Brill’s Digital Library of World War I

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Brill’s Digital Library of World War I
is an online resource that contains over 700 encyclopedia entries plus 250 peer-reviewed articles of transnational and global historical perspectives on significant topics of World War I. This collection includes Brill’s Encyclopedia of the First World War, an unrivalled reference work that showcases the knowledge of experts from 15 countries and offers 26 additional essays on the major belligerents, wartime society and culture, diplomatic and military events, and the historiography of the Great War.

The 250 articles address not only the key issues from political, historical and cultural perspectives, but also engages with aspects of the war which have remained underexplored such as the neutrals, the role of women before, during and after the war, and memory. The chapters have been drawn from a select number of Brill publications that have been published in the last 15 years. Brill’s Digital Library of World War I is a unique digital library that will allow researchers to discover new perspectives and connections with the enhanced navigational tools provided.

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Kolchak, Aleksandr Vasiliyevich

(329 words)

Author(s): Brand, Bettina
Kolchak, Aleksandr Vasiliyevich (November 16, 1874, Saint Petersburg – February 7, 1920, Irkutsk), Russian admiral. Kolchak, a Russian naval officer, took part in polar expeditions in 1900–1903 and 1908–1911 and acquired a reputation as a hydrologist. He commanded a minelayer in the Russo-Japanese War, and was captured. After the beginning of the First World War in 1914, he also initially led mine-laying operations in the Baltic. Kolchak was then appointed in July 1916 to the command of the Black S…

Kollwitz, Käthe

(405 words)

Author(s): Jürgens-Kirchhoff, Annegret
Kollwitz, Käthe (July 8, 1867, Königsberg [Prussia] – April 22, 1945, Moritzburg [near Dresden]), German graphic artist, painter, and sculptor. The artist preoccupied herself with the World War for many years on end. War in itself was not a new theme for her; as early as 1897/1898, Kollwitz had already delved into the subject in the graphic cycle Ein Weberaufstand ( The Revolt of the Weavers, 1897/1898) and in a series of etchings entitled Bauernkrieg ( The Peasants’ War, 1903–1908). Unlike these early works, the works dealing with the First World War became testimonies o…

Komarów

(674 words)

Author(s): Stone, Norman
Komarów A town in Russian Poland. The war on the Austrian-Russian Front began with a Russian offensive. Four Russian armies were to advance concentrically on Galicia. Facing them were initially three, then four, Austro-Hungarian armies. The Austrians would, at every opportunity, go on the tactical offense as the basis of their defensive strategy. The Austro-Hungarian First and Fourth Armies (Dankl and Auffenberg) met the Russian Fourth (Evert) and Fifth (Plehve) in late summer 1914 east of Kraków (Cracow). The opposing armies were of roughly equal…

Krafft von Dellmensingen, Konrad

(320 words)

Author(s): Pöhlmann, Markus
Krafft von Dellmensingen, Konrad (November 24, 1862, Laufen [Upper Bavaria] – February 22, 1953, Seeshaupt), Bavarian general. Krafft joined the Bavarian Army in 1881 as an officer candidate (field artillery) and attended the War Academy from 1891 to 1894. From 1908 to 1911, he served as division chief in the Munich War Ministry with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Promoted to the rank of major-general and appointed chief of the General Staff in 1912, Krafft became chief of staff of the Sixth Army (…

Krobatin, Baron Alexander von

(475 words)

Author(s): Jerabék, Rudolf
Krobatin, Baron Alexander von (September 12, 1849, Olmütz [modern Olomouc, Czech Republic] – December 27, 1933, Vienna), Austrian general and minister of war. As an artillery staff officer with a university education in chemical engineering, Krobatin was predestined from an early stage for a higher calling. Appointed to the Imperial War Ministry in 1896 as an expert in artillery technology, he was a section chief at the Ministry in 1904. In addition to weapons and munitions, his responsibilities now…

Kronstadt (Romanian Brașov)

(422 words)

Author(s): Jerabék, Rudolf
Kronstadt (Romanian Brașov) Town in the Hungarian province of Transylvania, now in Romania. With their offensive into Transylvania after August 27, 1916, Romanian forces were able to achieve an enormous breakthrough towards Hungary. But the tide turned against them when, following the unfavorable situation in Dobrudja and the necessary reinforcement of Romanian troops on the Danube front, a total of three divisions was withdrawn from Transylvania. The strategic reserve (two divisions) earmarked for…

Kuhl, Hermann von

(350 words)

Author(s): Pöhlmann, Markus
Kuhl, Hermann von (November 2, 1856, Koblenz – November 4, 1958, Frankfurt am Main), German general. Kuhl received a doctoral degree from the University of Tübingen for his thesis on the Carmen Saliare in 1878. That same year he joined the Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 53, rising to captain in 1893, and to major in 1899. Having taught at the War Academy from 1898, Kuhl became chief of Department III at the General Staff in 1906. Promoted to major general in 1912, he was raised to the hereditary nobility one year later. In 191…

Kühlmann, Richard von

(348 words)

Author(s): Beckers, Thomas
Kühlmann, Richard von (May 3, 1873, Constantinople – February 6, 1948, Ohlstadt), German diplomat and politician. The son of the director general of the Anatolian Railway, Kühlmann completed his law studies with a doctoral degree and entered the diplomatic service in 1898. After numerous international postings he served as counselor at the German Embassy in London from 1909 to 1914. In that position he worked to create an atmosphere of Anglo-German cooperation and prepared various agreements toward…