonial Krieger-SpendeBerlin W. 8 Mauerßtr. 45.Fritz Grotemeyer: von Lettow-Vorbeck an der Spitze seiner Truppen (Diakat[?] Kolonial Krieger-Spende)Colonial Warrior donationFritz Grotemeyer: von Lettow-Vorbeck leading his troops (Diakat Piakat colonial warrior-donation)
Parted red curtains; in the center, in a trench, a German soldier, eyes closed, hands in overcoat pockets, leans against one side of a trench, smoking a pipe, his rifle resting on the other side of the trench. To the right, a Red soldier, red from red fur hat to red boots, holds two rifles. To the left, a Russian soldier casts away his his hat, backpack, and rifle. Across the bottom of the stage it reads, 1918. Operett: "Trockij", Operetta Trotsky. A watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
Image text: 1918. Operett: "Trockij", Operetta Trotsky
"When the old year closed a complete deadlock existed between the great combatants in the West by land and by sea. The German fleet remained sheltered in its fortified harbours, and the British Admiralty had discovered no way of drawing it out. The trench lines ran continuously from the Alps to the sea, and there was no possibility of manœuvre. The Admirals pinned their faith to the blockade; the Generals turned to a war of exhaustion and to still more dire attempts to pierce the enemy's front. All the wars of the world could show nothing to compare with the continuous front which had now been established. Ramparts more than 350 miles long, ceaselessly guarded by millions of men, sustained by thousands of cannon, stretched from the Swiss frontier to the North Sea. The Germans had tried in October and November to break through while these lines were still weak and thin. They had failed with heavy losses. The French and British Headquarters had still to be instructed in the defensive power of barbed wire and entrenched machine guns." ((1), more)
"The ascendancy of the Central Powers on the battlefield at the beginning of 1916 was reflected in the treatment of the national minorities inside Austria-Hungary. That January the German language was declared to be the only official language in Bohemia. In the streets of Prague the police used truncheons against people they heard speaking Czech. But in the policy-making centre, Vienna, the Austrian leaders recognized the enormous problems that the war was creating, especially as the Russian army, for all its setbacks, continued to fight with tenacity. 'There can be no question of destroying the Russian war machine,' General Conrad warned Count Tisza on January 4, and he added: 'England cannot be defeated; peace must be made in not too short a space, or we shall be fatally weakened, if not destroyed.'" ((2), more)
"What the Allied commanders under the leadership of Smuts have failed to understand is that von Lettow-Vorbeck, their tough, intelligent and cynical opponent, does not give a damn about the colony. Right from the start, this master of guerrilla warfare has seen it as his task to draw in as many enemy troops as possible, because every man, every gun, every bullet shipped to East Africa means one man, one gun, one bullet fewer on the Western Front. And the German has succeeded in this beyond his wildest dream: Smuts now has five times as many soldiers as von Lettow-Vorbeck, but has come nowhere near defeating the German." ((3), more)
". . . if the Russians do break off negotiations, it will place us in a very unpleasant position. The only way to save the situation is by acting quickly and energetically with the Ukrainian delegation, and we therefore commenced this work on the afternoon of the same day. There is thus at least a hope that we may be able to arrive at positive results with them within reasonable time.In the evening, after dinner, came a wire from Petersburg announcing the arrival of the delegation, including the Foreign Minister, Trotzky. It was interesting to see the delight of all the Germans at the news; not until this sudden and violent outbreak of satisfaction was it fully apparent how seriously they had been affected by the thought that the Russians would not come. Undoubtedly this was a great step forward, and we all feel that peace is really now on the way." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the chapter 'The Deadlock in the West' in Winston Churchill's history of the war, and Churchill's explication of why the war was different from its predecessors. Among the reasons: 'The turning movement, the oldest manœuvre in war, became impossible. . . . the power of modern weapons . . . the use of barbed wire . . . the centre could not be pierced and there were no flanks to turn.' Germany's major October and November offensive ended in defeat in the Battle of Flanders.
The World Crisis 1911-1918 by Winston Churchill, pp. 291, 292, copyright © by Charles Scribner's Sons 1931, renewed by Winston S. Churchill 1959, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 1931, 2007
(2) By the beginning of 1916 there were demands for peace in many of the combatant nations. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff had already lost 2.1 million men, many against Russia which, even as Conrad wrote, was waging an offensive in Galicia, Austria-Hungary's northeastern province. Russia had given up most of Polish Russia in its Great Retreat of 1915, but, in doing so, had shortened and stabilized its front. Its production of war material had begun to justify the reference to a 'war machine,' and it had consistently fought well against Austria-Hungary, forcing Conrad to rush to Berlin to plead for German assistance. Count Etienne Tisza was the Royal Hungarian Premier of the Dual Monarchy.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 224, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
(3) On January 4, 1917, the British attacked a German unit at the village of Beho Beho in German East Africa. As in other encounters, the German forces inflicted heavy losses before slipping away from an attempted encirclement to fight on another day. The British were under the command of Jan Smuts of the Union of South Africa. The Germans were commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, page 320, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
(4) Excerpt from the entry for January 4, 1918 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War, on the stalemate at the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. The Russians feared that Germany and Austria-Hungary would recognize the independence of nations — such as Poland and Ukraine — within what had been the Russian Empire. The Germans and Austrians were prepared to do so if they had no Russian negotiating partner, but clearly preferred working with the Russians. Russian leader Vladimir Lenin was concerned that the delegation as initially constituted was not up to the task, and sent Leon Trotsky to lead it.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 257, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
