Soldiers on the Fronts in the First World War
In the late 1970s the American historian and diplomat George F. Kennen called the First World War the “great seminal catastrophe”. [Kennan: The Decline of Bismarck's European Order, 1979].
Ines Rebhan-Glück
"Opinion making": censorship as an instrument of war
During the First World War, the Habsburg Monarchy, like the other nations at war, also attempted to create an as uniform ‘opinion front’ as possible, one that was in line with the government's own political and military objectives. In order to achieve this, the military leadership made use of both propaganda and a comprehensive censorship system aimed in particular at suppressing undesirable information and opinions.
Translation: David Wright
Peace movements and efforts in the First World War
‘To you, to you!’
The military postal service and wartime correspondence during the First World War
During the First World War the term Feldpost in Austria-Hungary was used to refer to two concepts: on the one hand the organizations of the civil and military authorities responsible for postal communications between the military frontline and the home front and internally within the Imperial and Royal Army, and on the other hand the actual letters, postcards and parcels that were conveyed using this service.
Ottokar Hanzel
Ottokar Hanzel was a mathematics and descriptive geometry teacher from Vienna. During the First World War he was a Landsturm captain on the Italian front.
Mathilde Hanzel (geb. Hübner)
Mathilde Hanzel, a teacher in Vienna, was a member of the AÖFV, an association that militated constantly during the First World War for peace.
Bertha von Suttner
Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1905), remains the most well-known figure in the Austrian peace movement. She published the successful novel Lay Down Your Arms and was president of the Austrian Peace Society until her death.
Alfred Hermann Fried
In 1899 Alfred Hermann Fried founded Die Friedens-Warte, which still exists today, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911 for his work.
Max Josef Metzger
Max Josef Metzger was a Catholic theologist and priest, who became a convinced pacifist following his experiences at the front in the First World War. He was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime and executed in 1944.