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.
Artillery
(3,394 words)
Artillery Next to infantry and cavalry, artillery was the third combat arm of the land forces in 1914. Its task was to support other branches of the service, in particular the infantry. Since modern warfare was thought of as a war of movement, artillery doctrine, equipment and training were designed for mobile combat. It had to be able to follow the infantry in the field. This requirement restricted the weight and thus the caliber and ballistic capability of the guns. The primary weapons of the a…
Artois
(704 words)
Artois Landscape in the northern French département of Pas-de-Calais and in 1914–1915 the site of three Allied offensives. Following the Battle of Arras (October 1–13, 1914), the French High Command had since mid-November of 1914 been working toward renewing the offensive. The plan proposed by the French commander in chief, General Joseph Joffre, envisioned two simultaneous attacks to cut off the large German salient between Arras and Reims: one in the Champagne region, and the other one in Artoi…
Arz von Straussenburg, Baron Artur
(338 words)
Arz von Straussenburg, Baron Artur (June 16, 1857, Hermannstadt, modern Sibiu in Transylvania – July 1, 1935, Budapest), Austro-Hungarian army general and chief of the General Staff. A member of the Transylvanian Saxon ethnic community, Arz joined the 23rd
Feldjäger (Rifle) Battalion in 1877 for one year of voluntary military service. After attending the Kriegsschule (General Staff College) from 1885 to 1887, he was assigned to the General Staff and advanced his career mainly by serving with field units. Within months of attaining th…
A School of Violence and Spatial Desires? Austro-Hungarian Experiences of War in Eastern Europe, 1914–1918
(8,315 words)
Dornik, Wolfram - A School of Violence and Spatial Desires? Austro-Hungarian Experiences of War in Eastern Europe, 1914–1918
ISFWWS-Keywords: Austria-Hungary | Russian Front | Prisoners of War | Legacy | Poland | Violence against civilians
Other Fronts, Other Wars? Joachim Bürgschwentner, Matthias Egger and Gunda Barth-Scalmani , (2014)
Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2014
e-ISBN: 9789004279513
DOI: 10.1163/9789004279513_011 © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Dornik, Wolfram
Asquith, Herbert Henry
(520 words)
Asquith, Herbert Henry (September 12, 1863, Morley [West Yorkshire] – February 15, 1928, London; from 1925 Earl of Oxford and Asquith), British politician and leader of the Liberal Party; prime minister 1908–1916. Asquith belonged to the liberal-imperialist wing of his party. A member of the House of Commons from 1886, from 1891 he served as home secretary under William Gladstone. After the landslide victory in the 1906 election, which ended a period of nearly ten years in opposition for the Libera…
Assault Battalions
(304 words)
Assault Battalions Army formations that were raised specifically to be used in trench warfare and as training units. Beginning in 1916, the Germans deployed assault battalions primarily on the Western Front. France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary also fielded assault troops from 1917. The first German unit of this type, “Assault Battalion Rohr,” was organized in 1915 and initially comprised two pioneer companies. Its success led to the creation of 16 more assault battalions of this type, with infantry and pioneers p…
Assault Troops/Stormtroops
(322 words)
Assault Troops/Stormtroops Small, well-equipped, and well-armed combat force, most often of platoon strength. A German assault unit (
Stosstrupp) was a diverse group of soldiers that were required and qualified to carry out limited objective operations. Assault or shock troops were armed with rifles, hand grenades, light trench mortars and flamethrowers, as well as light machine guns. Frequently they were accompanied by signal troops and combat engineers. As a rule these formations were commanded by experienced o…
‘A Sting of Remembrance!’: Collective Memory and Its Forgotten Armies
(9,585 words)
Michail, Eugene - ‘A Sting of Remembrance!’: Collective Memory and Its Forgotten Armies
Keywords: Balkan front soldiers | British popular memory | First World War | forgotten British army | public memory | veteran soldiers
ISFWWS-Keywords: Balkans | Published memoirs and biographies | Britain | Legacy | Literature
Abstract: Focusing on the story of the ‘forgotten’ British army of the Balkan front this chapter explains exactly the feeling of exclusion from public memory, the reasons behind it, and the veteran soldiers’ reactions…
Auffenberg von Komarów, Baron Moritz
(292 words)
Auffenberg von Komarów, Baron Moritz (May 22, 1852, Troppau, modern Opava in the Czech Republic – May 18, 1928, Vienna), Austro-Hungarian minister of war and army general. Auffenberg graduated from the Theresian Military Academy and chose to pursue a career with the General Staff. Commanding a brigade in Győr and later a division in Zagreb, he experienced the conflict-laden internal structure of the Habsburg Monarchy. As a corps commander in Sarajevo from 1909 to 1911 he distinguished himself with hi…
August Experience
(1,226 words)
August Experience
Augusterlebnis (August Experience) was the contemporary German term for the patriotic enthusiasm among the German population at the outbreak of the war. The well-known images from the last weeks of July and from August of 1914 depict masses of people in the streets. The contemporary captions under the pictures suggest that these people were unanimously filled with “war enthusiasm.” The pictures are impressive but they do not tell the whole truth. In reality there was no near-ecst…
A Uniform of Whiteness: Racisms in the German Officer Corps, 1900–1918
(104 words)
Moyd, Michelle - A Uniform of Whiteness: Racisms in the German Officer Corps, 1900–1918
Keywords: Germany | Military organisation of combat | East Africa | Politics | Home fronts | Society | Legacy | Published memoirs and biographies ‛Uncovered Fields’ Jenny Macleod and Pierre Purseigle,
Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2004
e-ISBN: 9789047402596
DOI: 10.1163/9789047402596.003 © 2004 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Moyd, Michelle
Australia
(2,831 words)
Australia Australia entered the First World War as a federal dominion of the British Empire (Commonwealth of Australia), having achieved that status in 1901. Although the Australian colonies had sent troops to the Boer War between 1899 and 1902, there was no military tradition in the sense of a high-echelon military leadership and administration and a defense policy, and precious little national experience of war. Yet, by the end of the First World War, almost seven Australian cavalry and infantr…
Australian Prisoners of the Turks: Negotiating Culture Clash in Captivity
(8,635 words)
Ariotti, Kate - Australian Prisoners of the Turks: Negotiating Culture Clash in Captivity
ISFWWS-Keywords: Australia | Prisoners of War | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | Published memoirs and biographies | Masculinity | Medicine
Other Fronts, Other Wars? Joachim Bürgschwentner, Matthias Egger and Gunda Barth-Scalmani , (2014)
Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2014
e-ISBN: 9789004279513
DOI: 10.1163/9789004279513_008 © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Ariotti, Kate
Austria-Hungary
(15,054 words)
Austria-Hungary Concise accounts of how the war began in 1914 are frequently formulated as follows: On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne was murdered in Sarajevo, thus leading to the outbreak of World War I. Some aspects of this formulation are wrong, others questionable; the true mistake, however, lies in the alleged causality, which is more concerned with the construction of war guilt than with any attempt to offer a historically accurate chronology and explanation. The truth is th…
“Austria Nova” or “The Compass of Austria is Pointed Southwards”
(16,926 words)
Bobič, Pavlina - “Austria Nova” or “The Compass of Austria is Pointed Southwards”
Keywords: Austria | Austrian bishops | Carniola | Catholic Church's | Jeglič | Slovenian | Sustersic
Abstract: As the year of 1916 drew to a close, the Austrian bishops issued a joint episcopal letter, which, under the impact of the old emperor's death, affirmed the Catholic Church's unyielding support for the throne. This chapter examines general conditions in the Austrian half of the monarchy at the turn of 1916 and 1917,…
Auxiliary Service Bill
(1,121 words)
Auxiliary Service Bill The
Gesetz über den Vaterländischen Hilfsdienst, of December 5, 1916, imposed an obligation to work on all male Germans aged between 17 and 60 engaged in reserved occupations; the sectors affected included agriculture, health services, and public authorities. Originally demanded by the Operations Branch of the Supreme Army Command as an extension of conscription, the law was to provide for the employment of workers – including women – in armaments production (Hindenburg Program). As the Supreme Army Command did n…