Iconic Photo ...

[Chris Boonzaier]

I have always loved this pic, the troops advancing... usually in bad quality in an old book.... but I was very happy to find an original print.... it is only with an original print that you can see the details, the exhausted soldiers, rolled up sleeves, etc....

[OvBacon]

When armies still marched to and fro with a drum player....

[Utgardloki]

Any idea where this was made?

[dond]

I believe this is a pre-war picture taken during a Kaiser maneuver.

[Leutwein]

39 minutes ago, dond said:

I believe this is a pre-war picture taken during a Kaiser maneuver.

I have to agree because it seems that there is a civilian (?) in the background....

 

....someone is wearing a summer hat, see attachment.

 

Best regards

 

Karsten

Edited May 17, 2020 by Leutwein

[Utgardloki]

That's funny... didn't see him ... so much detail in there

Edited May 19, 2020 by Utgardloki

[Bayern]

The Iconic pic was captioned in many books about WW1 as The German horde advancing against the Belgians or the French or the British , Less passionately as The German soldiers advancing towards the Enemy ,in all cases during August 1914 .Well its Prima Facie possible . August is high Summer and the pictured soldiers looks as overheated sic . but where ? certainly not in Belgium plain as a coin excepting the Ardennes . Not the North east of France . Where then ? Alsace I think . the field they are traversing appears as covered with flowered plants . but so dense that one thinks in a cultivated field .Another detail of interest is the absence on the helmets of the red or blue band used in manouvres and of numbers on the helmet covers but if the pic is of wartime the absence of the number is owed to the censor . The civilian present may be a war correspondent .the German High commands were more receptive to the journalists than the Frenchs .

[Dave Danner]

I'd have to agree with Don. This was likely from the 1913 Kaiser Maneuvers. I included a few photos from that set of maneuvers when I created the Wikipedia page on the Imperial German Army back in 2007. I am surprised that one of them is still there (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HusarenAngriff.jpg).  The photos were taken from the book Deutschlands Wehrmacht, published in 1913. I don't have my copy handy, so I don't know if Chris's picture is also in the book, but the details like terrain and picture quality and dimensions are similar.