The Christmas Truce

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Essay from the year 2003 in the subject History Europe - Germany - World War I, Weimar Republic, grade: B+, Juniata College, course: Uncovering the Past, language: English, abstract: “But, however, looking back on it all, I wouldn’t have missed that uniqueand weird Christmas Day for anything.”1The English soldier Bruce Bairnsfather looked back on an event in which he hadtaken part. This small excerpt shows quite clearly that something extraordinary andunexpected must have happened. Bairnsfather talks about the Christmas Truce, whichhappened in 1914. After almost six month of war, soldiers fighting for the Entente powersand soldiers fighting for the “Mittelmächte” met in No Man’s Land and celebratedChristmas together. The soldiers exchanged gifts, sometimes addresses, and dranktogether. Often the truce started with a request to bury the dead comrades lying betweenthe trenches. The Christmas Truce was a small peaceful episode in a cruel environment.Certainly, Bairnsfather’s statement is a bit too generalized because it did not occur alongthe whole frontline. Mostly English and German soldiers took part in the Christmasfraternization, but also in some cases French, Belgian, Austrian and Russian soldiers tookpart.2 In the following years the Christmas Truce was mystified as an act of humanity inan inhuman war. Jorgensen and Harrison-Lever published a picture book for children withthe Christmas Truce as the background. A young soldier sees a nice colored small birdwhich was captured in barbed wire. He decides to leave his trench to free the bird, and noenemy shoots at him. The publisher’s text on the back introduces this book with the words: [...]1 Bairnsfather, Bruce. Bullets & Billets, (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1917), 69.2 Ekstein, Modris. Rites of Spring. The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, (Boston/New York: FirstMariner Books, 2000), 109-114.