"100 Jahre erster Weltkrieg". A Virtual exhibition on Great War

The German National Library has recently inaugurated a new exhibition and this time you can visit it from your home. The web portal 100 Jahre erster Weltkrieg gathers together a wide range of materials and sources and arranges them in chronological and thematic order. The curators introduce this virtual exhibition retracing the long history of the collections related to WWI. Already in 1914 it was clear that the Great War was a decisive and incomparable event of the human history. The rising mass media intensified the content and the forms of production and distribution of information and penetrated the everyday life of the whole society.

This both written and visual production immediately drew the attention of many librarians of the time, who tried to gather as much material as they could, but also of single citizens. Private and public war-collections arose everywhere, most of them claiming to be complete and assembling all kind of materials: books, newspapers, placards, letters, pictures, medals, drawings, postcards, musical pieces, etc.

The results of the war collection launched by the former union of German Libraries in Leipzig in October 1914 was amazing according to the report written in 1921: 35.000 books and brochures, 1.300 war maps and more than 600 war newspapers from the trenches, but also from the prison camps or the hospitals, and then again 15.000 posters and many other stuff were collected. Today the old alphabetical catalogue contains a list of about 40.000 cards, which were recently reconverted into the database of the German National Library, so that the items are now searchable in the web. All posters and thousands other – mainly graphical – items were however not included in this alphabetical catalogue and are currently object of a new large project on the WWI Collection, which aims to digitalized also these printed materials and make them available online.

It is on this background that the virtual presentation 100 Jahre erster Weltkrieg was conceived, in order to make visible part of this collection. The website enables the visitors to discover in particular the “media history” of the Great War, and this is the particularity of this exhibition. Besides two units related to the war collections and their history – Krieg Ausstellen and Krieg Sammeln – special attention is directed to the media, i.e. newspaper, literature, posters and postcards. A wide range of digitalized material concerning the regulation and control of the everyday life, both on the front line and of the civil society, can be consulted. A specific section is then devoted to all aspects of the propaganda. Each unit offers a short historical and thematic introduction, as well as a gallery of images in high definition. This is an interesting exhibition, moreover at your fingertips here.

The poets and the world war: "Voice of dead sentry" by Clemente Rebora

Born in Milan in 1885, Clemente Rebora is ascribable to the group of most prominent Italian poets of the pre-war period. It is well know his contribution to “La Voce”, a very influent literary review of the first part of the 20th century. With the editions of “La Voce” he published Frammenti lirici (“Lyrical fragments”, 1913) an enigmatic book in which the reader can detect a huge innovation in the concentration of language and words, still to be seen as pedestal of a long season of the Italian poetry. Rebora took part in the First World War in the areas of Asiago and Gorizia as infantry official and his already fragile nervous system was definitely damaged by the typical shell shock trauma. Due to space limit we avoid now to consider the second part of his life, or at least what it’s usually framed liked this, after the war experience and the spiritual crisis and the subsequent entry in the congregation of Rosminians. Before leaving you to the poem we selected, we just wanted to add that Clemente Rebora is probably the author of the most bloody and dreadful poems in the corpus of the Italian “war poets”. This Voice of dead sentry we present today is a clear example of this assumption and our suggestion is to go further with Viatico (“Viaticum”), an upsetting short poem with no equals, at least in the Italian literature of the First World War.

VOICE OF DEAD SENTRY

There's a gutted body
with ripples of face, emerging
on the stench of the torn air.
The earth is fraud.
I'm mad, but I don't cry:
a matter of those who can and of the mud.
But man, if you can come back,
don't tell the war
to those who're not aware,
don't tell this, where man
and life still get on well together.
But clutch the woman
one night, after a whirlpool of kisses,
if you can come back;
whisper to her that nothing on earth
will redeem what’s lost
of us, the decayed men of here.
Squeeze her heart so to strangle her:
and whether she loves you, is for you
to understand later in life, or never.

VOCE DI VEDETTA MORTA

C'è un corpo in poltiglia
Con crespe di faccia, affiorante
Sul lezzo dell'aria sbranata.
Frode la terra.
Forsennato non piango:
Affar di chi può, e del fango.
Però se ritorni
Tu uomo, di guerra
A chi ignora non dire;
Non dire la cosa, ove l'uomo
E la vita s'intendono ancora.
Ma afferra la donna
Una notte, dopo un gorgo di baci,
Se tornare potrai;
Sòffiale che nulla del mondo
Redimerà ciò ch'è perso
Di noi, i putrefatti di qui;
Stringile il cuore a strozzarla:
E se t'ama, lo capirai nella vita
Più tardi, o giammai. 

"The First World War in Colour”, a book by TASCHEN edited by Peter Walther

Our imagery of the First World War is shaped by faded, maybe damaged black and white pictures. This is somehow relevant for our minds. If we shift to cinema, the situation is a little bit different (although not that different). The Great War continued to inspire many directors after the advent of colour film, but the cult movies on this conflict remain probably the black and white ones. For these reasons it’s always significant to give evidence to new books that stand out from the usual. And a new book opportunity comes from this The First World War in Colour, that TASCHEN just released. The editor Peter Walther is particularly interested in early colour photography techniques and in what it’s commonly called autochrome technology (see this Wikipedia link for detailed explanation about this pioneering technique). Of course only a very small group of photographers was familiar with this printing process and an ever smaller group applied this to frame the catastrophe of the First World War.

One of most interesting thing of this book is given from the simple fact that all the pictures here included needed long exposure time and this gives the strange, unnatural and sometimes shocking sensation of long pondered images​, so different from the urgent and immediate sensation we can find out in the black and white photos of the time.​ The archives that made this book possible are from Europe, USA and Australia. The book is essentially divided into five chapters, one for each year of war, with a remarkable appendix about photographer biographies, credits and further readings. Some names of these pioneers? Paul Castelnau, Fernand Cuville, Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, Léon Gimpel, Hans Hildenbrand, Frank Hurley, Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud and Charles C. Zoller. Here you can find a preview with some images taken from the book.

Finally, there's probably no more suitable post to give evidence to the link featuring some rare World War 1 photos that The Open University shared with World War One Bridges to commemorate 100 years since the start of the war.

(In Italy TASCHEN is distributed by Logos Edizioni that we to thank for the prompt cooperation.)

"Pavane for Antigone", a performance in Ljubljana to mark 100 years since the outbreak of First World War

 

"Pavane for Antigone is a kaleidoscope of intimate artistic confessions expressing the longing of modern man for peace with one’s self and the world, for the ending of social discord and perpetual conflict that have all but exhausted humanity." We just wanted to give evidence to this premiere. We are working to offer you in the next days an interview with the director Hanna Preuss. The performance marks 100 years since the First World War.

Sonorous Theatre of Hanna Preuss:
PAVANE FOR ANTIGONE
Sonorous Art Centre Vodnik Manor, Upper Hall (Click for location)
Premiere: Monday 28 July at 21.00 hours
Reprises: Tuesday 29 July at 19.00 and 21.00 hours
Tickets: www.mojekarte.si (or on site during office hours and one hour before each performance)
Information and personal reservations: info@vodnikova-domacija.si
Price of admission: 12 EUR, *7 EUR (children, students, pensioners, unemployed)

Through the universal aesthetics of sound and light, the Sonorous theatre transcends the boundaries of language.

Credits:
Original concept and soundscape: Hanna Preuss
Poetry and acting: Antonella Bukovaz
Saxophone: Antonio della Marina
Video: Hanna Slak
Motiongraphy: Luka Umek
Lighting: Jaka Šimenc
Set design: Tomaž Primožič
Costume: Jožica Trstenjak
Sound engineering: Markus Krohn
Head technician: Marko Trstenjak
Technical assistance: Domen Bertoncelj
Graphic design: Jaro Jelovac
Photography: Nada Žgank
Translations: Jeremi Slak
Public relations: Marko Ipavec
Organization: Nadja Šimnovec
Executive producer: Marko Ipavec
Produced by Hanna’s Atelier for Sonorous Arts

First World War one day itineraries through Italy. Suggestion no. 16: Forte Interrotto and Monte Mosciagh on the Altopiano of Asiago

Driving to Asiago, at the heart of the Altopiano of the same name, gives always an impression of getting out of the “contemporary world” and of entering another dimension. This does not mean that the small towns of this plateau (also called Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, since it gathers seven municipalities) are stuck in the past, on the contrary. Asiago for example is equipped with all facilities and opportunities one can wish for a nice vacation. Nevertheless you immediately feel that the sense of time and space are quite different from that of the near plain of Bassano and Vicenza, and even quite different from that of the near valley of the river Brenta or the mountain region of Trento. 

It hinges on the fact that the Asiago plateau, like many others plateaus, has developed over time a sort of autarchic management of the local natural and human resources. There are of course historical grounds for this situation, being the Altopiano the settlement of a minority from the Cimbri tribe, with its own language and a huge political and economical autonomy till the XIX century. There are also geographical grounds, since Asiago was hardly accessible (even today, when you can drive on comfortable roadways, it takes quite a long to reach Asiago from the near Bassano) and used to be isolated from the rest of the world for a large part of the year (the winter is really very cold and snowy!). Stated in short, if in the mountain valleys and regions you have always the perception of a uninterrupted relation with the plain southwards or with the biggest centers, i.e. cultural and economical intersections, of the Alpine region, the Asiago plateau seems to be trained to stand alone or at least to look at the northern or southern connections, even if essential, as something peripheral or accessory. 

This is the reason why this region offers even today an unspoiled nature and – which is here the point – a particular historical memory related to the Great War. The Asiago plateau is in fact one of the few places in Italy which have endured the WWI at the front line throughout the conflict, i.e. for more than 40 months. 

The old border line between Italy and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire ran before WWI along the northern limit of the plateau. As in May 1916 the Austrian Commander in Chief, General Conrad von Hotzendorf, decided to start the Strafexpedition (Punitive Expedition) against the former Ally, now treacherous Enemy, the tableland of Asiago stood obviously in the middle of the aggression and, at the beginning of the conflict, was invaded. The Austrian advance toward the southern edge of the Altopiano, which represented a sort of springboard on the Venetian plain, was however arrested at the beginning of June 1916. The Austrian Army was so forced to retreat and to fix the front line from the northern slope of Monte Pasubio, across Monte Zebio, just at the back of the town of Asiago, and, turning than north, over Monte Ortigara (the situation changes after the Caporetto rout, shifting the front line southern on the Altopiano and straight over the Grappa range and the river Piave).

No surprise then if you find trenches and monuments – especially military cemeteries – related to the Great War almost everywhere here. However the visitor is impressed not only by their number, but also by the unique scenery, they are placed in. The isolation and autarchy of this region get along with a deep care of the natural landscape. Pastures and woods are meticulously farmed and protected, and yet still respected in their spontaneity. It’s a sort of symbiosis between humans and nature which embraces also the traces of the tragic events of WWI, so that you have the strange feeling of peace and deference, even while visiting the trenches or the military cemeteries. 

And a newly restored itinerary through five war cemeteries was the goal of our spring excursion. Unfortunately the weather condition weren’t good enough to walk it completely. We suggest therefore today to our readers only a part of it as a foretaste and postpone the itinerary through the war cemeteries and the trenches of Monte Zebio for a while.

The itinerary is very simple, last about 3/3.30 hours all together, and is accessible for everybody in good physical shape (you just need suitable shoes). Starting point, from Asiago few kilometers towards Trento, is the hamlet of Camporovere. Park in front of  the church of Camporovere and walk shortly backward, with direction Asiago. On your left you will find a small road with the brown sign indicating Forte Interrotto. Follow it and reach the meadows, which immediately climb the slope behind the houses. We suggest to walk first along the road, crossing then the grove of Monte Rasta and reaching in about 30 minutes the Forte Interotto. The imposing structure of this military base – which is only erroneously called Fort – was build during the second half of the XIX century. Completely made of stones and based on medieval building models (it looks like a castle, indeed), the structure was a perfect observation and defensive outpost, dominating the wide valley of Asiago, and was equipped therefore with machine guns and cannons. It was occupied by the Austrian Army only during the attack of may 1916 and connected with Monte Rasta, where an armored observatory was immediately placed. Till the end of the Great War it served also as billet for the troops and if you walk short in it you can easily recognize the rooms used as dormitory, kitchen, stable and as food water or ammunition storage. Informative placards illustrate the history of Forte Interrotto and  at the entrance show photos taken before and after its renovation as part of the project of an Ecomuseum Great War of the Pre-Alps of Vicenza.

If you have time, we suggest to continue the excursion and reach in about 45 minutes the war cemeteries of Mosciagh following the so called Sentiero della pace / Friedensweg (a 68km itinerary on the trail of the WWI in the Altopiano). Behind Forte Interrotto take the forest road and at the first crossroad follow the path on the left with direction Colle del Mosciagh. After an immersion in an absolutely charming fir wood, you can easily reach a small monument dedicated to the Catanzaro Brigade, which served the Italian Army already in the terrible battle of May-June 1916 in order to stop and drive back the Austrian attack. A few meters beyond, two Austrian-Hungarian war cemeteries rest in a small dip at the feet of Monte Zebio. When we reached them, they were almost completely plunged into the snow – the photos evidence that an excursion here has to be planned for the late spring/early summer! But despite the weather conditions, it was worth walking among these tiny (wood and stone) grave markers, stumble upon the single name or the (always hard to swallow) number of Unbekannte – unidentified names, faces, story lives. And nevertheless, above all, the wood surrounds and protect this place, in peace and respect.

The way back follows the same path to Forte Interrotto and than goes down, eventually across the meadows, to Camporovere. When you have reached the car, you can eat something in one of the restaurants in the hamlet or you can drive to Asiago, where there are many places to take refreshment. But, once you are here, don’t forget to visit the renowned War Memorial of the Great War: it is a will and a pleasure.

100 WW1 articles from the Maney Publishing available for free download

Good news for those who are looking for contributions to study the Great War from many perspectives. 100 articles from the Maney Publishing online archive are now available to download for free in July and August 2014. No registration is required. Articles have been selected from over 25 journals in the fields of history, archaeology, literature and culture including the following key titles: 

Journal of War & Culture Studies, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, War & Society.
This is the link to visit the WW1 Centenary Collection and below are the article highlights:

- Masculinity and Commemoration of the Great War: Gabriele D'Annunzio's La beffa di Buccari and Eugenio Baroni's Monumento al Fante, Italian Culture;
- Commemoration of the Great War: A Global Phenomenon or a National Agenda?, Journal of Conflict Archaeology;
- Cutting a New Pattern: Uniforms and Women's Mobilization for War 1854–1919, Textile History;
- Remembering War, Resisting Myth: Veteran Autobiographies and the Great War in the Twenty-first Century, Journal of War & Culture Studies.

You can visit the WW1 Centenary Collection at this site. 

Italian Great War Museums #6: museum at Forte Badin near Chiusaforte

Connecting Austria with the Friulian plateau and consequently with the sea, Val Fella was since the antiquity a strategic point of the north-eastern Italian Alps and the nearby village of Chiusaforte played a defensive role. Here the Italian Army built up at the beginning of the XX century a fort on the near located Col Badin, a small summit with a great panorama upon the Julian Alps. The fort was then particularly important during the WWI. After the Caporetto rout, the Italian troops quartered here tried to stop the Austrian Feldjäger, were however defeated immediately in October 1917. Forte Badin was used then in the postwar period as barrack and training place, then slowly dismissed. Only about a decade ago, as the Municipality of Chiusaforte became the owner of Forte Badin, local authorities started wondering about reparing these buildings and using them for cultural and educative purpose. That's why a massive restoration project of the original structure of the fort took place under the supervision of a team of venetian architects. Forte Badin was so transformed in an innovative Museum on WWI, providing also accommodation possibilities.

If every new initiative and space devoted to WWI should be welcomed, the Great War Museum of Chiusaforte deserves a special mention, since the restoration intervention show a peculiar awareness of “time feeling”. The buildings intended to the reception of the visitors (mainly the civil parts, such as the dormitories, where info point and cafeteria are placed) were accurately renewed. In the other edifices (namely those used for war necessities) the intervention was instead limited in “stopping” the degradation process. That's why graffiti and traces of soldiers who stayed at the fort from its construction, then during the Great War, up to its abandonment in the late Sixties were preserved together with the calcareous incrustations and the erosion or the water infiltration. 

An important chapter of the story of this fort was the First World War, as mentioned. The Museum is therefore consecrated to this period, yet in a quite unexpected way. We all are accustomed to the “traditional” museums, with their showcases, their artificial light, their informative labels, sometimes some open-air expositions, always accompanied with the warning “Do not touch!” hanging somewhere nearby. Someone may also share our childish attitude of slight intolerance for not being allowed to touch what we see, even if we can perfectly understand and support the “preservative purposes” of such limitations. Now, Forte Badin is the right place where we can discover a new balance among all museum purposes and our curiosity, since it is primarily intended to offer a multisensorial experience of the WWI. Such a goal is pursued starting from the basic concept of light and sound. The space of the Museum is so articulated to combine the artificial with the natural light as primary stage to dispose sounds and images, creating so an emotional involvement of the visitor. A team of specialists have profiled a very interesting thematic itinerary, in order to enables the visitor to discover more about war artillery and battles, especially in the surrounding of Chiusaforte, i.e. Val Roccolana, Dogna and Rio del Lago. Above all, Forte Badin proposes a “hand-on” museum: visitors can touch, smell, listen to the objects and the rests found in the region, such as helmets, bayonets, ragged uniforms or flasks. Besides, you can find photograph and maps concerning the territory, as it represents a central element of this narration of WWI. The interest in the battles and in the material or geographical aspects is also combined with the attention to the human essence of the conflict: in two of the four cannons-dome of the fort, an emotional experience of the Great War is proposed focusing on poetry and on war diaries in different languages and using photographic portraits of many of those who were directly involved in the conflict.

Due to some bureaucratic setbacks, the Museum has still a restricted accessibility. However, you can get further information on the Museum and forthcoming opening time at the municipality of Chiusaforte.

The macabre dance of the Great War. Satire and satirical portraits in an exhibition in Forte dei Marmi

Alberto Martini - Danza macabra europea

It will take place on the 27th of June the inauguration of the exhibition called “La danza macabra della Grande Guerra” (The macabre dance of the Great War. Satirical art works from the Isobella collection). The location is the very peculiar museum dedicated to satire and satirical portrait in Forte dei Marmi (Italy). The panel for the opening event is composed by Lodovico Isolabella, Elena Pontiggia, Andrea Tomasetig, Enrico Mannucci. With this exhibition we face a different side of the war with some of the artists who decided to use an expressive strategy very different from that of Otto Dix, for example. The question rising is if we better understand the contradictions and the tragedy of this conflict starting from a satirical point of view rather than from the inflamed atmospheres of the German painter. Of course the reality is that we need to take into account both artistic interpretations, yet without prejudice against the apparently lighter and smoother approach dictated by irony.

A work by Ezio Castellucci

The Italian exhibition curated by Cinzia Bibolotti, Franco Calotti and Linda Gorgoni Eufoni with the works belonging to the Lodovico Isolabella’s collection is giving the opportunity to see in one place the original paintings by Mario Sironi for the trench newspaper “Il Montello” and the rare series of 54 lithographed postcards by Alberto Martini entitled “Danza macabra europea”, a prominent piece of the collection. Just to give the idea of the abundance of the offer, we enlist the names of the artists hosted in the layout of the exhibition: Ezio Castellucci (beside his Kaiser on the top of a mountain of skulls), Claudio Bisi, Gabriele Galantara (founder of the famous satirical newspaper “L’Asino”), Antonio Rubino, Filiberto Scarpelli, Golia (Eugenio Colmo), Lorenzo Viani, Aroldo Bonzagni, the famous architect Gio Ponti, Giuseppe Scalarini, Francesco Cangiullo, Walter Trier, Eugène Ogé and the great German medal designer Karl Goetz. This exhibition is the third of a series commenced six years ago with a reconnaissance around “Le Mot”, the famous newspaper by Jean Cocteau and Paul Iribe, and continued with the exhibition dedicated to trench newspapers. We thank the “Museo della satira” and the collector Lodovico Isabella for giving us the opportunity to share with our readers some of the images from the exhibition.

Info:

“La danza macabra della Grande Guerra”

Forte di Leopoldo I - Piazza Garibaldi

Forte dei Marmi (Lucca)

T. 0584 280262 (Offices) 0584 876277 (Museum)

27 June – 28 September 2014

All days from 5pm to 8pm and from 9pm to 12pm (On Sunday also from 10am to 1pm)

www.museosatira.it

Diaries of the World War I

Tagebücher des ersten Weltkrieg / Des armes et des mots is the twin title of a twin multimedia project on the Great War, which originates from a French-German cooperation. We should state immediately why we were particularly convinced by it among the floods of initiatives rising around the Centenary. Both its content and media are really fine and moreover wisely combined with each other, that’s why it enables the contemporary public to have new insights into the WWI, beyond any rhetoric. The project mixes up in fact a film production and a web portal and exploits so different communications techniques and succeeds so to value the documents (especially old photos are nicely integrated in the editing of these documentaries), on the one hand. On the other hand the content is not moved to the background but is the real core of the project so that one immediately perceives a truthful urgency to communicate it. An international team of professional historians and authors has worked many years to research and analyze more than 1.000 diaries and letters collections in order to select at the end a small number of personal fates, 14 touching life-stories of the WWI. And these 14 men and women are not generals or politicians, but simple soldiers or nurses, mothers and children overwhelmed by the war, coming from Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, French, England, Russia, USA and Australia. Rather than the battles and political events, the plain truth of human existence emerges thanks to this international choir which sings the common fears and pains, wishes and ideals, in short the concrete and minimal happenings of an everyday life in war time. This enables a deep compassion: according to the etymology of this word, we can share the basic feelings of all these men and women, relying on the common human nature and its essential rules and necessities; at the same time we do not run the risk to abstract these personal histories from their unique existential and historical contexts.

The crucial events and the turning points in the lives of the protagonists – especially in the time span 1914-1918 – are organized in thematic units (ranging from the ruin and the attack, to the anguish and the sadness, from the homesickness, the disaster, the homeland, to the insurrection and the ruins). The time gap between witnesses from the past and reconstruction at the present are not only visualized and summarized in the interactive homepage but also sewed up very well in the documentaries, which were broadcasted by the Franco-German channel ARTE and are now upcoming on the German channel Das Erste. A very interesting project, which shows how to combine multimedia and historical research in a profitable way.

Further information, also concerning the related books and DVDs, here.

Miguel de Unamuno in the debate of the First World War, between neutrality and action

In Italy we recently had the opportunity to read the full collection of pieces that the Spanish philosopher and writer Miguel de Unamuno put together during the years of the Great War. Probably it's not by chance that it was an Italian publisher who took care of re-releasing this corpus of writings. In fact we can consider Unamuno's dedication to the fundamental theme of the First World War as a sum of two distinguished levels of reflection. The first part of the book goes back to his presence in the area of Kars, where he spent some time in September 1917 as a representative of a Spanish delegation of intellectuals, together with Manuel Azaña, the future president of the Spanish Republic. As everybody knows, Spain was not involved in the two World Wars of the twentieth century but had to face a bloody and devastating civil war during the 30s. And it’s a point of interest for us to understand what the avant-garde of Spanish writers and especially Unamuno as one of the most influencing and valued writer of his time thought about the “European war” and about the special case of Italy in the panorama of the European powers. In this first part of the book we read about the meeting with the Italian general Cadorna and we probably find here a different portrait of the man and of the general, that is very far from what is the common perception. The second part of the volume is more devoted to combine his personal view of the war with the reality of the massacre, and if Unamuno is extremely rich in detailing the interests that brought to war, at the same time he is not taking an open antimilitary position. On the contrary, like José Ortega y Gasset and the poet Antonio Machado, Unamuno wanted his country to be an active part in the conflict and was extremely harsh with the political decisions of Spain.

The title of the book in Italian is “L’agonia dell’Europa” (The agony of Europe). The perception of an “agony of Europe” is a recurring trait in many Spanish philosophers of that time – think about Maria Zambrano, for example. Unamuno's point of view is probably too intertwined with some views of the Nineteenth century: he does not consider for example the tragedy of the life and death in the trenches and the mass destruction caused by the mix of new weapons and old war techniques, and he is even too far from taking this into consideration; he rather sees the European war commenced in 1914 as a war among populations which has solid roots in the conflicts of the late nineteenth century, even as an opportunity. And of course this is a part of truth, but only a little one. And yet it is worth to underline Unamuno’s peculiar participation to the huge debate risen after the war’s outbreak (and we have to consider that we are with his writings in the long and terrible 1917, not at the beginning of the war). Similarly we could examine all the different positions in the Italian debate about the opportunity to fight or not to fight the war (and against who?), between July 1914 and May 1915, as well as we could enlist the reasons in favour or against neutrality. This would probably result into a never ending debate bringing us to a kind of no man’s land where the reasons of non-involvement and the reasons of interventionism delete each other’s motivations and explanations. Today it would be only hypocrisy not to look at the First World War considering the different motivations in favour of war or neutrality. Of course in occasion of the Centenary celebrations it’s preferable to share common and “warm” – yet not too hot – themes (like the human and psychological tragedy, the role of women, the development of medicine etc.: all crucial aspects which alone cannot however exhaust the whole topic), but we consider an incomplete approach the one which forgets that at the end this was a real war, i.e. a result of political decisions, with a winning and a losing part, even if the armistice was only a temporary truce. We stop here, otherwise we could open the huge chapter of the hypocrisy connected with all the conflicts and their inheritance, with clear examples from the present wars. This is why we suggest not to forget Unamuno’s contribution to this debate.

Paris and the Great War

If you are in Paris this year and you are interested in Great War you will not run the risk to get bored. A cluster of activities and meetings are planned during this year to mark the begin of the WWI one hundred years ago (an overview here). Today we’d like to point out a couple of exhibitions.

The first one takes place at the Galerie des Bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris and displays the photo collection of Charles Lansiaux (1855-1939), who covered with his camera the French capital during the years 1914-1918. Its shots witness therefore meticulously the impact of the Great War on the population, ranging from the general mobilization at the beginning of the conflict to the refugees, from the collective engagement in supporting the military effort by attending the wounded or raising money to the first bombings. Furthermore the tragedy of orphanage, mutilation and civil privation are depicted. There are also interesting images of the city, both desolated or crowded by human masses. This exhibition – entitled Paris 14-18: la guerre au quotidian, till 15th June 2014, further information here – is for sure interesting, yet very small and the entrance ticket is maybe a little bit too expensive for the whole. That’s why we suggest to combine another exhibition, which is equally fascinating but with free admission. You just have to move to the Jardin de Luxembourg.

We suggest to run immediately to the Orangerie du Sénat, where the exhibition Jours de Guerre 1914-1918 (detailed information here) takes place. The sources of this initiative are provided by the Excelsior, one of the first French daily newspapers illustrated with photos. Founded in 1910, its photographical materials had been published never again. Only a small part (120 pictures) of the 5.000 photos (selected among the 20.000 shots covering the time span 1914-1919) are on display, but they offers a incredible testimony to both the military and civilian life, both French and other nationalities’ people, both animal and human beings, moving between the front (namely the western one) and the rearguard. The meaning of global war is so transmitted very well and some pictures are really touching and outstanding.

To conclude, we suggest to walk across the Luxembourg gardens – also in front of the Senate there’s a nice installation, have a look at – and exit at Place Edmond Rostand, in front of the Pantheon. Along the grating of the garden another exhibition is waiting for you. Contemporary images from the old battlefields are printed on big panels and combined with short capitations in French, English and German. These photos are part of the biggest projects Fields of Battle – Lands of Piece 14-18, a street gallery exhibition which is now to tour internationally, and found a dock also here in Paris. Another example how to build bridges between past and present and among all countries and culture in occasion of the centenary and – we really wish – even beyond.

The sound of the Great War at the Historial Museum

Apollinaire, La Mandoline, l'œillet et le bambou

We are already (almost) accustomed to notice and recommend interesting exhibitions organized by the museum Historial de la Grande Guerre, and yet we are always pleasantly surprised at them. This time the title drew our attention: Hearing the War - Sounds, Musics and Silence in 14-18; because the hearing is – with the sense of smell – very hard to recreate and because the subtitle gathers the wide range of experience, up to the stillness. Running from March to mid November 2014, this special exhibition of the Historial Museum enables the visitor to discover the unprecedented sound transformations which occurred during the WWI and to enter into a new “sound universe”, making use of all sorts of testimonies (objects, sounds, images, texts). 

Let’s start with a given. It is impossible for us to hear once again the exact sound of the Great War, even if in the Historial Museum we can listen to the only survived (and now restored) original recording of those years: the testimony of a sound spectrogram which recorded the moment the battle ceased on Armistice Day and the following silence – and especially this latter is touching. Nevertheless the exhibition succeeds in its intent by developing two themes. It firstly explores the sound of war, including the roar of artillery, the machine guns and the clashes of combat or the noises of the rear guard, the attack and defense sounds, but also the music made during the war, improvised by the soldiers and accompanied by self-made instruments. Secondly the attention is focused on musicians and on their way to approach, describe, elaborate or remember the war. Through recordings and music scores, visitors discover not only military marches, national or victory anthems, funeral or popular songs (including the cinematographic tradition or jazz), but also the works of the leading composers, such as Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Stravinski and many others. 

All this was made possible by an innovative staging concept – which recalls a music score with objects and documents presented like musical notes –, by appropriate listening devices (headphones, sound showers and listening chairs) and by the innovative sound wall, designed by Luc Martinez, in the small exhibition hall. 

After a first overview of the aim of the exhibition in the entrance lobby (and have a look at the original manuscript of Apollinaire’s poem Les obus miaulent en boche too!), different aspects of the topic are addressed. The exhibition starts with the military music of the troops marching and with their instruments, with the songs of the rear guard and the front line, the soldier’ instrument made in the trenches with raw material and the industrial ones. It shows then photos and originals of renowned war composers; also funeral music as national culture of mourning is displayed with scores, posters and images. A section is devoted to the concerts which took place with charitable and patriotic purposes in the rear guard, other sections to concerts on the front line and the music in the camps and in the occupied territories. Also the impact of the new sound universe of the new Jazz music is illustrated. Moreover the exhibition introduces the visitors into the themes of acoustic wound and excessive noise (in the section entitled “the amputated ear”), as well as the silence of the Great War as symbol of mourning. In the end a section discusses the musical creation connected – since the end of the conflict – to the memory of the Great War.   

In short, don’t miss the exhibition Hearing the War - Sounds, Musics and Silence in 14-18 because it guarantees a unique experience into the sound universe of the World War One.

Further information here.

"I dannati dell’Asinara" by Luca Gorgolini

A forgotten history from a forgotten front of WWI is the core of a fascinating book by the Italian historian Luca Gorgolini, who has reconstructed the human odyssey of a group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers, imprisoned in the Balkans and then deported to the Asinara, a little island close to the north-eastern coast of Sardinia. But let’s start from the beginning.

Fall 1915, the German and Austrian-Hungarian Armies from north and the Bulgarian Army (which has just gone to war) from east attacked and finally occupied Serbia during their third offensive action. The first two aggressions, at the beginning of WWI, did not succeed in having the upper hand over the Serbian resistance and many soldiers of the Empire were captivated. Already at the end of 1914 they were more than 60.000 – an impressive number for the small Serbia also in normal condition. Can you imagine what it was like after 6 months war, when the uninterrupted military effort and the progressive isolation of Belgrado had exhausted the whole country? No adequate prison camps had been arranged and scarce resources were assigned to an alternative arrangement of the war prisoners. German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers were usually mistreated and robbed (even of their clothes), employed in civilian or military works; moreover they often starved. Lastly their tragic conditions deteriorated because of epidemics: as soon typhus, smallpox and dysentery spread, these prisoners were decimated.

Then the invasion and the retreat. When Belgrado was occupied in October 1915, the Serbian government, army and population were put to flight. Not only the literature, already the contemporary witnesses speak about a “huge retreat”: the tragedy of a flood of people leaving their homes, blocking the muddy roads with their poor furnishings and goods; a lost and scared humanity, who had no idea of the future and was just seeking a first refuge in the neighboring countries of Montenegro and Albania. Among this crowd there were also the Austro-Hungarian and German prisoners, who were forced to march together, since the Serbian leaders didn’t want them to enlist once again or support their homeland. Even the sick ones were pushed to escape and to suffer together with the companions the lack of even the essentials. Many of them perished during the retreat due to hunger, cold and illness. The survivors beached instead along the Albanian coasts, like hopeless waves of that human storm.

But the odyssey was not at the end. When the German and the Austro-Hungarian armies entered short after the Montenegro and approached Albania, the evacuation of the exiles became urgent. The English, French and Italian navies immediately organized the transfer of Serbian civilians, politicians and soldiers for example to the Isle of Corfu. The German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners represented instead an international problem. They had to be moved out as soon as possible, but over their custody quarreled France and Italy. Italy strove for a predominant role in the Balkans and claimed the right to manage the emergency. It finally took the prisoners into custody, appealing to its special mission, which run in Valona since December 1915. Unfortunately the political ambitions didn’t match the effective resources required for their assistance.

Mid December 1915 the first German and Austro-Hungarian group of prisoners was transferred to the Asianara, a small and arid island near Sardinia, where a medical centre and isolation ward for infectious diseases had been established since 1885. It was in fact clear that those soldiers represented first of all a sanitary emergency (most of them suffered a severe form of cholera infection); therefore they should be transferred in small groups – the medical complex of Asinara could in fact host 1.000 patients at most –, disinfected, kept in quarantine, treated and, when restored to health, transferred to other prison camps in Italy, letting so another small group to be aided. But the war situation in the Balkans quickly deteriorated and also the health conditions of the prisoners stuck on the dock of Valona degenerated in the risk of contagion. Regardless of all medical procedures, between 16th and 30th December 1915 21.388 prisoners were transferred with 10 steamships from Valona to the Asinara; and then again about 2.618 soldiers between 2nd January and 8th March 1916.

24.000 men reached the little island in only 8 weeks. It should be enough to recall this fact (24.000 in 8 weeks!) to figure out the tragedy that follows. Only during the trip, which lasted about 2 days, more than 1.500 men who had been infected already in Valona died. Many passed away on board, while the steamships waited for docking in the roadsteads in front of the Asianara Island, which was flooded by the sick prisoners and, due to the lack of facilities and military and medical staff, couldn’t receive the German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers as soon as they arrived. The tiny spaces of the boats, the difficult living situation, the trip and above all the precarious sanitary condition let the epidemic spread, so that the captains were often forced to throw the corpses into the sea. Even on dry land the cholera infection did not ceased: from 7th to 14th January 1916 more than 1.300 prisoners died. There was no water, no adequate supplies, it was winter and the prisoners (no matter if ill or not) were gathered in tent camps; also the medical staff and equipments were insufficient. All these elements contributed to the massacre: 7.000 prisoners died in the first 3 months.

Such frightening numbers make us understand the tragedy of “the damned of Asinara”, as Gorgolini entitled his study (I dannati dell’Asinara, Torino 2011 – a German translation by Günther Gerlach is also available: Kriegsgefangenschaft auf Asinara, Innsbruck 2012; also a Serbian version will be released at the end of Juni: Проклети са Азинаре, Prometej, Novi Sad, 2014). And yet the great value of this work is not limited to the detailed description of the historical context, to the analysis of the odyssey of these soldiers in the broader framework of the war prisoners during the Great War (and yet this phenomenon in general has still to be satisfactorily investigated, as also Gorgolini points out), or to the examination of the official reports and the officers’ accounts (all significant merits we have to recognize in this book); it is also and above all the diaries and memories of the prisoners, which the author constantly quotes (for example the diaries of a Czech soldier, Josef Šrámek, and an Austrian one, Josef Robinau) that make this book – and above all the last chapters – a vivid reconstruction of the hell, which these men went through. The Asinara Island became a circles of Dante’s Inferno: a city of tents, of improvised shelters for the exhausted prisoners, who suffered from hunger, thirst, physical (above all cholera, but also other epidemics) and psychological (mental disorders and depressions among prisoners are also discussed) diseases, the rivalry among the different national groups, the brute struggle for existence. At the same time the author does not neglect to highlight that a shared culture and everyday routine have developed in the island, newspapers – no less than with satirical content – were published, for example, and the correspondence with home became a life line.

We could recall other details of Gorgolini’s book, but in conclusion we content ourselves to stress that this is a precious work, which shows us the great importance of the good historical research, as this one is; a book, which has be read in order to discover another piece of the WWI mosaic.