Since 1956 Grieving Parents by Käthe Kollwitz has stood in the German war cemetery in Vladslo, a sub-district of Diksmuide | www.artinflanders.be, photo Hugo Maertens
Grieving Parents by Käthe Kollwitz
The First World War
Grieving Parents by Käthe Kollwitz in the German war cemetery in Vladslo near Diksmuide gives striking expression to the universal grief of the First World War. The German artist lost her youngest son Peter at the beginning of the conflict. She expressed her grief with two figures: a grieving mother and father.
Käthe Kollwitz designed the work as a grave monument for her 18-year-old son Peter who was killed during the battle of the Yser. She completed the pair of statues between 1927 and 1932. It was a tribute to all young victims of war.
Never before had so much blood flowed on Belgian soil as during the First World War. Of the millions of dead worldwide approximately 600,000 died in the Westhoek in Flanders. They came from all corners of the world and all left grieving loved ones behind.
In 2023 UNESCO recognised the Germany cemetery in Vladslo as a world heritage site, together with 138 cemeteries and locations in Flanders, Wallonia and France associated with the First World War.
Westhoek verbeeldt, private collection
The Cloth Hall in Ypres before and after its destruction during the First World War.
The First World War
When the First World War began on 28 July 1914, Belgium was a neutral country. It did not belong to one of the two great power blocs confronting each other: the Central Powers (the German Empire and Austria-Hungary) and the Entente (France, Great Britain and Russia). That neutrality did not stop the German army from invading Belgium on 4 August 1914. The Belgian army fought back, with the support of the French and British empires.
The German advance ground to a halt at the end of October 1914 on the Yser. An extensive trench front line stretched from the coast in Nieuwpoort through Northern France as far as Switzerland. Only a small corner of Belgium, in West-Flanders beyond the Yser, remained free. The Belgian army, with King Albert I as its commander had its headquarters in Veurne. The government departed for France.
The greater part of the country was occupied by the German army. The occupation was hard. Countless decrees restricted the life of the population. The most hated measure was compulsory labour from 1916 onwards: over 180,000 Belgians had to work for the German war effort.
Military innovations such as poison gas, tanks and planes ensured an unprecedented slaughter. Only when the United States of America actively engaged in the war in Western Europe, was there any movement in the front line. The German army was forced back. On 11 November 1918 the warring parties signed an armistice. Belgium mourned over 40,000 military and 23,000 civilian deaths, a great deal of its industrial infrastructure had been destroyed and numerous towns and villages had been laid waste.
Focal points
Alamy Stock Photo, Colin Waters
Belgians fleeing the German invasion in 1914.
Refugees
The war triggered a great movement of peoples. An estimated one third of the then 7.6 million Belgians fled from the advancing German troops. Many were trying to avoid the bombardments, but also the violence and the atrocities. The German army murdered over five thousand civilians during revenge actions and set whole towns on fire, such as Dinant, Leuven, Aarschot and Dendermonde.
Some 1.5 million Belgians fled to France, Great Britain and the neutral Netherlands. After the front had stabilised, most returned. Nevertheless, no less than 600,000 Belgians were to spend the whole war abroad. In their guest countries they were given humanitarian help and Belgian camps sprang up. In the British and American press Belgium was treated with much sympathy as ‘Poor Little Belgium’.
On both sides of the front line whole villages and towns were regularly evacuated. The inhabitants of Roeselare were forced to leave their town in 1917 and found shelter in Duffel, Lier and Herentals. Those people, like Belgians abroad, could often only return home after the ceasefire of 11 November 1918 – assuming that home was still there. In the Westhoek alone 65,000 dwellings had been destroyed. For countless families the misery of the war lasted for years after 1918.
Ypres, Last Post Association
Every evening at eight o’clock since 1928 the trumpeters of the Last Post Association have played The Last Post at the Menen (Menin) Gate in Ypres. Only during the Second War could the ceremony not take place because of a ban by the German authorities. The photo shows the ceremony in 1929.
Commemorating the War
The First World War was fought out on almost all continents. In Belgium the Westhoek had a particularly hard time of it. The German army confronted Belgians, French and British there for four years.
France and Great Britain drafted in many troops from their colonies to fight on the European Western front. In the years 1914-1918 the West-Flemings got to know people from Morocco and Algeria, British India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Belgium did not use any soldiers from its African colony, apart from 32 Congolese. Thousands of black soldiers, though, did take part in the Belgian campaign in East Africa.
People from every corner of the world found their last resting place in the Westhoek. Most were given a grave in one of the numerous military cemeteries which are so characteristic of this region. Monuments were built to commemorate the dead and missing. The best known is perhaps the Menin Gate in Ypres with the names of almost 55,000 missing soldiers from the British Empire. The Westhoek became a place of pilgrimage for veterans and family members of soldiers who had died. Even today the First World is omnipresent in the area and in many countries the victims are remembered with the poppy from ‘Flanders Fields’the expression became known worldwide through the 1915 poem by the Canadian poet and medical officer John McCrae: In Flanders Fields the poppies blow… as a symbol.
Discover more on this topic
Vlaanderen Vakantieland
Bron: VRT archief, In Flanders Fields Museum – 25 jan 2014
Ten oorlog special – Onder Vlaamse velden
Bron: VRT archief, De chinezen – 17 april 2018
Terzake
Bron: VRT archief en In Flanders Fields Museum – 1 apr 2014
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief en In Flanders Fields Museum – 22 apr 2015
Meer vrouw op straat – Brugge
Bron: VRT archief, De chinezen – 14 april 2020
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief, In Flanders Fields Museum – 21 okt 2014
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief – 24 aug 2014
Karrewiet
Bron: VRT archief , In Flanders Fields Museum – 6 okt 2017
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief – 23 okt 2014
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief en Stad Antwerpen – 3 okt 2014
Karrewiet
Bron: VRT archief en Stad Antwerpen – 3 okt 2014
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief en Heemkundige Kring Baarle-Nassau-Hertog – 4 okt 2014
Terzake
Bron: VRT archief – 27 jun 2014
Non-fiction
Vluchten voor de oorlog: Belgische vluchtelingen, 1914-1918
Davidsfonds, 2004.
14-18. Oorlog in België
Davidsfonds, 2014.
Congo aan den Yser, de 32 Congolese soldaten van het Belgisch leger in de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Manteau, 2013.
De laatste getuige. Het landschap van Wereldoorlog I in Vlaanderen
Lannoo, 2006.
De Groote Oorlog. Het koninkrijk België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Atlas Contact, 1997.
Wereldoorlog I. Vijf continenten in Vlaanderen
Lannoo, 2008.
De vergeten soldaten van de Eerste Wereldoorlog
EPO, 2019.
Land van schroot en knoken. Slachtoffers van ontploffingen in de frontstreek 1918-heden
Davidsfonds, 2011.
Tegen-strijd. De beleving van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in het land van Dendermonde
Davidsfonds, 2014.
Oorlogsdagboeken 1914-1918: een vrouw vertelt over haar Eerste Wereldoorlog
De Bezige Bij, 2013.
De stilte van de Salient, de herinnering aan de Eerste Wereldoorlog rond Ieper
Lannoo, 2003.
Belgen maken bommen. Zesduizend militairen en vluchtelingen in de munitiefabriek van Birtley, Engeland (1916-1919)
Lannoo, 2016.
Brood willen we hebben! Honger, sociale politiek en protest tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog in België
Manteau, 2013.
Oorlogsdagen. Overleven in bezet Vlaanderen tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Manteau, 2013.
Vriend over vijand. De Grote Oorlog in spotprenten
Lannoo, 2013.
Voor den kop geschoten. Executies van Belgische spionnen door de Duitse bezetter (1914-1918)
Roularta, 2009.
De grote oorlog: een kijkboek over de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Lannoo, 2014. (6-9 jaar)
Odon: oorlogsdagboek van een IJzerfrontsoldaat
Lannoo, 2019.
1914, de Duitsers komen: de moordende begindagen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Lannoo, 2010.
De allerlaatste getuigen van WOI
Lannoo, 2011.
Augustus 1914. België op de vlucht
Manteau, 2013.
Käthe Kollwitz. De stem van een generatie treurende ouders
De Klaproos, 2014.
Peter Kollwitz: Diksmuide, 22 oktober 1914
De Klaproos, 2013.
Fiction
Elsie en Mairi – Engelen van Flanders Fields
Lannoo, 2013. (strip)
Cher Ami. Ode aan de dieren in de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Lannoo, 2016.
Tunnelkoorts
Lannoo, 2008. (12+)
Post voor mevrouw Bromley
Atlas Contact, 2011.
Ule. ‘Ik was veertien in 1914’
Manteau, 2013. (13+)
De grote verliezer
Abimo, 2013. (11+)
Wat niemand weet
Clavis, 2013. (15+)
Oorlog en terpentijn
De Bezige Bij, 2013.
Achter de draad
Leopold, 2014. (10+)
Milans Groote Oorlog
Clavis, 2013. (10+)
Godenslaap
De Bezige Bij, 2020.
De dodendraad
Averbode, 2014. (10+)
Het meisje en de soldaat
De Eenhoorn, 2013. (12+)
Kind van de Westhoek
De Eenhoorn, 2012.
De grote slachting
Casterman, 2010. (strip)
Het land dat nooit was: een tegenfeitelijke geschiedenis van België
De Bezige Bij, 2015.
Suske en Wiske, Het Schrikkelspook (nr. 336)
De Standaard, 2014.
Een lied voor Lore
Davidsfonds-Infodok, 2008. (12+)
Woesten
Vrijdag, 2013.
Alles komt goed, altijd
Lannoo, 2018. (11+)
Niet welkom
Clavis, 2013. (10+)
Smokkelkinderen
Van Holkema & Warendorf, 2016. (10+)
Nu kijken
Het Klokhuis
Bijkomend kijk/luister materiaal
Beneath Hill 60
(2010)
Great War Diaries
(2014)
In Vlaamse Velden
(2014)
Parade’s End
(2012)
Passchendaele
(2008)
Private Peaceful
(2012)
The Wipers Times
(2013)