War time messages from Germany

 Now, I am intrigued by this picture postcard from the Great War.

Partly because you don’t see as many ones from the “other side” and partly because the “other side” included members of my German family.

So, while I can count two uncles, my grandfather, two great uncles and a great grandfather who fought for King and Country between 1914-18, my maternal grandmother was German, and her relatives will have fought in the German Imperial forces.

Added to this my mother and her brother who were born in Cologne served in the RAF while some of their cousins fought for the other side in the Second World War.

The caption reads “Red Cross Collection of youth volunteers in wartime care”, and like some many of the allied picture cards issued at the same time it drips with sentiment and an appeal to war time loyalty.

And it is all there, from the eternal flame of nationhood burning brightly flanked by the tree, to the shadowy figures of soldiers. 

The war veteran echoes those earlier conflicts including victory over France sixty years earlier while the young men and women are a reminder of the present struggle.

There is a message on the back which in time I will translate, and the card was sent from Wittenberg to an address I can’t make out.

My Wikipedia tells me the artist was Adalbert von Rößler who was the son of the police director of Wiesbaden.  After a stint working in industry he became a painter, studied at the Munich Art Academy and the Antwerp Academy, before moving to Berlin.

The card was acquired by David Harrop who I understand will display it in his permanent exhibition in the Visitors Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

Location; Wittenberg

Picture; “Red Cross Collection of youth volunteers in wartime care”, circa 1914-18, from the collection of David Harrop

*Adalbert von Roessler, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_von_Roessler