Students from the Institute of History have analysed more than 500 letters from the First World War that were stored almost untouched in a cellar in Herford. They will present their exclusive insights into the lives of the "Two Brothers in the Great War" at a reading in Hude on 19 November.
How does it feel to be a soldier fighting for months in a hopeless war? What do you write to your loved ones at home? And what news do you hope to receive from home? Twelve history students at the University of Oldenburg have been able to gain exclusive insights into the thoughts and feelings of soldiers Ernst and Gerhard Budde over the past three semesters. In a seminar held by Oldenburg historian Prof. Dr Gunilla Budde, Gerhard's granddaughter, they analysed the letters that the two brothers sent to their mother Elsbeth in Herford during the First World War - and her letters to her sons. A few years ago, Gunilla Budde discovered the more than 550 documents in the cellar of her parents' house and made them the subject of a course to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the war.
Directly at the source
In the spirit of research-based learning, the Master's students worked directly with the source material. They first had to transcribe the letters, which were written in Sütterlin script, in order to be able to analyse them at all. "That wasn't easy at all, sometimes I spent hours trying to decipher a single word," says student Diana Schmack. But after a few weeks, she got used to the script and made much faster progress. Her fellow student Manuela Janssen liked working with the original sources so much that she is now also using this method for her Master's thesis. "We were the first ever to read these letters from a scientific perspective. It makes a historian's heart smile," says the young woman.
The intensive reading allowed her and her fellow students to immerse themselves deeply in the thoughts of the two young soldiers: The lust for war, which cooled noticeably after just a few weeks, was reflected in the letters, as was the bitter realisation that many of their comrades were by no means noble heroes, but rather rather rough fellows. The inadequate food supply also shone through - coupled with a certain lack of understanding for the situation at home, where not everything was as easy to come by as it used to be: "We don't need margarine here, send me the good butter!"
Typical family
In addition to these insights into everyday life at the front, it is above all typical family disputes that the students have worked out. The eternal competition between the brothers, the feeling of not receiving enough comfort from their mother after a serious injury - anyone who follows two young men so closely will gradually develop a bond with them. The shock was all the greater when the students discovered a death telegram in the documents: In a matter-of-fact tone, Elsbeth was informed in the summer of 1915 that Ernst had been killed in action. "Mrs Budde hadn't told us anything about their fate beforehand. We had somehow always assumed that they had both survived. Ernst's death caught us off guard," remembers Mareike de Wall. Ernst of all people, Elsbeth's favourite. This exacerbated the fermenting conflicts in the family, as Gerhard's and Elsbeth's letters over the coming months show. But the students also manage to look behind the obvious feelings of anger and sadness. "The letters were a bit like a diary. We were able to read a lot about their fears and worries, even if they didn't express them so clearly," says Björn Jeddeloh. He would like to see more courses like this. "I was incredibly motivated," he says.
The students' commitment continues: At the end of the three-semester seminar, they developed a poster presentation for the week of research-based learning and devised the reading, which has already taken them across Oldenburg, to Jever and, of course, to Herford in East Westphalia. A book containing all of Ernst, Gerhard and Elsbeth's letters is also due to be published next summer.
Reading: "Two brothers in the Great War" in co-operation with the Oldenburg University Society (UGO) on Monday, 19 November, at 7 pm in the Elisabeth Church in Hude. Admission costs 15 euros.
