Christina Holstein Posted 3 November , 2003 Share Posted 3 November , 2003 Do any forumites know of any information about the life and work of German army chaplains in WWI - books, archives, websites, etc? I've been approached by a US army chaplain who is interested in the subject. Any help would be very gratefully received, Christina Holstein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 3 November , 2003 Share Posted 3 November , 2003 Christina, In an earlier thread I have written the following: In the German Army, Chaplains were organized at Divisional Level. In each Division 1 lutheran Chaplain and 1 catholic Priest served. They performed their duties way down to Battalion level: funerals, tending the wounded, -the dying, mess in the field -in the rear area, complementing their colleagues in the field hospitals, which by the way were organized: all field hospitals with even numbers had catholic priests, all field hospitals with odd numbers lutheran Chaplains. Sometimes (i.e. Eastersunday) these divisional Chaplains held 12 mess services per day. There is a very remarkable book, written by a lutheran Chaplain, available in German: its from 1916 and describes unbelievable details about a Chaplain's life at the front. Very detailed descriptions around Serre, Puisieux, Gommecourt. The cover of the book depicts the destroyed church of Gommecourt: Chaplain A. Kortheuer, "Erlebnisse eines Feldgeistlichen", Herborn 1916 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Holstein Posted 3 November , 2003 Author Share Posted 3 November , 2003 Egbert - Thank you very much. I'm sorry that I must have missed the earlier posting. Problem is - he might not read German. I'll pass it on anyway. It's unlikely that there would be anything very much on the subject in English. Christina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 4 November , 2003 Share Posted 4 November , 2003 I suggest he starts learning it... I found it always very surprising to see how people are interested in the German Army but don't know a word of the language. Kowing German is paramount if you want to research the subject! Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 4 November , 2003 Share Posted 4 November , 2003 Christina, I could scan you one page per day - you translate it - and you're done in 224 days by the way, where is this Army guy sitting, which post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Holstein Posted 4 November , 2003 Author Share Posted 4 November , 2003 Thanks, Egbert, but I think I won't. He's at Fort Belvoir. Christina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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