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Map of the Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
A color map of Germany before and during the war from a French postcard, including the German states, views of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Rhine. Alsace and Lorraine are in the southwest.
'Street Life, 1916' by Hans Larwin, a native of Vienna and painter of the war on multiple fronts, including the home front. A bread line, chiefly of women, waits along the shopfronts to buy bread. To the left, a policeman stands guard.
German and Russian soldiers fraternizing during the 1917 Armistice. Handwritten notes on the back include 'Deutsche Russische Verbrüderung' — 'Rus — Waffenstillstand 1917' — 'German Russian brotherhood' and 'Russian Armistice 1917.'
Women workers in a German munitions factory. The man on the right is holding a cigarette.
". . . as the months passed, the subterranean rumblings of Revolution in the vast Empire of the Czars sounded louder and more menacing; and on the horizon, sown with shadows and lightning, the dark silhouettes of Lenin, Kaledin, Trotsky, and Skoropadky waxed more distinct. Finally, the formal and definite order for the Russian evacuation of the Caucasus was published. Our Second Army raised camp in order to go to the province of Aleppo, which was to serve henceforth as their base and zone of operations, in the event of a disembarkation or formal advance of the English by way of the Euphrates.This was the state of affairs, when, toward the middle of January [1918], we lined up in front of the Mardin Gate to receive Nihat Pasha, the new General of the Second Army." ((1), more)
"A meeting of the Turners' Union was held on January 27 [1918] in Berlin to which all the principal industries sent representatives. On the proposal of Richard Müller the meeting unanimously resolved to call a general strike for the following day. On January 28, therefore, four hundred thousand workmen in Berlin and the outlying districts laid down their tools; while on the same day four hundred delegates, representatives of all the industrial unions in Berlin, met as a Berlin Workmen's Council in the Trades Union building in order to formulate the strikers' demands. . . . The strikers demanded above all else a speedy conclusion of peace without annexations, and a radical democratization of the whole governmental system in Germany. They further demanded the abolition of martial law and the auxiliary services law in addition to a political amnesty and improved rationing." ((2), more)
"—The 29th [January, 1918]. To-day begins the restriction to ten ounces of bread. Queues have been lining up in front of bakeries for several days. They were laying in stores. There were brawls at Versailles. This sudden restriction is said to have been caused by the shortage in Italy. Italy was threatening to make peace unless she was supplied with flour. So supplies have been sent to her. . . .Stirring events, declares Longuet, are brewing in England. Glasgow is a seething hotbed of revolt. The London engineers, like the Clyde workmen, have demanded immediate peace negotiations." ((3), more)
"There is no doubt that the revolutionary happenings in Austria and in Germany have enormously raised the hopes of the Petersburgers for a general convulsion, and it seems to me altogether out of the question now to come to any peace terms with the Russians. It is evident among the Russians themselves that they positively expect the outbreak of a world-revolution within the next few weeks, and their tactics now are simply to gain time and wait for this to happen. The conference was not marked by any particular event, only pin-pricks between Kühlmann and Trotzky." ((4), more)
"Unrest came to a head in January 1918, when a wave of strikes swept the Reich. The strikes, like those earlier in the Dual Monarchy, were driven by three major concerns: hunger, cold, and war weariness. But, again as in the Austro-Hungarian case, the strikers also had political motives: suffrage reform in Prussia, speedy conclusion of peace negotiations with the Bolsheviks at Brest-Litovsk then being held up by German demands for territorial gains, and an end to the domestic 'state of siege' that had existed since August 1914. The strikes were to highlight the desperate plight of labour, not to simulate the Bolshevik example in Petrograd. They were led in the main by so-called 'revolutionary foremen' elected by workers in individual factories and not by leaders of either of the two socialist parties." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoir of Rafael de Nogales, a Venezuelan mercenary and officer in the Ottoman Army. The Bolshevik Revolution took place in November, 1917, bringing to power Vladimir Lenin, determined to end Russia's involvement in the war. In January, 1918, Leon Trotsky was negotiating peace with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. The Russians had defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus Mountains in the Battle of Sarikamish at the beginning of the war, and advanced into eastern Turkey in the following years. At the beginning of 1918, Allied, primarily British, forces were advancing northwards along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia, and along the Mediterranean coast in Palestine and Syria. The Mardin Gate is in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey.
Four Years Beneath the Crescent by Rafael De Nogales, page 394, copyright © 1926, by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1926
(2) Workers in Austria-Hungary and then Germany went on strike in January, 1918 as hunger and war-weariness bit. Hopes for an end to the war that arose from the December, 1917 armistice between Russia and the Central Powers were dashed on January 12 when German military representative General Max Hoffman made it clear Germany would not evacuate occupied territory on the Eastern Front. Anticipating revolutionary activity across war-weary Europe, Russian representative Leon Trotsky played for time. On January 25, workers of the Torpedo Yard in Kiel, the German Empire's major port on the Baltic Sea, went on strike. Richard Müller was a leader of the Turners' Union in Berlin. The auxiliary services law of December, 1916 required every German between the ages of sixteen and sixty to perform war service.
Imperial Germany; The Birth of the German Republic 1871–1918 by Arthur Rosenberg, page 211, publisher: Beacon Press, publication date: 1964
(3) Entries for January 29, 1918, from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris. Corday wrote frequently about the luxury available in the French capital that was denied the less fortunate and the soldiers at the front. France and Great Britain propped up Italy after the destruction of its Second Army in the Battle of Caporetto, sending men and supplies. The Bolshevik Revolution in November, 1917, and the armistice and subsequent peace negotiations between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk had raised hopes for peace across Europe, hopes dashed by Germany's refusal to evacuate occupied Russian territory. Glasgow, Scotland, had seen strikes early in the war. In January, 1918, workers had struck in Vienna and other cities in Austria-Hungary, and in Kiel, Berlin, and other cities in Germany.
The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 311, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934
(4) Excerpt from the entry for January 30, 1918 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czernin headed the Austro-Hungarian delegation to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. Hundreds of thousands of workers in Austria-Hungary and then Germany went on strike in January, 1918 as hunger and war-weariness bit. Hopes for an end to the war that arose from the December, 1917 armistice were dashed on January 12 when German military representative General Max Hoffman made it clear Germany would not evacuate occupied territory on the Eastern Front. Anticipating revolutionary activity across war-weary Europe, Russian representative Leon Trotsky played for time. Richard von Kühlmann was Germany's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and civilian head of a German delegation that was controlled by the military. He seems to have enjoyed sparring with Trotsky, to the dismay of Czernin, who recognized his country was on the verge of collapse. Petersburg is the Russian capital of Petrograd.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 273, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(5) Workers in Austria-Hungary and then Germany went on strike in January, 1918 as hunger and war-weariness bit. Hopes for an end to the war that arose from the December, 1917 armistice and subsequent peace negotiations between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk were dashed on January 12 when German military representative General Max Hoffman made it clear Germany would not evacuate occupied territory on the Eastern Front. Anticipating revolutionary activity across war-weary Europe, Russian representative Leon Trotsky played for time. The Bolshevik Revolution began in Petrograd, the Russian capital.
The First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary 1914-1918 by Holger H. Herwig, page 378, copyright © 1997 Holger H. Herwig, publisher: Arnold, publication date: 1997
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