Vista52 Posted 4 July , 2009 Share Posted 4 July , 2009 I want to use this in a post on another forum. I seem to remember something about it being written on a wall in Bapaume in 1918 after the German retreat. Can someone confirm and elaborate? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 4 July , 2009 Share Posted 4 July , 2009 It's quite a famous photo - "Nicht Argern, nur Wundern!" painted on a wooden board... on Peronne town hall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vista52 Posted 4 July , 2009 Author Share Posted 4 July , 2009 Thanks Croonaert....I was hoping you would include the Original German. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sheldon Posted 4 July , 2009 Share Posted 4 July , 2009 The sign was put up during the Alberich Bewegung; i.e. the withdrawal to the Siegfriedstellung/Hindenburg Line in March 1917. Photographs of it exist, but I cannot remember where offhand, otherwise I would post one. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dundeesown Posted 4 July , 2009 Share Posted 4 July , 2009 Hi,is this the one you are looking for? All the best Gary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vista52 Posted 4 July , 2009 Author Share Posted 4 July , 2009 Jack & Gary....thank you. I have the whole picture now...when and where It's actually very clever, don't you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 5 July , 2009 Share Posted 5 July , 2009 The sign itself still exisits, in the Historial at Peronne. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Carter Posted 5 July , 2009 Share Posted 5 July , 2009 I have to ask...... translated to English, what does the sign say? Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 5 July , 2009 Share Posted 5 July , 2009 'Don't be angry; only wonder' Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Dunlop Posted 5 July , 2009 Share Posted 5 July , 2009 It's actually very clever, don't you think.Not when you consider what happened during Alberich Bewegung. Leaving aside the destruction and the booby traps, the most difficult and disturbing account that I have read from the Great War (and, as everyone knows, there are lots of difficult and disturbing accounts) was Spears' description of the French refugees who were 'rescued' during the German withdrawal. It is in his book 'Prelude to Victory'. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Jones Posted 6 July , 2009 Share Posted 6 July , 2009 The sign itself still exisits, in the Historial at Peronne. I believe the sign in the Historial is a reproduction made by the IWM when it was at Crystal Palace - I am told that if you compare it with the contemporary photos the two are not the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 6 July , 2009 Share Posted 6 July , 2009 Not a good reproduction then. Any idea when it got to the historial because i have neem going for a few years and have sworn I never noticed it before. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 6 July , 2009 Share Posted 6 July , 2009 Picture here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sheldon Posted 6 July , 2009 Share Posted 6 July , 2009 Robert is right on the money. The tactics and methods employed during the Alberich Bewegung were highly controversial - amongst the Germans. Crown Prince Rupprecht, an honourable man if ever there was one, was adamantly opposed to the scorched earth tactics and threatened to resign over it. He was only persuaded (with great difficulty) that it was his overriding duty as a German officer to stay at his ppst. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred van Woerkom Posted 6 July , 2009 Share Posted 6 July , 2009 I have seen the picture in books but always taken from a somewhat different perspective or angle, 'en face' so to speak. The picture I mean was on display in the Historial or the mairie of Péronne in April. Part of the exhibition of photos was also in a lycée there. All the best, Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vista52 Posted 6 July , 2009 Author Share Posted 6 July , 2009 Jack & Gary....thank you. I have the whole picture now...when and where It's actually very clever, don't you think. Just to be clear, my use of the word "clever" was only meant to reference that a German Soldier wrote such a profound and ambiguous statement in the middle of all that destruction. "Don't be angry, only wonder"!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom W. Posted 7 July , 2009 Share Posted 7 July , 2009 Wundern can also be translated as "to be surprised," and "to be amazed," which is how Edwin Campion Vaughan translated it in Some Desperate Glory, I believe. "Don't be angry, just be surprised." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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