Music in a Time of War, the Street Edition

 

Once upon a time it was natural
to see free-range children on city streets and village byways.
Now it is rare except in third-world countries
where poverty drives kids to the streets, 
the only playground available to them.

One of the curious features of street scenes

in old photos or films from earlier times
is the number of young boys
who appear in urban settings
scattered around like so many sparrows.

In my collection of photos from the Great War of 1914–1918

small boys are occasional extras in certain scenes,
especially at band concerts performed in a town or village.
It's not that unusual since music has always been
a common way to gather a crowd.
But in some photos it is surprising
because the entertainment was provided
by a band of an enemy army. 

Usually the pictures of such concerts in occupied towns
show few if any local residents, much less children.
This is not surprising since any association with the enemy
carried risk from both the foreign forces
and the partisan resistance too.

Yet music was clearly a required part
of any military subjugation during WW1.
Did these bands play in order to restore the troops' morale?
Or were they attempting to sooth the tempers
 of the captive population?

Today I present four photos of street concerts
played by bands of the Imperial German Army
in towns captured during the Great War.

My first photo is captioned Musik auf dem Märkte Vouziers ~ Music at the Vouziers market. A military band is arranged into a circle on the left side of a cobblestone plaza. Surrounding them are several dozen soldiers and officers in German uniforms. The bandsmen wear formal pickelhaube helmets while the other soldiers are in fatigue dress. I don't believe there are any children or French civilians in this photo. Vouziers is a commune of the Ardennes department in northern France.  

The writer was a soldier using the free German military post and it is dated 17 January 1916. The postmark identifies his larger army unit as the 56th Infantry division and presumably this photo is  of one of the regimental bands. 

* * *

 

This next photo shows a typical German regimental band performing on a dirt road next to the gardens of a large building. There are about 36 bandsmen arranged in a semi-circle around their director while a small group of regular soldiers listen nearby. Again there are no children or civilians. Here the bandsmen are in standard uniforms with just flat brimless campaign caps.

The postcard was never sent but has a penciled note on the back with a date: Sept. 1917. The first word, Lümschweiler, was a challenge because though it seemed like a German place name there is no town with that name in Germany. Today this commune is known as Luemschwiller, but in 1917 it was actually part of Germany as it is located in the Alsace region of northeastern France which had been annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. That conflict, which was won by the North German Confederation led by the Prussian King Wilhelm I, only lasted 10 months but it became the prologue to World War One. The war also established the unified German Empire of which Wilhelm I became its first Kaiser. 

* * *

My third band concert is not a postcard but a photo print about 15cm x 11cm. Once again a large regimental band is arranged into a circle on a cobblestone street with a large crowd of soldiers, civilians, and many small boys around them. Each bandsman has a soldier holding their sheet music which seems to amuse some of them. 

This photograph was professionally produced and has a printed description on the back from the publisher Berliner Illustrations-Gesellschaft.

Sonntagsmusik in einer serbischen Ortschaft. 

No. 9185.  Eine deutsche Militärkapelle bringt ihrem

Hauptmann ein Ständchen vor sinem serbischen Quartier.

Dieses Bild wurde vom Stellvertretenden Generalstab IIb

Presse Abteilung vur Veröffenlichung freigegeben. Belegab (drücke)

wurden eingereicht. Veröffenlichungen  können ohne nochmalige

Zensur erfolgen. Der mit dem Zensurstempel versehene

Abdruck befindet sich in unsurem Besitz.

~ ~ ~

Sunday music in a Serbian town. 

No. 9185.  A German military band serenades their 

captain in front of his Serbian quarters.

This image was approved for publication by the Deputy General Staff IIb

Press Department. Press receipts have been submitted.

Publications can take place without further censorship.

The print with the censorship stamp is in our possession.

On 28 June 1914 six Bosnian-Serb terrorists assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo. Their murder led Austria to declare war on Serbia which then triggered a complex sequence of political decisions that brought other nations into the war. Though Germany initially invaded Russia and then France, during the course of the war it also assisted the Austrian-Hungarian forces too. I think this photo was possibly taken in Serbian territory or in an ethnic Serb community of central Europe.

* * *

My last photo is again a band performing in a circle, this time with music stands. (A classic design that has never been improved on.) Several boys strike poses for the camera as the band plays.  

This postcard was sent on 2 November 1917 by a German soldier. He added a short line on the front of the card, but I'm unable to decipher the handwriting.

I don't think the writer refers to the location
of this little concert, but there is one clue in the background
that establishes a general region for this town. 

The sign over the entrance gate to a brick building
in the background behind the band reads:

GARÇONS ~ BOYS

I believe this French word indicates the photo was taken
near a school in either in France or possibly Belgium. 

German soldiers loading a 22cm Minenwerfer, WW1
Source: Wikimedia

The writer of the message on that last postcard included his unit, a Meinen Werfer Base, so that his family could correctly address a letter to him. This kind of platoon was trained to fire trench mortars called Minenwerfer or Mine Throwers in German. These weapons were used to bombard enemy positions and destroy defensive obstacles like barbed wire and bunkers. They were manufactured in various sizes and proved to be accurate and very effective. Larger artillery pieces required teams of horses to change position but a Minenwerfer had an uncomplicated mechanism that was lighter and easily moved by a few soldiers. The shells could be very large with devasting shrapnel or high explosives.

German soldiers moving a Minenwerfer, WW1
Source: Wikimedia

It happens that today 11 November 2023 marks the 105th anniversary of the end of World War One. Originally called Armistice Day, and later Veterans Day, it honors the military servicemen and women who have served our country. When the guns went silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 there was a collective cry of elation from people around the world who had suffered four years of a terrible war. Yet it was only an armistice, a cease fire. True peace  was not reached until the settlement of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. And twenty years later another war began that would quickly overwhelm the world with even more death and destruction. 

When I first started collecting photos of military bands from the Great War, I was surprised at how many postcards had been preserved. Some, like the card of the band in Vouziers, were commercially printed in large numbers for soldiers to use. Others, like the band in a Serbian village, were a kind propaganda for the German public to reassure people that their soldiers were decent men who loved music and children. And many more were snapshots of a comrades serving their country as army musicians. These are my favorites and I must have a few hundred now with the great majority taken by cameras of German soldiers. How could there be so much music played during this time of war? Despite the appalling slaughter and devastation it amazes me that there were musicians who provided a brief moment of distraction, joy, or solace. 

Most of the postcards were obviously saved by families of servicemen, or even bandsmen, as a memento of military service. A soldier's scribbled messages may be faded now but it once read in a voice that someone remembered and treasured. After a century that memory has vanished but the picture and note remain. They are a link to a past we should honor and never forget because now a century later our duty is to never let a war like this happen again. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where no one is ever lost

if they know where to look.