World War I in 2015 Salzburg, Austria

After spending two years researching and writing about World War I, I traveled to Europe on a family vacation, which took us to Salzburg, Austria.

During those two years, I’d noticed a dearth of information about the war from the Austro-Hungarian/German side.

When crawling through Pinterest looking for WWI photos, few of them seemed to be from German or Austrian sources (The Triple Alliance, including Italy).

I thought that odd at the time and still wonder about it, though more photos have turned up in the last six months .

Because the Allies, particularly England, France and the United States, were on the “winning” side in that war to end all wars, their side is more predominately displayed in the US, at least.

I only read English well, so books printed in the UK or the US are my primary sources of information.

I understand I’m biased.

But it bothered me all the same. I trained as a journalist–I want to know both sides of the story.

What’s the other side?

So many people were swept up into events beyond their control and the German people were on the verge of starvation in November 1918, if not already there in some cases.

Humanity and the need to protect and love is the same, no matter in which side of a war zone you live.

Still, I wasn’t really thinking about it until we wandered into the Salzburg Museum–a beautiful museum devoted to the town’s history.

Up a floor from the main entrance, we visited an exhibit about what I had been seeking: War, Trauma, Art. Salzburg and the First World War.

(Unfortunately, it closed April 10, 2015)

So what? Didn’t they start the war?

Here we walked step by step through the war–much as we had done at London’s Imperial War Museum–seeing how it built up, how the residents of Salzburg were affected and the people’s reactions as the war continued year after year.

Propaganda, of course, was used by both sides during the war, but it’s helpful to get a feel for how the Austrians and Germans saw Europe in 1915.

 

(You can view more than 1600 photos, charts and diagrams on my Pinterest WWI board: https://www.pinterest.com/michelleule/world-war-i-shots/)

Enthusiasm was drummed up in countless ways, including patriotic items used daily.

A Catholic nation, Austria fell in with its leaders. Soon, religious belief was mixed in with patriotism. (I tell my Bible study  God, power and money do not belong together. If someone presents them like that–run away).

Fervor reigned and the exhibit had another, chilling quote.

But the exhibit went on to catalogue the suffering experienced by the people of Salzburg as troops gathered, rationing began and the people began to understand the horrors of war.

We saw summer photos of soldiers enjoying their families; read about the military hospitals and “angels in white” nurses.

The Triple Alliance had cases of shell shock; women were forced to become independent and support their families; children were sent to scavenge for food.

Daily life was hard, even for the aggressor nations.

Most Americans don’t realize battles were fought in the Alps and Dolomites.

(If you’re familiar with Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms you know about the war in northern Italy).

Many soldiers froze to death in trenches dug in ice high on mountain tops.

Like the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) artists, the Triple Alliance also produced fearsome works that evoked the sadness and horror of war.

People starved in Germany and Salzburg. Soldiers died in massive numbers. The Germans and Austrians were pressed from both sides with their navies bottled in port.

All telegrams to north America went through London–the Triple Alliance couldn’t get their propaganda out to the rest of the world.

Would we have believed it? Should we have believed it? Who was the aggressor and responsible?

The war swung in the balance many times between August 1914 and November 1918.

The Triple Alliance did not want to lose, which is why they threw everything at France in the spring of 1918–desperate to conquer France before the game-enders arrived: American soldiers.

The armies went home after the armistice, but life remained grim in Austria.

I’m an American. My grandfather was a soldier in the American army during World War I.

I will always think of the war as a crime–no matter which side you were on.

Sometimes it helps to remember pain, suffering, love and courage are universal truths.

Tweetables

Thoughts on WWI from the Austrian side. Click to Tweet

Why are there so few Pinterest photos of the German side of WWI? Click to Tweet

A glimpse of WWI humanity at the Salzburg Museum Click to Tweet