Dead German casualites Photograph[s]

[GreyC]

18 minutes ago, AOK4 said:

I think the subject could make an interesting subject for a thesis. Of course, it would be difficult to locate enough collections that span the whole war as base and reference material.

Thank you for your quick response. True for unpublished material, but Berliner Illustrirte, Leipziger Illustrirte and the Woche, e.g., are widely available in libraries in Germany. I agree, it would make an interesting research project.

Best,

GreyC

.

[AOK4]

19 minutes ago, GreyC said:

Thank you for your quick response. True for unpublished material, but Berliner Illustrirte, Leipziger Illustrirte and the Woche, e.g., are widely available in libraries in Germany. I agree, it would make an interesting research project.

Best,

GreyC

.

 

Yes, but since it is not just about pictures published in the press, one would need to look at photocards that were published/sent as well and for those, one would need specialised collections (pics and cards showing dead bodies are quite popular on sites like ebay or delcampe).

 

[T, Fazzini]

Dead German Machine Gunner taken at Villers Devy Dun Sassey, France.,4 November 1918

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:German_machine-gun_nest_and_dead_gunner._Villers_Devy_Dun_Sassey,_France.,_11-04-1918_-_NARA_-_530778.tif

 

AS an iroiniic aside..have also seen pictures of German and Allied Casualites taken 1918 in which the uniforms are more or less intact but the remains were skelations.....

[deutscherinfanteriest]

On 13/09/2020 at 20:15, AOK4 said:

Phil,

 

I must admit that most pics from dead enemies are either from 1914-1915 (and a few from  Verdun) and then again from early 1918. I assume (whether it is correct or not, that's up to others to think about) that the amount of death all around by 1916 had taken away the need or lust to take pictures of enemy or own dead. This kind of pics seems to be again more normal during the offensives of 1918, perhaps to show off how well everything was goind and how much enemies had died (and that a German victory was therefore certain)?

 

So I think some reasons why these pictures are available or not depends on the general state of mind of those that took the pictures and managed to get them somehow also publicly available (there was also censorship involved on both sides).

 

Jan

 

I think it is true.

An interesting photo on the web is a dead on a tree at Vauquois. Unit unknown (probably 34.Division?) and rank, but probably a sniper killed in mid April 1915. Also André Pezard talks about that German in his book, "Nos Autres à Vauquois". He was used by French as a signal post for artillery. I am very curious, but it is quite impossible, to identify that man.... and know if he has a proper burial now. Pézard describes that man, and was a horrible sight for French not for the fact a man was on a tree but due the fact it was a public decomposition.

Only identifying Pézard's sector we can discover something.

[deutscherinfanteriest]

The poor soldier (I think could be also a NCO in observation) has a greatcoat and a troddel and seems a bayonet. Died in mid April but photo taken a month later. After the mines used in the area , few remained of that man

Outskirts of Vauquois says the newspaper; I must assume Pézard was in 46 RI, so the dead was in that sector.