Mutinous Christmas Respite: Lest We Forget

"On earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:14b (KJV)   

  

     A full century ago in a world where progress seemed inevitable, war seemed quick and glorious, and men were able to acknowledge their enemies as humans, a strange, unrepeated event occurred throughout the bloody, muddy, frozen trench lines of the Western Front of the War to End All Wars. The Christmas truce of 1914 has long been a tale of wonder, disbelief, and hope that enemies embittered and bloodied by war could reconcile differences under the universal joy of shared humanity. Due to staggering losses in the early, mobile stages of the WWI, many of the soldiers in the trench by the first winter were either reserve troops or volunteers. In December 1914 six inches of rain fell in Northern France and drenched a shocked, bloodied frame of the remaining regular troops. Percy Jones of the Queen's Westerminster Rifles wrote of the 1st Royal Fusiliers leaving the trenches after only four days on 23 December that they were, "tattered, worn, struggling, footsore, weary, and looking generally broken to pieces. Hairy, unshaved, dirty-faced . . ." These were men who were worn from living, not from fighting, in the trenches.
     The alien conditions of a stagnated war where most regular enlisted men were already buried under the shell-torn land combined and torrential rain made the newly-disturbed earthen trenches swamps of precipitous mud established an unspoken agreement from both sides to adopt a "live and let live" policy that allowed certain activities and locations to go unmolested by the constant aggression of the war.
     Charles Sorley, a British officer and poet wrote, "During the night a little excitement is provided by patrolling the enemy's wire. Our chief enemy is nettles and mosquitoes. All patrols - English and German - are much averse to the death and glory principle; so, on running up against one another . . . both pretend that they are Levites and the other is a good Samaritan - and pass by on the other side, no word spoken. For either side to bomb the other would be a useless violation of the unwritten laws that govern the relations of combatants permanently within a hundred yards of each other, who have found out that to provide discomfort for the other is but a roundabout way of providing it for themselves."

     This close proximity led to units bantering back and forth with jests, insults, and songs. The same miserable conditions between enemy regiments over several months laid the foundation for one of the most remarkable events of the war. The Germans held Christmas Eve as the most important day of Christmas festivities and erected Christmas trees embellished with candles along the trench lines against official orders. The lights initially confused British and French forces, but the singing of "Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night)" cemented the tidings of the season. On Christmas day, wines, cakes, and trinkets were exchanged by both sides and, possibly,  impromptu games of football took place over parts of No Man's Land not pocketed with shell craters. The Christmas surplus issued by governments to their enlisted men provided the perfect establishment for a barter-like Christmas celebration.
     Not all regions of the trenches saw the joviality of comradery, but for the segments still entangled by the bitterness and death of war, Christmas day passed relatively quietly as each side was left to celebrate more or less on its own. Overall, the truce seems to have been quite extensive although unofficial and against the orders of high command. The Christmas truce of 1914 was inconsistent with a widely varying involvements and fraternization, but for most combatants, Christmas was a peaceful day, for many the week to New Years was quiet, and for a lucky few the unofficial holiday celebrations continued well into January.
     Hundreds of stories, recorded in letters to home, tell of interactions between British and German, German and French, and to a lesser extent Russian and German, and Austrian and Russian forces. In 1915 attempts were again made by both sides to initiate an unofficial truce, but explicit, enforced orders by superior officers and localized artillery barrages redacted any widespread involvement.
     Post-WWI the West has become bitter, cynical, narcissistic, and disillusioned, but these men did not live in our world. They lived in a world that had seen national movements unite entire peoples in Germany and Italy. In a world that had seen the world transform by industrialization, where progress seemed inevitable, and where hope could reside in the most despondent of places. Christmas is a time of remembering and celebration. This year, let us remember. Lest We Forget.

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Agatha Tyche

A United People Remain Estranged

     The modern country of Germany has long had a history of division with unification often seemingly beyond reach. As the Germanic Kingdom, titled the Holy Roman Empire, gradually weakened, the ties of the Germanic tribes dissolved to the point of hostility. The Protestant Reformation nearly obliterated these internal connections altogether with small kingdoms establishing themselves based on religious preference, alliance, and ruling family.
     Eventually, one of these kingdoms built itself into a formidable power. Prussia gained the military strength to assert itself on other Germanic states and defend itself from elite European powers while successfully developing a competitive economy that attracted weaker factions in the surrounding lands. Though the rise of Prussia did not proceed without hindrance or opposition, the nationalist movements in the mid-nineteenth century converted the issue of German unification into into greater Germanic social relations. Prussia began a series of consolidating wars to protect its borders, expand trade, and enhance its power with the intent of German unification. Led by Otto von Bismarck, Prussia used manipulation of international politics and German nationalism to unite itself.
     The first of Bismarck's three wars involved extracting Schleswig and Holstein, independent duchies, from the Danish crown. Both areas had large German populations that outnumbered the Danes. The results of a short war saw an Prussian-Austrian alliance gain control of the region
     The second war pitted a small, mobile Prussian military against the large, outdated Austrian army for control over the northern Germanic states. Winning the war in just seven weeks, Prussia formed the North German Confederation and excluded Austrian influence in this seedling empire. The defeat lost Austria land to Italy in the south, influence in German peoples to the north, and created internal divisions that later forced a more representative government in an Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Despite his victory, Bismarck campaigned for the North German Confederation to exclude Austria.

     Although Austria contained a significant German population, its borders included many non-Germanic peoples that today represent many of the Baltic and Eastern European nations. Otto von Bismarck, a master statesman who caused Europe to dance to his fiddle for nearly thirty years, had many motives for negating Austrian influence within a newly formed German alliance.

     1.) For centuries, Germans states had been splintered into small holdings that gave allegiance to a larger power for trade and military defense. Prussia had once been a minor player but had political ambitions that necessitated command over ever-growing geographic boundaries. As Prussia's power grew to match Austria's the two nations competed for smaller states' support. By disassociating Austrian influence in Germany, Prussia could proudly declare the new empire's strength to be from her establishments.
     2.) The Zollverein, the German Customs Union, gave Prussia a huge economic advantage over Austria. By minimizing or removing tariffs, trade between Prussia and the German states flourished exponentially as industrialization took hold. Austria's initial disinterest in the union undermined its ability to economically support its allied states while giving Prussia consolidated control over a large portion of the Germanic peoples. 
     3.) Despite defeating Austrian, many of the German duchies still favored Austrian's less militaristic governance. Prussia refused to risk losing a German confederation so recently secured. 
     4.) To avoid hypocrisy and to retain integrity abroad, Bismarck's Prussia defended its initial political reasons for the war. If Prussia had allowed its recent enemy occupancy within its new empire, negative public perception could have incited a second war with Austria.
     5.) After the Concert of Europe in 1815 and the agreement for the balance of power among Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, a full union of Austria and Prussia would have incited a full scale European war to protect the power balance. A decade before the Northern German Confederation, Britain and France warred with Russia over its expansionist policies in the Black Sea. Russia, Britain, and France feared that a united Austria-Prussia would be an unstoppable force on the continent. To send a clear signal that Prussia was content with its new station, Bismarck sent a clear signal to the other major powers that a united Germany would not include Austria.
     6.) Lastly, Bismarck, Wilhelm, and von Moltke, all saw Prussia and the larger German state as purely German. Austria was a large, encompassing empire with significant minorities that did not fit Prussian ideals. Nationalism and the great German dream of unification began with Napoleon's invasion in the early nineteenth century. The division of power between Austria and Prussia remained the most significant reason for continued division in the 1850-60s. With Prussia's clear dominance over Austria and unification in sight, many Germans enthusiastically supported Prussia as full consolidation of the German state occurred in 1871.

     Prussia successfully united Germany through politics, economics, and social ideology, and its exclusion of its greatest competing threat allowed antagonized areas to quickly accept a unified Germany. This new empire became the most powerful military in the world in a few short decades and gave the world a scapegoat for the two deadliest wars in history. After World War II, Russia, Britain, and the United States attempted to remove the Prussian military history from the German people's minds to avoid another world war. They achieved this by dividing Germany again. A new, modern, reunited Germany is now the largest economy in Europe. The effects of Germany's unification have been profound, and the projection of that nation is much easier to grasp when a portion of its past is revealed. No country must conform to its trajectory because Germany has become a respected global leader with a generous government, green economy, and retained the enthusiastic society that has made Germany what it has been in every age.

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Agatha Tyche