These incredible color photographs of the German battlefront during the First World War, 1914-1918, were taken by Hans Hildenbrand. Although color photography has existed since at least 1879, it didn't become popular until many decades later. The overwhelm…
The Germans, as the only colonial power amongst the Central Powers, used plenty of African soldiers of their Schutztruppen in the African theaters of war, but they had never planned to deploy these troops in Europe and would not have been able to do so durin…
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was one of the largest battles of the First World War. It was fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire and it took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916…
Manfred von Richthofen earned widespread fame as a World War I ace fighter pilot. Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915, becoming one of the first members of Jasta 2 in 1916. He quickly distinguished himself as a fighte…
The picture shows a German cavalryman patrolling behind the front lines while carrying a steel lance. German lances were hollow tubes made of rolled steel, with a length of 3.2 meters they were usually made in three sections fitted together. It weighed 1.6 k…
This 1917 field portrait depicts four soldiers wearing heavy fleece coats, steel helmets and late model gas masks. The bitter 1917 winter was the coldest in living memory for soldiers on both sides of the front. Soldiers suffered from frostbite and exposur…
Hidden for 100 years, the astonishing photos by a 16-year-old soldier show how his brothers-in-arms would forever be haunted by the specter of defeat. These photos were taken by Walter Kleinfeldt who joined a German gun crew in 1915 and fought at the Somme…
In both World Wars, the most distinctive feature of the Germany army uniform was the item that has come to symbolize German militarism in even remotest corners of the world – the helmet, the Stahlhelm. Here, on a table set up outside a steel helmet factory i…
Fifteen pensive looking faces, each man contemplating his fate as they await the enemy barrage to lift and prepare to repel an enemy assault. The original text on reverse: "Real photo taken of German infantry in a dug out. This is a typical dug out, and yo…
Two German soldiers with a Wechselapparat ("Wex") flamethrower. The Germans introduced this small flamethrower in 19 17 to replace the earlier Kleif. The Wechselapparat ("Wex") had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant conta…
This torpedo-boat crewman looks thoroughly unpleased with the situation. Patrols could be anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months and during that time the crew were not able to bathe, shave or change their clothes regularly. The space to live in was small, the w…
The photo was taken by Munich photographer Heinrich Hoffmann at a rally in support of the war against Russia in Munich’s Odeonsplatz on August 2, 1914. On the day before the election of the Reich President, the Illustrierter Beobachter published the August…
These photographs show the UB 110, a German submarine that was sunk and risen in 1918. We can see the control room in the submarine, including the manhole to the periscope well, hand wheels for pressure gear, valve wheels for flooding and blowing, and the …
Many wartime photos of dramatic explosions, especially those with action like this one, are in fact staged after the fact. Maybe this one was as well. It may also be from a postwar film. Cameras were not light and handy like today, typically had slow expos…
Many animals were used during World War One. Horses, mules, dogs and pigeons were vulnerable to poison gases so that special protection was necessary for them. Horses were equipped with gas masks over their muzzles and were protected from inhalation of poi…