Brill’s Digital Library of World War I
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Subject: History
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.
Subscriptions: see Brill.
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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.
Subscriptions: see Brill.
Haase, Hugo
(360 words)
Haase, Hugo (September 29, 1863, Allenstein – November 7, 1919, Berlin [murdered]), German politician. One of the two chairmen of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD; Social Democratic Party of Germany) from 1911 onward, Haase opposed the
Burgfrieden (Fortress Truce) policy that had been adopted by the majority of his party. He nonetheless bowed to party discipline. Speaking before the Reichstag on August 4, 1914, he read out the declaration in which the SPD approved the war credits – against his own conviction. Until…
Haber, Fritz
(330 words)
Haber, Fritz (December 9, 1868, Breslau – January 29, 1934, Basel), German chemist. Prior to the World War, Haber developed the scientific principles for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in the form of ammonia (NH3), which was then technically realized by Carl Bosch (Haber-Bosch process). However, ammonia was not only used as a base substance for the manufacturing of artificial nitrogenous fertilizers, but also for the production of explosives and was thus of crucial importance for the war economy. In 1911, Haber was appointed director of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhe…
Hague Land Warfare Convention
(285 words)
Hague Land Warfare Convention By Hague Land Warfare Convention one means the text of the Hague article concerning
The Laws and Customs of War on Land. This article was the fourth of thirteen articles signed on October 18, 1907, along with the final declarations, at the conclusion of the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague. Forty-four nations had taken part in the conference, convened at the suggestion of Tsar Nicholas II. Article IV was ratified by most warring states of the First World War. In December 1911 the text of Article IV on
The Laws and Customs of War on Land was includ…
Haig, Sir Douglas
(689 words)
Haig, Sir Douglas (June 19, 1861, Edinburgh – January 29, 1928, London; from 1917 the First Earl Haig), British field marshal (commander in chief on the Western Front, 1915–1918). In the course of a brilliant prewar career, spent mainly in staff posts, Haig made himself a reputation as one of the most capable officers in the British Army. He was promoted to major general at the early age of 44. One of his most important posts was as head of the training department at the ministry of war between 190…
Haller de Hallenburg, Józef
(282 words)
Haller de Hallenburg, Józef (August 13, 1873, Jurczyce [Galicia] – June 4,1960, London), Polish general and politician. Haller de Hallenburg was among the Polish forces that resisted cooperating with the Central Powers in early 1918, in view of their Polish policy. He also commanded a Polish Legion serving with the Austro-Hungarian forces. Under their commander Colonel Haller de Hallenburg, the Second Polish Legion Brigade in East Galicia succeeded in breaking through to the Polish troops stationed …
Hamilton, Sir Ian
(524 words)
Hamilton, Sir Ian (January 16, 1853, Corfu – October 12, 1947, London), British general. After attending private school, and graduating from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Hamilton entered the army in 1873. His early career was marked by his participation in colonial wars, among them the Afghan War (1878–1880), the Boer War of 1881, the Nile Expedition (1884/1885), the Burma Expedition (1886/1887), the Relief of Chitral (1895), and the Tirah Campaign (1897/98). He gained not only battle e…
Hand Grenade
(309 words)
Hand Grenade Hand-thrown missile filled with explosives and designed to be detonated on impact (percussion) or by a timed fuse. The latter became the standard type on account of its greater reliability. Hand grenades was one of the infantry soldier’s most important close-quarters combat weapons in World War One, but until the turn of the century they were viewed as archaic instruments of earlier wars and attracted attention chiefly for being favored by anarchists. Beginning with the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the use of …
Harbord, James Guthrie
(391 words)
Harbord, James Guthrie (1866, Bloomington – August 20, 1947, Rye NY), United States general. Before the war, Harbord had served in the same regiment as General Pershing. This was the truly deciding factor in his appointment to chief of staff of the American Expeditionary Forces on May 15, 1917. Pershing needed a man whom he could trust, and loyalty was Harbord’s outstanding character trait. Thus, he functioned more as an echo of Pershing’s ideas regarding mobile warfare, than their analyst. At the …
Hartmannswillerkopf
(377 words)
Hartmannswillerkopf Mountain in Upper Alsace (956 m) situated on the eastern edge of the Vosges. The vantage point on the summit affords a commanding view of the Upper Rhine Plain. The front in the area of the Hartmannswillerkopf was not firmly established until late 1914/early 1915, at which point the summit was in German hands. In the spring of 1915, French troops were temporarily able to occupy the mountaintop. After the successful counteroffensive, the Germans consciously abandoned the classic notion of establishing forw…
Haus, Anton Freiherr von
(355 words)
Haus, Anton Freiherr von (June 13, 1851, Tolmin – February 8, 1917, Pola [Pula]), Austro-Hungarian grand admiral. Haus entered the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1869, and in 1901, as commander of the cruiser
Maria Theresia, took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. Between 1902 and 1905 he served as chairman of the presiding council in the Naval Section of the War Ministry. He became rear admiral in 1905, commander of the Second Division in 1906, and in 1907 was a delegate at the second peace conference in The Hague. He b…
Hausen, Max Klemens Lothar Freiherr von
(289 words)
Hausen, Max Klemens Lothar Freiherr von (December 17, 1846, Dresden – March 19, 1922, Dresden), Saxon general. After cadet school, von Hausen joined the Saxon Army’s Third
Jägerbataillon (Rifle Battalion) in Dresden in 1863. He took part in wars in Bohemia in 1866 and in France in 1870/1871, and was promoted captain in 1871. He was first appointed to the imperial general staff four years later. A major in 1881, in 1893 he was promoted to major general. Between 1895 and 1897 he was back on the general staff as deputy chief (
Oberquartiermeister). Between 1900 and 1902, he served as comma…
“Having Seen Enough”: Eleanor Franklin Egan and the Journalism of Great War Displacement
(8,259 words)
Hudson, David - “Having Seen Enough”: Eleanor Franklin Egan and the Journalism of Great War Displacement
Keywords: American journalist | Eleanor Franklin Egan | Great War | journalism
ISFWWS-Keywords: The United States of America | Legacy | Literature | Women and War | Politics | The Balkans and Eastern Europe | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East
Abstract: The Great War presented American journalist Eleanor Franklin Egan with an unmatched tableau, and by the time of the armistice she had cemented her reputation as one of the foremost inte…
Headquarters
(1,417 words)
Headquarters Command centers for the supreme military, sometimes also political, leadership set up in the field for the duration of the war. Composition, location, and function of such a headquarters depended on the constitutional position of the supreme military command of each belligerent and the demands of modern mass and coalition warfare. – By far the most comprehensive headquarters at the outbreak of the war was the German “Great Headquarters.” Aside from the German Emperor as the nominal c…
Heinrich (Henry), Prince of Prussia
(395 words)
Heinrich (Henry), Prince of Prussia (August 14, 1862, Potsdam – April 20, 1929, Hemmelmark [now belonging to Barkelsby]), German grand admiral. Heinrich was born in 1862 the second son of the future Kaiser Friedrich III. At the age of 15 he became the only Prussian prince to embark upon a military career in the Imperial Navy. After completing naval college Heinrich was promoted lieutenant commander in 1882. He was given his first command, a torpedo boat, in 1886. This was followed by a series sea-goi…
Hejaz Railway
(565 words)
Hejaz Railway Railway line between Damascus and Medina. In 1900 Sultan Abdul Hamid II commissioned the construction of a railway to link Damascus with Mecca. The railway was to help provide access to the remote Arab provinces, forge closer ties between Constantinople and the holy sites, and ease the pilgrimage of the Hajjis (pilgrims). In addition, it allowed for the rapid transport of troops to deal with renegade Bedouin tribes in Arabia. The German engineer Heinrich August Meissner was hired to …
Hentsch, Richard
(567 words)
Hentsch, Richard (December 18, 1869, Cologne – February 13, 1918, Bucharest), German officer. After a private education in Berlin, Hentsch joined the 103rd Infantry Regiment (4th Saxon) in Bautzen in 1888. In 1899 he was posted to the Imperial General Staff, initially for two years, and then transferred there in 1902. He was promoted lieutenant colonel on April 20, 1914, and at the outbreak of war took up the post of head of the intelligence department to the chief of the General Staff of Field Fo…
Hero Cult
(1,197 words)
Hero Cult The First World War was the last war to have an explicit hero cult; it continued almost to the end of the war. Every day, and increasingly as the war situation intensified, the public was presented with war heroes, whether alive or killed in action, both collectively and individually. Their cult grew out of the national tradition; they were to be followed as examples of willpower and readiness for battle, staying power, and readiness for sacrifice. The World War, with its new weapon systems capable of killing anonymously, no longer provided any real basis for a …
Heroes’ Groves
(499 words)
Heroes’ Groves On December 8, 1914, an article by the head of the German Royal Horticultural College’s Department for Plant Production, Berliner Willy Lange, appeared in the entertainment section of the
Täglichen Rundschau. In his article, “Oaks for Heroes and Lindens for Peace,” Lange proposed that every German community should establish heroes groves, planting there, in orderly rows, one oak tree for every fallen soldier from the community: “For each, who lost his life for Germany’s freedom; for the ideal of Germanness, with…
Heroic Sacrifice, Myth of
(791 words)
Heroic Sacrifice, Myth of The word
Opfer (‘victim’) has two different connotations in the German language. One can make an
Opfer, a ‘sacrificial offering,’ by sacrificing a
victim to the gods, and in extreme cases a human being can offer himself in sacrifice. In its other connotation, a person can become the passive
victim or ‘target’ of fate, whether from decisions made by others or from unknown circumstances. In both connotations the word has been extensively used in the literature and public debates on the World War. This suggests that the word…
Hertling, Georg Graf von
(480 words)
Hertling, Georg Graf von (August 31, 1843, Darmstadt – January 4, 1919, Ruhpolding), German politician (Reich chancellor). Born into an old-established Hessian Catholic civil service family, Hertling originally wanted to become a priest, but in 1867 he gained his doctorate in philosophy at Bonn. In 1875 he was elected to the Reichstag for the Center Party. As a member of the Reichstag until 1890, and again from 1896 to 1912, he was a committed advocate of the political implementation of the tenets o…