Dominik Richert - The Kaisers Reluctant Conscript

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The Kaisers Reluctant Conscript

Dominik Richard

First published as Beste Gelegenheit zum Sterben:
meine Erlebnisse im Kriege 1914 1918/Dominik Richert.
Published by Angelika Tramitz and Berndt Ulrich Munich:
Knesebeck and Schuler 1989 with ISBN 3-926901-15-2.

Published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Dominik Richert, 2012

9781783469871

The right of Dominik Richert to be identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The right of the English Translator David Carrick Sutherland to be identified as
Translator of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset in 10/12pt Palatino
by Concept, Huddersfield.

Printed and bound in England by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY.

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen &
Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword
Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe
Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, The
Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
e-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Table of Contents

Introduction

In 1871 after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War the region of Alsace was incorporated into Germany. In common with the rest of the German Empire, its young men were routinely conscripted for military service. Dominik Richert was one of these young men. He was born in the Saint Ulrich in the Sundgau, close to the Swiss border in 1893 and grew up in a German-speaking environment where French was banned. He proved to be an able pupil at the local school, and when he was due to leave, the local teacher visited his father and tried to persuade him to let him continue his education. However, his father needed his help on their small farm and Dominiks formal education finished at the age of thirteen.

At this time a railway line was being built in the area, and Dominik was able to find employment as a messenger. Later, he loved to tell his family of the pride he felt the first time he came home with his pay a 20 Mark gold piece. As well as bringing in some well-needed cash to the family income, this job also gave him contact with people from very different backgrounds. There were a number of Italians working on the railway, and one of them encouraged Dominik to be sceptical of people in authority. He was learning to think for himself.

Dominik was called up in 1913, and did not return home till 1919. By this time, as a result of Germanys defeat, Alsace had once again become part of France. After his return, he started to write his memoirs, eventually filling nine notebooks with a very detailed and lively account of his experiences in the First World War. His ability to recall the events of the war in detail is very remarkable.

In 1922 Dominik married Adele Kayser and they had two sons, Marcel and Ulrich. They had reached manhood by the time that, in 1940, Germany invaded Alsace. By 1942, young men from Alsace were being conscripted for the German army. Given his experience of the First World War, Dominik encouraged his sons to escape across the border to Switzerland.

As a result of this act of civil courage, Dominik and Adele were deported to do forced labour in Germany in 1943.

When they heard that their parents had been deported, Dominiks sons joined the French Resistance and took an active part in fighting in France.

Dominik and Adele were dreadfully exploited, having to work fourteen to sixteen hour days on a farm in the Palatinate, but survived and returned home in 1945. The health and morale of both had suffered as a result of their ordeal. Alsace once again became part of France.

In the early 1960s Jean-Claude Faffa, a young man who had known Dominik in the village and had read his notebooks, decided to type them up in the hope that they would be published. He sent one copy of the typescript to Heinrich Bll, the German writer, but unfortunately Bll was not willing to lend his support. He sent the copy he had received to a military archive in Freiburg.

Dominik died in 1977 at the age of eighty-four in St Ulrich and is buried in the village churchyard.

In 1987, Bernd Ulrich, a postgraduate student of modern history from Berlin, discovered Faffas typescript in the military archive and quickly realised its importance. He showed it to his friend Angelika Tramitz, and together they managed to establish contact with Dominiks sons, and to check the authenticity of the manuscript and its contents.

They sought and found a publisher and were actively involved in editing the book for publication. It was published in German in 1989, and a French translation was published in 1994.

One reason for the books interest is its sheer scope. Dominik Richert was involved in the war from its outset until he deserted to the French in 1918, and his war service saw him fighting on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. His experience on the Eastern Front will be of particular interest to English speaking readers who are less likely to have read about the conflict from this perspective. His book provides a continuous autobiographical narrative almost like a diary for the entire period from the start of the war until his eventual return home in 1919.

It will also be of particular interest to English speaking readers to read his account of the fighting with Indian troops in 1914, and of the battle at Villers-Brettoneux in 1918, where many Australian troops were involved, and some of the first German tanks were in action.

Wherever he went, Dominik was interested in his environment and curious to learn more, visiting cities and towns, looking at the landscape and the way people lived.

However, the most important and valuable aspect of the book is the author himself. From the outset, it is clear that Dominik was a reluctant soldier who questioned authority and was willing to stand up for himself. There is also a clear development in his willingness to act independently as the narrative progresses, and he refuses to accept the propaganda which he encounters. He continues to fight to survive, but he still feels pity for his enemies, and has little respect for the upper echelons of his own army, or the society which sent it to war. He has a clear sense of humanity which transcends national boundaries. In this, he is a very modern hero.

Note on the Text

The translation is based on the published German edition and on Jean-Claude Faffas typescript. I have added some of the footnotes from the German edition, and a few of my own where I felt it necessary to do so.

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