Brothers in Arms
These prosperous times are overshadowed
by catastrophe
That house is a model of a villa, built in 1910, that stands in the Black Forest outside Waldkirch in Breisgau, in what was the Grand Duchy of Baden. The home of a wealthy industrialist, it has all of the modern conveniences, including two telephones.
The pater familias is seen there on the right, astride his horse, having just returned from an afternoon’s ride with his son, the young Leutnant in the foreground busy playing drillmaster for his small brother. The sentry box, recently repainted by the family’s steward in the colors of the Grand Duchy, was “rescued” from the Guards’ garrison at Karlsruhe when it was replaced by a new one. The large military relic encourages the child’s longing for a career as a Guards officer.
Their father is a cautious supporter of the German Empire. Though he is Catholic, he believes that Bismarck’s vision of a united Germany has led, ultimately, to strength and efficiency. However, like many of the subjects of the southern kingdoms of the Empire, he’s wary of the power of Prussia and of their protestant Hohenzollern king who is also the German Kaiser. The Kaiser’s know-it-all personality and habit of meddling in the affairs of the German people make the father wish that the imperial monarchy were a little more “constitutional” and a little less autocratic. Still, these are prosperous times; Germany is widely admired for its innovative scientific and technological accomplishments.
A few moments ago Frau Müller, the cook, arrived with a bowl of carrots for the two men to give to their horses, a family ritual of long practice. It’s six forty-five and the family is looking forward to dinner with Frau Müller’s superb asparagus in hollandaise sauce. The butler is reminding Aunt Sophie that dinner will be served in forty-five minutes. No one in the household has heard the news of the assassination at Sarajevo that morning. It’s a lovely, warm Sunday evening, the kind of sleepy calm that makes people wish it might last forever.
The patient cavalry officer, jovially admonishing his little brother, is an accomplished watercolorist and cellist who plans to leave the army in another year. Instead, in seventy-two days, his parents will be devastated when they learn that their son has been blown to bits by French artillery fire – not a trace of him found – during the first battle of the Marne.
