The Catastrophic Outbreak of the Great War, 1914-1918

The First World War, known at the time as the Great War, broke out on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in retaliation for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian national. Following Russia's mobilization, Germany, which was aligned with Austria-Hungary, declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914 and on France on August 3, 1914. As a result of Germany's violation of neutral Belgium to outflank France, Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914.

The Great War continued until November 11, 1918. The total number of military and civilian casualties was over 37 million. There were over 16 million deaths and over 20 million wounded.

Around 380 soldiers from our small town of Ettlingen, plus many more from Ettlingen's six surrounding villages, died in the Great War. Around 80 soldiers returned from prisoner-of-war camps in 1919 and 1920. This site is dedicated to all those in Ettlingen who fought, died, and lost their loved ones in this most tragic of conflicts.

Click on the links below to call up the other pages on this site:

List Of Fallen - a list of the soldiers who died on the battlefields, together with their date and place of death
Local Newspapers 1914 - photos of newspaper articles, together with translations into English, of Ettlingen's newspapers at this time. This section also contains some documents from soldiers returning to Ettlingen, usually after time in POW camps
Diaries - excerpts from the diaries of local people, including Dr. Barth, editor of the local newspaper the "Mittelbadischer Courier" and Oskar Kiefer, Ettlingen's sculptor, during the Great War
Letters From The Battlefields - transcriptions and translations of soldiers' letters from the front
Memorabilia- other interesting memorabilia from the time
Photos - photographic material, mostly taken by soldiers from Ettlingen