“And You Are Thrashing Only the Russians
The First World War in East Prussia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The memory of the First World War in Germany is strongly informed by the western theatre of operations, by the bloody battles of matériel in Verdun and on the Somme. Even the myth surrounding the Battle of Langemarck continues to have an effect. Forgotten, however, is the fact that war, occupation, flight, deportation, and widespread destruction belonged to the collective experience of an entire province in the eastern part of Germany in 1914-15. The First World War was a turning point for East Prussia. In the Reich’s east, the war helped an all-German identity achieve a break-through.
(Osteuropa 2-4/2014, pp. 59–72)