The First World War had a lasting influence on the history of the 20th century. It continues to have an effect on the political structures and the mentality of Europeans. Fought from 1914 to 1918, the conflict was the first modern, industrialised, total war; it caused the death of millions of soldiers and civilians. In contrast to other Western European countries, the knowledge and memory of the First World War in Germany was largely masked over by the Second World War, the Nazi dictatorship, the genocide of the Jews and the division of Germany. Here it is a matter of bringing the different cultures of remembrance closer to one another.
The multi-faceted exhibition of the German Historical Museum “1914-1918. The First World War” combines event- and cultural-historical approaches. Taking fifteen selected places as its point of departure (including Berlin, Brussels, Petrograd, Ypern, Verdun and Gorlice-Tarnow), the exhibition recounts the course and consequences of the war with its various ramifications for the different societies and populations. It is conceived in a European and global perspective. The escalation and experience of violence in the First World War determined European history in the 20th century. The horrific rate of losses right at the beginning of the war in 1914 made all of the participating states aware that it was an illusion to believe the war would come to a rapid and tidy conclusion. The escalation of violence in the course of the war to the point of industrialised mass death, the brutalisation of the fighting and the invention of new techniques of killing and maiming (poison gas, flame throwers, aerial bombardments) as well as the almost total mobilisation of the military and the civilian population for the war effort not only impacted subsequent wars, but also changed political thinking. People who were perceived as “useless” or “harmful” began to be seen as “inner enemies” who could be targeted with the use of violence.
By bringing together particularly significant and expressive exponents from Germany and abroad the exhibition hopes to create an effective narrative of the horrors of the war, but also to contribute to an analysis of the structures of war.
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