Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"Towards the end of our stay [in early April, 1915], the weather improved, and we happily went for walks in the attractive, rather watery countryside. The landscape, in which yellow marsh marigolds seemed to have sprouted overnight, was set off by the sight of numbers of half-naked soldiers along the poplar-lined river banks, all with their shirts over their knees, busily hunting for lice. Fairly unscathed myself by that scourge, I helped my comrade Priepke, an exporter from Hamburg, wrap his woollen waistcoat — as populous as once the garment of the adventurous Simplicissimus — round a heavy boulder, and for mass-extermination, dunk it in the river. Where, since we left Hérinnes very suddenly, it will have mouldered away quietly ever since."
In late March and early April, 1915, German author and soldier Ernst Jünger was with the 111 Infantry Division in Belgium.
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 20, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
1915, 1915-04-01, April, April Fool's Day, April fool, April fish, Aisne
