Verborgene Chronik 1915-1918 by Herbert Kapfer (Author), Lisbeth Exner (Author)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Galiani-Berlin, 5 Oct. 2017

Hardcover, 816 pages

After the euphoria: a cacophony of voices from the seminal catastrophe of the 20th century.

"What Walter Kempowski created with his 'Echosounder' for the Second World War has now also been realized for the First World War." NZZ

"A breathtaking, multi-perspective close-up of the First World War, the likes of which cannot and will not be found in history books"—this is how the comparatively modest opening volume of the Hidden Chronicle was described—now the ambitious project is complete: A montage of over one hundred previously unpublished diaries from the time of the First World War presents a shattering, breathtaking, and profoundly thought-provoking picture of the first great global conflagration.

The Hidden Chronicle is a vast collage of original testimonies from front-line and rear-echelon soldiers, recruits, working women, children, caring family members, doctors, staff officers, nurses, propaganda press releases, retired officers, war widows, military chaplains, prisoners of war, and so on, who confided their hopes, impressions, and fears uncensored and completely openly to their diaries. With unprecedented authenticity and directness, these accounts reveal the bewildering diversity and asynchronous nature of the experiences that profoundly shook the lives of the writers.

From mobilization to defeat, the chronicle creates an echo chamber of those days: the pain of separation and patriotic fervor, the fear of death and heroism, songs of joy and stark horror stand side by side. History told from below, and at the same time a magnificent historical document.