German Soldier's Photo Album from the First World War
- SIGNED Cloth
- Germany, Belgium, France, Russia , 1918
Germany, Belgium, France, Russia, 1918. Cloth. Good. Fascinating photo album capturing the non-combat life of a German soldier -- their barracks, their leisure activities, which could include what looks like tourism in the places invaded, the building of structures at the front, etc. And remarkably, we think, we are taken to both the Eastern and Western fronts. And thankfully, the photos are generally captioned with a place, time, and sometimes a little more detail. Oblong, 26.5 by 33 cm. 12 leaves of heavy card, each with eight photos, four on each side, for a total of 96 photos. Other than a few photos that are little different than tourist view shots during normal times, every photo has something to tell us about the life of a soldier or documents something about the war. In Belgium, the photographer took an aerial shot of the moonscape that St. Eloi, in the vicinity of Ypres, had become, as well as photos of the trenches. We see soldiers in transit, in their log cabin barracks, and on leave back home with parents and family. We see soldiers reading, playing cards, drinking beer, and going over plans, a chandelier overhead often providing dim light. In Russia there are shots of local peasants, of flatbed train cars unlike we've ever seen, with fancy coaches of all things atop. Bombed out ruins are shown everywhere, among them, Schloss Hollebeke in Flanders. Construction of stopgap bridges and other structures is documented. The photos were obviously quite sharp and skillfully taken, although there has been inevitable degradation over the past century. The cloth album has a fair amount of spotting. Its cover is somewhat loose but holding. The binding has been repaired in the past, but non-professionally and the repairs did not enhance its appearance, to say the least. Soiling to the card album leaves, especially the first one.