Yesterday, on July 31, the opening of the exhibition "Two Wars in the Fates of Our Compatriots" took place in the city museum of local lore in Kropotkin. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the start of the First World War 1914-1918. within the framework of the cultural and educational program “If we remember this war, what right do the rest have to forget”, designed for 2014-2018. This year, within the framework of this program, the museum has prepared a series of events "Chronicle of a Forgotten War" for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War (1914-1918).
The exhibition presents material of local lore: photographs of fellow countrymen who participated in the war, eyewitness memories, fragments of edged weapons from the First World War, a symbolic map of Europe in 1914-1915.
For the first time presented a sheet from the newspaper "Chronicle of War in Russia" No. 14761 dated April 3, 1915 from the stock collection "Printed Products".
A special place in the exposition was taken by a memory showcase dedicated to Mikhail Vasilyevich Cherevchin, a cavalier of two St. George's Crosses of the 3rd and 4th degrees, a participant in the First World War, the Civil and the Great Patriotic Wars. The showcase displays documents, photographs and archival information confirming the participation of Mikhail Vasilyevich in the First World War.
The exposition section "White Doves", dedicated to sisters of mercy during the First World War, presents photographs, postcards (copies) of sisters of mercy, medical instruments of the early twentieth century: glass syringes and needles, glass jars for storing medicines and a Petri dish.
The exhibition was completed by the section "Achievements of technology and weapons during the First World War", which presents photographs of new weapons and military equipment developed during the war.
As part of the opening of the exhibition, a solemn meeting with representatives of the Cossack society of the region and the city took place.
A welcoming speech was made by the chairman of the Council of Old Men of the City Cossack Society Yuri Ivanovich Bezvershenko and the centurion of the Kropotkin City Cossack Society, Honored Worker of Culture of the Kuban Vladimir Nikolaevich Fomenko. A pleasant surprise for museum workers was the gift of Vladimir Nikolaevich - two volumes of the book "Pages of Cossack Glory" about the participation of the Cossacks of the Caucasian Department of the Kuban Cossack Army in the First World War of 1914-1917.
From Art. Temizhbekskaya, the ataman of the Cossack organization "Lineets", Esaul Nikolai Dmitrievich Sitnikov, and the deputy ataman drove up Vasily Fedorovich Klimenko to the event in the city museum. Nikolai Dmitrievich read the poems of his own composition about the Cossacks - participants of the First World War. Vasily Fedorovich handed over to the museum funds a photo-report on the installation of a monument to the participants of the First World War on the territory of the St. Archangel Michael Church, st. Temizhbekskaya. Among the honorary guests of the event were the esaul of the city Cossack army Vladimir Adolfovich Kozhukhar, chairman of the Kropotkin primary organization of the Krasnodar regional branch of the Russian society of historians and archivists (ROIA), director of the MBUK TsBS Lyubov Mikhailovna Trepilchenko.
The honorary donor of the museum Vladimir Adolfovich donated to the museum a machine-gun box (cartridge box) for the Maxim machine gun arr. 1911. and a model of a two-masted sailing ship, made by hand. Lyubov Mikhailovna Trepilchenko handed over to the Kropotkin Museum a selection of the newspaper "Notes of an Archivist" for 2017 and the first half of 2018, and Anatoly Vasilyevich Marinchenko, Candidate of Political Sciences, Professor, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, gave the monograph "Bloody Troubles".
The deputy chieftain of the regional Cossack society ml. sergeant-major Alexander Nikolaevich Ignatov and member of the society of historians-archivists Konstantin Vladimirovich Kataley.
Ataman of the Cossack organization "Lineets" of the Esaul Nikolai Dmitrievich Sitnikov and the centurion of the Kropotkin City Cossack Society, Honored Worker of Culture of the Kuban Vladimir Nikolaevich Fomenko were awarded the "Prize George Cross" in honor of the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War 1914-1918
For the pupils of the "Patriot" club and guests of the event, the research fellow of the GCM IV Vinnikov. delivered a lecture “Inhabitants of the Romanovsky farm on the Caucasian front of the First World War”.
History is always a lesson. Only having mastered it, you can confidently step into the future without repeating the mistakes of the past.
Several exhibitions have opened in Moscow to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War. Everyone talks about the war in their own way. VD chose three of them. On each visit, I want to return.
The war that ended the world (547345)
“It was not a calendar century that was approaching - the real twentieth century,” Akhmatova's hoarse voice sounds from the speaker at the entrance to the exhibition hall in MAMM on the sixth floor. The lines of "Poem Without a Hero" written by Anna Andreevna about the pre-revolutionary and pre-war years, measuredly read by the author, are like an epigraph to the museum's exposition of the First World War "The War That Ends the World."
This exhibition was one of the first opened in Moscow on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war, and remains one of the most interesting, "personal" and emotional. There are posters, reproductions, audio, video, documentary evidence. All this helps to see and hear the war as the people who lived in those years and who directly participated in it saw and heard it. But the main thing here is, of course, photographs. Hundreds and hundreds of photographs from private collections and museum collections from all over the world. The photographs trace the events of the First World War from the day of the assassination in Serbia of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which became the reason for the outbreak of the war, to the results of the catastrophe that took the lives of tens of millions of people, crippled - even more, reshaped Europe and made the world completely different.
There are some really scary episodes here. For example, photographs and memories testifying to the first ever use of chemical weapons, the spraying of poisonous chlorine off Ypres. "The German government was preparing for the operation carefully and secretly," and now 180 thousand kilograms of suffocating gas are released with a "tailwind". "The yellowish-green cloud moved into British positions, penetrating trenches and cover." "Panic gripped the troops": it was almost impossible to hide from the poison that prevented them from breathing. Then 15 thousand people suffered, of which five thousand died.
There are photographs (including stereo pairs) from trenches, from battlefields, from hospitals and prison camps, from factories where military equipment was made, and from villages that were abandoned after the war. Soldiers and soldiers bathing horses, picturesquely perched on the spreading branches of a tree ("Waiting for the mail"). Officers, with interest twirling in their hands an unprecedented shell. A teddy bear hugging a dog ("Teddy bear, the mascot of a squadron of armored vehicles of the Royal Navy Aviation"). A military man, concentrating his gun aiming upwards, looking like an astronomer observing the stars ("Ensign Homka. Shooting an airplane"). "Prisoners of the British Army" - an endless field of heads in helmets and caps. International Tracing Agency. Department of the missing ”- a young woman goes through one by one countless cards in the file cabinet. "Regimental artist", "regimental actor", "clown", beckoning to the camp cafe, crowded around the camp "residents".
Akhmatova's voice is heard through the rumble of explosions, the neighing of horses, the crackle of shots. Near the speaker at the entrance there is a video on the wall, opposite - a mirror. Looking up, you see yourself against the background of successive shots of military chronicles. The whole exhibition is about this.
The exhibition "The War That Ends the Peace" is open at the Multimedia Art Museum (16 Ostozhenka) until October 19. Tickets: 50-400 rubles.
Moscow during the First World War (549935)
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A few minutes walk down Ostozhenka - and we are at the Museum of Moscow. Exhibition in the third building of the museum, which occupies the building of the Provision Warehouses, which still remember the events of those years.
This exposition opened on August 1 - this day (according to the new style) is considered for Russia the day the war began. In the current capital 100 years ago, the first days and weeks of the war caused, first of all, a rise in enthusiasm and a desire to help the country and the front - both from the city government and ordinary Muscovites. Then a stream of refugees and wounded poured into the city - and Moscow did everything to take care of them.
“We need food for the wounded on the difficult route. Everything is needed. Donate everything. Who can what to dress, nourish and comfort the wounded: short fur coats, army jackets, coats, jackets, trousers, boots, felt boots, galoshes, shirts, jackets, mittens, warm gloves, as well as any material and stock for clothes and linen for the wounded and families , dry products: cereals, tea, sugar, tobacco, dishes and books - everything will be accepted with gratitude in our trucks, which will travel all over Moscow, to every house, to every apartment - everything will be given immediately to grateful hands in hospitals and warehouses ".
Exhibition "Moscow during the First World War". Source: Museum of Moscow
Posters with this text and a drawing by Konstantin Korovin, depicting Dmitry Donskoy, a symbol of Russian military glory and victory, were hung all over Moscow on September 21, 1914. It was noted: "You need to help as soon as possible, before the onset of frost." The "van collection" went on for five weeks. Muscovites carried "everything that can nourish and comfort the wounded" in tons: in the photographs of those years - literally to the ceiling heaped up with clothes and books, reception and sorting points for accepted donations. In a large showcase next to the van (it was these "trucks" that accepted gifts from Muscovites) - samples of those donations: shirts, coarse yellowish linen and white cambric, books (Leskov, Fet, Saltykov-Shchedrin), tea and chamomile, cotton wool and cookies, scissors , pincers, binoculars, the German-Russian dictionary "Blago".
There is even more about charity in the next room. The mannequins are dressed in costumes of those years and are girded with sling. "To help the victims of the war" (the very first collection, "kruzchny": they sold flags, postcards with Pasternak's drawing "The Wounded Warrior"; the gathering was organized three weeks after the start of the war, on August 20-12, 1914, they collected 307,822 rubles, 15,000 rubles things). “For tobacco for a soldier” and “To combat consumption” (“Day of the White Chamomile” - on April 20 they offered to buy a flower). “Buy a red egg” (a one-day Easter camp to help street children), and so on. The posters opposite on the wall list more and more special charity days: donations for portable baths, one day when all merchants donate 5 percent to the House of Invalids, an exhibition of "Jack of Diamonds" to help children of warriors, "Skit" of the Union of Moscow Artists - the Russian Army and victims of war. Leaving the exhibition, you see mannequins, women and children, opening it from the other side. On the backs of the white figures there are red spots with splashes, as from shots. The choir sings without interruption "God Save the Tsar."
The exhibition "Moscow during the First World War" is open at the Museum of Moscow (2 Zubovsky Blvd.) until October 19. Tickets: 50-100 rubles.
Face the war. Russia in the First World War in newsreels, photographs, documents (549685)
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The right hall of the premises of the New Manezh from floor to ceiling, the sounds of shots cut through literally. The floor here is covered with uneven tin sheets, each step of each visitor gives rise to sonorous, echoing "discharges". First they make you flinch. From the ceiling to the floor - large red and white canvases, this is the space "War". In the hall opposite there are white, translucent canvases, music and songs of those years are playing. This is "Peace".
The exposition, divided into two large parts, containing an incredible amount of information, can hardly be called just an exhibition. It is rather an interactive historical and educational art project. A huge stand, which opens the "War", sequentially, accompanied by "moving pictures" - maps and brief explanations, tells about the events of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Behind it are photographs (including, again, stereo pairs); "holographic pictures" looking like a little magic, depicting military equipment of those years (armored vehicles, airplanes, Maxim machine gun). We are especially proud of the "complete electronic copy of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty", which secured peace. On the walls there are canvases: the Italian futurist Gino Severini and his "Medical Train" in flags and crosses, Pavel Filonov with the alarming "German War", Paul Nash with works brought from London (especially heartbreak from "Sunrise" with the battle devastated by the battle) , Petrov-Vodkin and his painting "On the line of fire", which makes him freeze for a moment, like a warrior dying from a bullet.
In Mir - the same detailed reconstruction of the pre-war events that decided the beginning of the war, plus - a story about the life of the rear. Personal diary of Nicholas II (pages of August 19 and 20: "Germany declared war on us"; "Good day, especially in the sense of raising spirits! (...) I signed a manifesto on the declaration of war"). Telegrams exchanged between members of one family, which was then "at the helm" of all of Europe, "the owner of the Russian land" Nikolai (Niki), the Englishman Georgie and the Kayzer of Germany Willy, Wilhelm II. In separate rooms on the screens - two fascinating films. One - about the relationship before the war of the participants in the imperial "family" in general and the three mentioned - in detail: the origins of the conflict become quite clear. The second, looking like a real detective, is about the day of the murder of Franz Ferdinand by a student Gavrila Princip (after all, this murder could not have happened, if Gavrilo had not come in after the first failed attempt on the life of the "team" for a cup of coffee). Art is also there: "Archangel Michael" by Vasnetsov and Goncharova's epic cycle "Mystical images of war", Aristarkh Lentulov with a sketch "Solemn prayer in the Kremlin in honor of the victory of the Russian army" and the piercingly beautiful "George the Victorious" by Filonov. All are originals.
There are many other video evidences, documents and photographs, but the longest time you can stand in front of interactive information screens. These peculiar "e-books" are in many ways open to every "reader" throughout the exhibition space. Different sections in them tell about the heroes of battles and about life in the rear, about women during the war and how it affected children, about what the battles were like - and life on the front line and in the reserve. Written in a captivating way, supplied with quotes from eyewitnesses, photographs, these stories are much livelier and more interesting than the chapters of a textbook, and the history of the war is told in such a way that it is really remembered. Unfortunately, this project is scheduled to close earlier than others - until September 28. But you can still see it in time (and it's worth it).
Exhibition “Look War in the Eyes. Russia in the First World War in newsreels, photographs, documents ”works in Novy Manezh (Georgievsky lane, 3, building 3) until September 28. Tickets: 100-250 rubles.
14.10.2012
Book-illustrative exhibition "World War I. Unknown Pages"
In the universal reading room No. 1 of the Tyumen Regional Scientific Library the exhibition “The First World War. Unknown pages ".
The First World War (July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918), the first military conflict on a global scale, in which 38 of the 59 independent states that existed at that time were involved. About 73.5 million people were mobilized; 9.5 million of them were killed and died of wounds, more than 20 million were wounded, 3.5 million were crippled. In total, World War I lasted 51 months and 2 weeks. It covered the territories of Europe, Asia and Africa, the Atlantic, North, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas.
As a result of the First World War, the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were liquidated. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were divided, and Russia and Germany, having ceased to be monarchies, were cut back territorially and economically.
The First World War accelerated the development of social processes, was one of the prerequisites for the revolutions in Russia, Germany, Hungary, Finland. The purpose of the exhibition is to recreate the history of the First World War on the basis of documentary materials, to pay tribute to Russian officers and soldiers who honestly fulfilled their duty to the Motherland.
The exhibition features 28 publications: books, magazine articles, films on electronic optical disks (DVD-ROM). The exposition is based on publications reflecting the main stages and aspects of the last war of the Russian Empire. Among them is the monograph by Anatoly Ivanovich Utkin "The First World War". The history of the First World War still conceals many blank spots and raises questions that cannot be answered unequivocally. What are the origins of one of the bloodiest wars in human history? What are the reasons for the tragedy that befell Russia at the beginning of the century? Why did the allies - the Entente countries - leave Russia to fend for itself? Is the current policy of rapprochement between Russia and the West correct, or maybe we have our own path? The author tries to reasonably note these questions in his book.
The entire history of World War I - from the fatal shot in Sarajevo to the controversial peace agreements - is presented in one book by renowned contemporary historian Norman Stone. A brightly and unusually fascinatingly written book gives a full-scale picture of the causes of the First World War, its course and the negative consequences for the geopolitics of the 20th century.
The book of the English naval historians Richard Gibson and Maurice Prendergast "The German Submarine War of 1914-1918", written on the basis of many sources that appeared immediately after the world war, contains rich factual material, detailing the course of operations of German submarines that took place during the First World War. war.
Among the most significant editions presented at the exhibition is the biographical encyclopedic dictionary of Konstantin Aleksandrovich Zalessky "World War I". The book contains more than 300 biographies of the greatest military leaders of the First World War of 1914-1918. They led the fronts, fleets, led the greatest battles, the equal of which the world did not know until the XX century.
The materials of the magazine articles presented at the exhibition tell about the organization of the army and the rear, about the supply of the army, assistance to the wounded and the situation of prisoners of war, about the allies and opponents of Russia, about the activities to collect documents from the First World War. The exposition is complemented by 6 films of the documentary series "History of Russia in the 20th century": "AUGUST 1914. WESTERN FRONT "; "FIRST CONCENTRATION CAMP TALERHOF AND TERESIN"; TANNENBERG; "GALICIN'S BATTLE"; THE GREAT RETREAT; "GORLITSKY BREAKTHROUGH". Each episode of the film is dedicated to the most significant events in the history of the Russian Empire of the period under review. The films are full of events and facts. The director of the project is Nikolai Mikhailovich Smirnov, a military expert-journalist, author of the project "Our Strategy" and the cycle of programs "Our View. Russian Frontier".
EXHIBITION REFERENCES:
1.Alexander Mikhailovich (Grand Duke; 1866-1933). Book of memoirs: biography (Autobiography) / Alexander Mikhailovich; foreword and comm. A.Vinogradov. - M.: Sovremennik, 1991 .-- 271 p.
2. Airapetov, O. After August the fourteenth: [the fate of the troops and their commanders] / O. Airapetov // Homeland. - 2011. - No. 1. - P.114-115.
3. Boltunov, ME Diplomats in uniform / ME Boltunov. - Moscow: Kuchkovo field, 2011 .-- 365, p.
4. Bryukhanov, V. A. Teacher and Pupil: super agents Alfred Redl and Adolf Hitler: historical literature / V. A. Bryukhanov. - Moscow: Intellectual book, 2010 .-- 317, p.
5. Willmott, G. P. The First World War: [illustrated chronicle of the first global conflict] / G. P. Willmott; per. from English: A. Doroshevich, D. Karelsky. - Moscow: Lomonosov, 2010 .-- 335 p. : maps, portr., ph.
6. Wilson, H. R. Battleships in the battle of 1914-1918. : translated edition / H. Wilson. - M.: Izografus; Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhegor. book publishing house, 2002. - 429, p. ; 21. - (Naval Library).
7. Gibson, R. German submarine warfare 1914-1918. : [per. from English] / R. Gibson, M. Prendergast. - Moscow: Veche, 2011 .-- 382, \u200b\u200bp.
8. Grigorenko V. On the Danube in 1914: [based on the stories of a participant in the war] / V. Grigorenko // Homeland. - 2010. - No. 11. - P.134-138.
9. Gushchin, F. A. Captive Generals of the Russian Imperial Army: 1914-1917 / F. A. Gushchin, S. S. Zhebrovsky. - Moscow: Russian way, 2010 .-- 381, p. : portr.
10. Zhigaltsova, L. “It's worth dying to save others. Otherwise it's a shame ... ": [Death of Baroness Meindorf] / L. Zhigaltsova // Homeland. - 2010. - No. 3. - P.44-48.
11. Zalessky, K. A. The First World War: [Rulers and military leaders]: Biogr. encyclopedia. dictionary / K.A. Zalessky. - M.: VECHE, 2000 .-- 573, p.
12. Karolinsky, G. The last year of peace 1913 / G. Karolinsky. - Moscow: OLMA Media Group, 2010 .-- 407, p.
13. Kashirin V. "Usus" according to mustals, or the capture of Makovka: [Victory of the Russian troops at an altitude of 958 in the Skole Beskydy] / V. Kashirin // Homeland. - 2010. - No. 4. - P.72-77.
14. Kersnovsky, A. History of the Russian army: 1881-1916. / A. Kersnovsky. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2004 .-- 510, p. : ill.
15. Ludendorff, E. My memories of war \u003d Meine Kriegserinnerungen: World War I in the notes of a German commander, 1914-1918 / E. Ludendorff. - Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007 .-- 349, p.
16. Martynov, BF Russian Paraguay: a story about General Belyaev, people and events of the last century / BF Martynov. - Moscow: Military publishing house, 2006 .-- 236, p., Fol. ill., portr. : ill.
17. World wars of the twentieth century: in 4 books / Ed. V. A. Zolotarev, Ed. Yu. V. Kudrin; Institute of General History, Association of Historians of the First World War, Association of Historians of the Second World War. - M.: Nauka, 2002.
18. Book 1: The First World War. Historical sketch / Otv. ed. G. D. Shkundin, Nauch. ed. V. L. Malkov. - 2002 .-- 686 p.
19. Book 2: World War I: documents and materials / Comp. A.P. Zhilin, Otv. ed. V. K. Shatsillo. - 2002 .-- 581 p.
20. Mirotrovskaya, N. A. Two notebooks: diary of Natalia Aleksandrovna Mirotvorskaya / N. A. ed. M. Freidkin. - Moscow: Gallery STO, 2010 .-- 296 p.
21. Oskin, M. V. The First World War / M. V. Oskin. - Moscow: Veche, 2010 .-- 367 p., Fol. ill., color ill., portra., fax. : silt
22. World War I [Electronic resource]: ist. lit. Film 14. August 1914. Western Front; Film 15. The first concentration camps Talerhof and Terezin / dir. N. Smirnov; scenes. M. Shiryaev; comp. S. Diaghilev; producer. A. Alekseev. - Electron. Dan. - Moscow: New time, 2007. - 1 email. wholesale disc (DVD-ROM).
23. World War I [Electronic resource]: ist. lit. Film 16. Tannenberg; Film 17. Battle of Galicia / dir. N. Smirnov; scenes. M. Shiryaev; comp. S. Diaghilev; producer. A. Alekseev. - Electron. Dan. - Moscow: New time, 2007. - 1 email. wholesale disc (DVD-ROM).
24. World War I [Electronic resource]: ist. lit. Film 18. The Great Retreat; Film 19. Gorlitsky breakthrough / dir. N. Smirnov; scenes. M. Shiryaev; comp. S. Diaghilev; producer. A. Alekseev. - Electron. Dan. - Moscow: New time, 2007. - 1 email. wholesale disc (DVD-ROM).
25. World War I in the biographies of Russian military leaders [Text] / R. M. Portuguese, P. D. Alekseev, V. A. Runov. - M.: ELAKOS, Print-express LLP, 1994. - 398 p.
26. Stone, N. World War I: A Brief History / Norman Stone; per. from English. I. V. Lobanova. - Moscow: ACT: AST MOSCOW, 2010 .-- 219, p.
27. Utkin, A. I. The First World War: monograph / A. I. Utkin. - M.: Algorithm, 2001 .-- 592 p.
28. Shatsillo, V. K. The First World War, 1914-1918: facts: documents / Vyacheslav Shatsillo. - M.: OLMA-press, 2003 .-- 477, p.
The First World War: about 15 million killed on the battlefields and civilians, countless invalids, collapsed empires and - as a result - a redrawn map of Europe ... How to tell about all this, how to show at the exhibition the war, which is called "great-catastrophe" XX century? The German Historical Museum in Berlin has found the optimal solution. The exposition leads along 14 key points of the First World War. Carefully selected exhibits show the past vividly, history is reconstructed using the example of private destinies.
Victory march to death
The exhibition begins already in the foyer, where the geopolitical situation in Europe on the eve of the great massacre is succinctly outlined: then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent was in a fever from mutual claims and power ambitions. European capitals were ruled by aristocratic elites, business and banks received tremendous power, kings, kings and kaisers were related to each other. Something like one big family, which was torn apart by political and economic strife and among whose members there was a competitive struggle for the redivision of the world.
The German Empire, represented by Kaiser Wilhelm II, pursued a dangerous policy starting in 1890, claiming colonies and building a threatening navy in a few years. This is clearly shown in the exposition. The daily life of big cities of that era, their peaceful life is close and understandable to us today. But the military marches sounding everywhere seem to be alien. The aggression is almost physical.
Six weeks after the attempt on the life of the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne and his wife, war broke out in Sarajevo. The world has gone mad. In the German Historical Museum, the visitor of the exhibition walks past the destroyed walls, covered with European newspapers of those weeks, and then comes to the painting by August von Kaulbach "Germany" ("Germania"). Long-haired, blond Valkyrie in armor, sword and shield, ready to meet the enemy.
CONTEXT
"Then they believed," explains Andreas Nix, one of the curators of the exhibition, "that the war was being waged just and defensively." And they went to the front as they did in the 19th century, under fluttering standards and marching steps. Only this march was met by a fiery tornado of machine-gun bursts.
New weapon
In the period between 1914 and 1918, about 12 million people fought on the side of Germany. In total, about 60 million soldiers participated in the First World War. During the Battle of the Marne, one of the key battles of the First World War, she first showed herself in a new dimension. Machine guns and rapid-fire artillery mowed down soldiers in rows, and the number of casualties in the first weeks of the war was unexpectedly high. The soldiers began digging trenches and trenches, erecting parapets and building dugouts. They soon formed a dense network stretching from the shores of the English Channel to the Swiss border. The front froze, no one spoke of an imminent victory. The white gloves that one of the German soldiers kept in his duffel bag in case of a victorious entry into Paris were never useful to their owner. The First World War dragged on for a long time.
During the battles in close trenches, archaic medieval clubs were used for mutual extermination, which also became exhibits of the exhibition. On land, in the air and at sea, however, there was already competition for more modern, more lethal weapons. On April 22, 1915, during the battles in the vicinity of the Belgian town of Ypres, German troops used chlorine gas - the first chemical weapon in history. Until the end of 1916, 26 million conventional shells and 100,000 shells filled with poisonous gases were detonated in the "pitch hell" of Verdun.
In the German Historical Museum, these incredible figures complement the installations: behind a gauze curtain, for example, there are illuminated gas masks. When approaching them, the noise of rattles turns on, which, in real trench conditions of the First World War, warned the soldiers about the beginning of a gas attack.
Total war
The Berlin exposition should be structured chronologically. She talks about battles in the East and West, about the war in Africa, about the fronts of the Ottoman Empire and about the battles on the mountain passes. Skis, toilet paper and board games are exhibited as "household" exhibits; "Field Checkers", for example, easily fit into soldiers' knapsacks along with photographs and letters from home. The exhibition also shows "patriotic" toys, in particular, a miniature field hospital. Everyday life of a soldier includes cripples immortalized in photographs, hanging prisoners suspected of espionage, diary entries ...
In total, about 500 exhibits from 13 countries - weapons, uniforms, everyday objects, as well as diaries, letters, drawings, paintings, photographs, films - show in the German Historical Museum how terrible the First World War was, this first in the XX century a total disaster.