A few years ago a friend and I had our own WWI study group. It began out of our mutual love of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. We both had relatives who served in WWI which added a personal dimension to our reading. My maternal grandfather served in the German Army in WWI and my friend’s relative served in the British Army. Unfortuately, we don’t know much about my grandfather’s service in WWI other than that he was wounded. The picture below was taken while he was recovering in the hospital. He’s wearing his uniform field cap and a hospital gown.

My Opa

What convinced me to take this WWI challenge was reading Hermann Hesse’s Demian earlier this week. There’s something about this time period and the decades just before and after that fascinate me. I think it’s due to the combination of knowing so little about my family’s history from this period and that so much was going on in the world. Change seemed to be so shockingly rapid and unforgiving. What’s odd to me now is that twenty years ago I thought this time period was a real yawner.

I’m signing up for this challenge at the Wade level: Read 4-10 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.

For more information about this challenge, click here.