KC exhibit explores WWI from perspective of German soldiers

Columbia Daily Tribune: KC exhibit explores WWI from perspective of German soldiers
On our second visit recently to Kansas City’s National World War I Museum, I was impressed by its special exhibit, “Man and Machine: The German Soldier in World War I.” It is unique to find an American exhibit focusing on the enemy’s equipment and the viewpoints of its soldiers. At this distance in time, we can accept them as fellow sufferers rather than the monsters they were once portrayed as. We also could learn how machines can transform a war. The Great War to end all wars, as it was publicized at the time, left a legacy that instead set the scene for World War II and still has an effect on the world today.

Carl Hauber was a collector of German World War I battle materials, and after his death, his wife gave the historical objects to the museum. Among them were 23 of the 24 different machine guns used by the German army, a half dozen of which form the basis of this special exhibit.

We were fortunate to have a young history buff as the docent when we investigated the exhibit in one of the tower exhibition halls. He explained that despite the fact troops were equipped with rifles and shot millions of bullets, the killing in the Great War was done mostly by other methods. Artillery killed 70 percent, machine guns 20 percent, gas 5 percent and rifles 5 percent. In movies, we see a lot of bayonet charges, but the English only lost .33 percent and Americans .1 percent of their troops to bayonets. Included in the displays were leather-and-steel helmets, gas masks, officers’ pistols, hand grenades, one of the first antitank weapons and, within a life-size trench, a paper sign that reads, “Do not use this route.”

Large posters on the walls showed German soldiers’ reactions to what was happening were similar to those of American, British and French soldiers. On the posters were some of the German soldiers’ words, for example:

“When I joined the army in the spring of 1918, I carried presumptions that the war would be fought like the 1870 War between Germany and France. Man-to-man combat, for instance. But in the trenches friend and foe alike suffer from the effects of invisible machinery. It is not enough to conquer the enemy. He has to be totally destroyed.”

To get to the main exhibits, we walked on a glass bridge with a field of 9,000 poppies, each one representing 1,000 dead combatants. As with my first visit to the museum in 2006, I was impressed by the multiple ways the museum has to show what the war was like, how it started and what it did to change the map of the world.

A movie described the buildup to the war. Europe had become industrialized with wealth amassed in a few hands. European nations were in control of much of the world and were fighting to control even more. Nationalism was growing; hatred among ethnic groups was high. Sixty-five million men from 36 countries fought in the war, and 9 million of them were killed. When the United States entered in 1917, we sent more than 2 million men.

The most impressive exhibit might be the movies shown on a giant screen built along the side of a trench with mannequins walking below.

The “Man and Machine” exhibit runs through Dec. 31.