First World War News

Although the First World War ended 93 years ago, the conflict continues to reach the news headlines. To mark Armistice Day, here is an overview of some of the most noteworthy news stories about the First World War from the past year. 

October 2010: Germany Made its Final First World War Reparations Payment

92 years after the country’s defeat, on October 3rd 2011, Germany paid the last annual instalment to reimburse the outstanding interest on the bonds which it issued in the aftermath of the First World War to finance its reparations payments.  

February 2011: Death of the Last American WW1 Veteran

The last known American soldier of the First World War, Frank W. Buckles, died at his home in West Virginia on February 27th, 2011, aged 110.

June 2011: First World War Propaganda Film Starring Charlie Chaplin for Sale

The only surviving copy of the 1916 film Zepped, starring Charlie Chaplin and showing scenes of a Zeppelin raid over London, was sold by the auctioneers Bonhams. The film was designed to be sent on a morale boosting mission to troops in Egypt.

September 2011: Christ’s during WW1

The exhibition ‘Christ’s at War’ opened in the Bodley Library at Christ’s College in Cambridge. The exhibition showcases, for the first time, a selection of wartime letters sent from former pupils of the Perse School to the headmaster WHD Rouse, who was also a Fellow of Christ’s College.     

November 2011: Bodies of German Soldiers Found in France

A few weeks ago, archaeologists in north eastern France discovered the remains of 21 German soldiers from the First World War in an underground shelter that had not been touched since it was destroyed in a French attack in March 1918. The discovery provided fascinating insights into how the war is remembered in Germany.

In the magazine, in the November 2011 issue, in Remembering the First World War: Touched from a Distance, Peter Englund considers the ways we remember and write about a conflict of which there are now no survivors left.

Tim Grady's article Germany's Jewish Soldiers explores postwar Germany's attempts to remember the contributions of its Jewish combatants during the First World War. In the November podcast Tim Grady talks about another fascinating aspect of the memory of these soldiers: how they were remembered in Nazi Germany.