Saxons in the field and on the home front

Second war exhibition by the Deutsche Bücherei, 1916
Delousing certificate: Fred Hendriok, detail
Fred Hendriok, detail from the Delousing certificate, ca. 1916
German National Library, First World War Collection

Sax­ons in the field and on the home front

Second war exhibition by the Deutsche Bücherei, 1916

The second exhibition by the Deutsche Bücherei attracted more attention than the first. It opened on 2 September 1916 on the occasion of the inauguration of the new library building. 

Open to the public for many months, it was dedicated to the subjects War newspapers, German universities and the war, and The Saxons in the field and on the home front

The first thematic group contained newspapers published by schools, associations, field hospitals, prison camps, the casualty welfare organisation and others, as well as circulars issued by industrial and trading companies to their employees. In the context of the war newspapers, the focus was specifically on the printed matter issued by the 10th Army in Vilnius, which included newspapers, postcards, posters, playbills, and similar. 

The second group presented honorary doctors’ diplomas, field salutations of German universities and colleges, as well as war dissertations, whereby the visitors’ interest was directed specifically to the doctoral certificates of Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) and Erich Ludendorff (1865–1937). 

Saxon greetings from home, food stamps and newspapers printed by Saxon troops were combined in the last group. These included the field gazette Der Landsturm, which was published in 1914/15 in France by the 3rd Company of the Royal Saxon Landsturm Infantry Battalion No. 1 from Leipzig.

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