Karin Kaltenbrunner

Ambros Stöckl’s stations in the First World War can be reconstructed solely through some photographs from his left papers. The Tyrolean belonged to the Imperial-Royal Territorial Rifles Regiment No.3 and fought in the mountain war against the Italian Army, in the course of which he must have suffered a hand injury. Accordingly, individual photographs show him in a reserves hospital in Innsbruck – one of the pictures was evidently taken during a visit from his mother. Ambros Stöckl worked as a teacher after the war and was later appointed headmaster of an elementary school.

After reporting for duty as a volunteer, the Viennese Wilhelm Rothansl fought in 1918 in the last military operations on the Italian Front. The initial euphoria and youthful devil-may-care attitude of the nineteen-year-old artillery soldier rapidly waned in the face of combat in the Second Battle of the Piave. Calamitous shortage of provisions, death and particularly the effects of poisonous gas showed a reality that was far removed from all idealised concepts of war.