Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
December 2018
Book “Christmas” from the year 1914
Historical Context
The handwritten book with its self-designed cover contains the program for the celebrations on December 24, 1914, at the prisoner-of-war camp in Beresowka, Siberia, as well as transcripts of the two listed plays “Christmas in the Camp of Berezowka. Performance in 3 Pictures” and “Landwehrmann Kulicke’s Return from Siberia. Burlesque in two Parts.”
Short Biography of August Schlicht
August Schlicht was born in 1881 in Hamburg. He grew up there, trained as a dental artist, married his wife Tony in 1904, and became a father to Hildegard, known as “Hildchen”, in 1907.
With the outbreak of World War I, he was called to the Eastern Front in August 1914. After two months in the field, August Schlicht was captured by Russian forces. He could only return to his family in 1921. He spent Christmas separated from his family in prisoner-of-war camps in Siberia a total of seven times. August Schlicht passed away in 1927 from the health effects of captivity.
Significance of the Object
Christmas is traditionally celebrated within the family and is regarded as a festival of love and peace. During wartime, these values are challenged by the warring parties because so many families are torn apart and people are killed daily.
The efforts to restore some normalcy, to maintain traditions and rituals, and to distract each other from homesickness and longing are particularly strong among all prisoners of war. In 1914, during the first Christmas of World War I, the two plays documented in the book helped combat “troubled thoughts” as August Schlicht describes in a letter to his wife shortly before Christmas.
“My dear, sweet little wife!
[…] [W]hen you read this letter, we hope we have celebrated the festival in a good German way and in good health, always remembering the loved ones back home. We are still in preparations for the celebration. We have formed a music band that already plays nice German songs. Our sergeant has written 2 plays that are to be performed on the evening of the festival. Other serious and light-hearted presentations are planned. A German officer has written the prologue and we hope to chase away gloomy thoughts for ourselves and the other teams.“
(August Schlicht to Tony Schlicht, 20.12.1914)
The plays are about an unfortunate and interrupted escape just before Christmas and the happy return after the war. While the first piece is very serious and melancholic, the second one is rather comedic and cheerful. August Schlicht seems to consider the reflection on German Christmas traditions as important – they apparently should help against homesickness in distant, hostile Russia.
But not only at the front and in prisoner-of-war camps were the holidays particularly difficult, the families at home also missed fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands. August Schlicht is also aware of this when he writes home a year later, Christmas 1915:
“I do hope, my dear, that you did not spend the festival too sadly, I would otherwise be very sorry. I bought something for you and my Hildchen for Christmas, you will enjoy it later.”
(August Schlicht to Tony Schlicht, 24.12.1915)
Do You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de