How should Germany commemorate the First World War?
Pub opening hours and daylight saving (DST) were both introduced in Britain in a bid to increase productivity during the First World War. Daylight Savings was also introduced in the US for the same reason.
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125,000 people may still own British “war bonds,” issued to small investors to fund the war effort. Around £2bn was invested in the bonds, issued before the First World War and later the Second World War.***
In spring 1918, German Chief of Staff Erich Ludendorff used an unorthodox form of camouflage in a surprise attack on British troops stationed near the river Aisne in northeast France. Ludendorff deployed his troops along the river where their movements would be inaudible due to the croaking of frogs.***
“Stubby the war dog” served in the US Army in 1917, and was the only canine to be promoted to the rank of sergeant. A bull terrier cross, Stubby distinguished himself as a “mercy” dog, comforting the wounded on the battlefield, and was also trained to alert comrades to possible gas attacks. On his death in 1926, he received an obituary in The New York Times.***
One of the First World War’s worst civilian massacres was perpetrated by German troops. Some 674 civilians, the oldest over 90 and the youngest less than a year old, were slaughtered in the city of Dinant, Belgium, on 23 August 1914. The victims were accused of aiding and abetting guerilla fighters or “franc-tireurs.***
More Frenchmen died in Gallipoli in 1915 than did Australians and New Zealanders. While 7,779 Australians and 2,779 New Zealanders lost their lives during the campaign, around 15,000 of the 42,000 French troops who were stationed in the Dardanelles perished.***
Tanks on parade at the end of the war. © Thomas Frederick Scales
Over 88 per cent of those who joined the British armed forces in the First World War returned home alive. When the war ended in 1918, it was celebrated as a miraculous victory over a pernicious enemy.***
The 306 men executed for crimes such as desertion and cowardice by British military high command during the war still do not appear on official memorials: their names have been erased from mainstream history.
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The signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
The First World War did not end on 11th November, 1918; that when the armistice was signed and the ceasefire with Germany came into effect. The formal end of the war was marked by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which occurred on June 28th, 1919—exactly five years after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.***
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany in 2010. © Armin Linnartz
Germany finally cleared its First World War debt in 2010, after 92 years, with a final repayment of almost £60m. The so-called "guilt clause" of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles placed full blame for the war on Germany and ordered reparations of 132 billion German marks (roughly $400bn in today's dollars). Research by Hew Strachan, Josh Lowe and Robin McGhee
