One hundred years of cellotude continued:
Sixth part of
Chapter 1
A cello called Heinrich
Previous section: Marches and veal dumplings
This photo shouting "1914 War" marks the beginning of the war in Max Heinrich's photo album. Next to his official portrait in uniform (shown below).
A wanderer between both worlds
Max Heinrich left no record of his experience of the war, so we will just have to piece together the jigsaw. At Dieuze, his regiment was already stationed quite close to the French border, and it was swiftly moved into France and into battles at Lagarde and Nancy-Epinal.
When the Western front became stuck in trench warfare, the regiment was moved to the Eastern front where it suffered severe losses in the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes in February 1915. The third battalion, ie one third of the regiment, had to be disbanded on February 20th and could only be reformed several weeks later, initially only as a half-battalion. In the last year of the war, the regiment was moved back to North of France, where it once more suffered devastating losses. Again, entire companies had to be disbanded and rebuilt.
Lists of the casualties of IR138 are available online and paint a haunting picture. Max Heinrich’s first company had 206 fatalities (just among the soldiers, not including officers who have a separate list). This is roughly the nominal strength of the company, so on average the entire population was killed and replaced once. I’m trying to get my head round that but it is a struggle.
As a musician in the band, also helping out with the medical service and the communications, Max Heinrich must have had better survival chances than the colleagues in the trenches. At least I couldn’t find any hoboist in the casualties lists. He also had the good luck of falling ill soon after the war began and staying that way for much of its duration.
On September 13, 1914, after six weeks at war, he had stomach and gut problems (Magen- und Darm-Katarrh) which was treated in the field hospital in Fling for a year and a half, until April 3rd, 1916, according to his record card. Unfortunately I can’t find a place called Fling anywhere.
On April 4th he returned to his regiment still at the Eastern front, which had just successfully stopped a Russian offensive at the Lake Naroch (today’s Belarus).
Max Heinrich ca. 1916.
Max Heinrich spent one month at the Eastern front. During that time, his mother died at Magdeburg on April 20th, the day before her 72nd birthday. On May 3rd, he became ill with bronchitis and was treated at an army hospital in Bruchsal – conveniently close to Maria’s family, so he will have been able to catch up with his wife and son during that time.
Max Heinrich visiting family in 1916. The location has been seen in previous family portraits including one with his mother so it is likely to be either his parents' house in Tangermünde or his sister's in Magdeburg. As his mother is conspicuously absent from this one, the reason for the visit could have been her funeral.
On July 7th he joined a reconvalescent company of his regiment, which I guess is where all the numerous soldiers injured in previous battles were brought back to fighting strength. On August 30th, 1916 he came to the 4th company of his regiment, later moving to the 1st company where he was originally. From this point to the end of the war, his itinerary must have been identical to that of the regiment.
During his illness, the regiment witnessed a development that became a significant part of literary history. The young philologist and writer Walter Flex, born 1887 at Eisenach (also the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach and 40 km from Max Heinrich’s birthplace), had forged a friendship with the theology student Ernst Wurche during officer training. At the end of May 1915, both joined IR138, each commanding a platoon of the ninth company. Their company was part of the third batallion which was severely decimated in the Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
On the Eastern front, Flex and Wurche experienced an intensive relationship which found a brutal end when Wurche died on August 23. Flex eternalised his memories of the time with him in the romanticising novella Der Wanderer zwischen beiden Welten (The wanderer between both worlds). The two worlds of the title can be read as life and death. Wurche is presented as a carefree adventurous type who valiantly faces the mortal risks of life at the frontline.
Dustjacket and hardcover of Walter Flex's famous book. Sadly not the family edition (which has gone missing by the time its significance dawned on me) but a 1937 reprint (20th anniversary of the author's death) which I found in a street library.
The novella was published in 1916 and made Flex famous overnight. Poems included in the story, expecially „Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht“ were set to music and further spread his fame. Today his work counts as a precedent for the successes of Ernst Jünger and Erich Maria Remarque. Flex was called to Berlin in 1917 in order to participate in a literary account of the war. After completing his contribution, he could have stayed in the safety of the PR world, but insisted on returning to his regiment and the Eastern front.
On October 10, 1917, the regiment embarked on various ships to take part in conquering the islands Ösel and Moon in the Baltic Sea. Walter Flex suffered a shot wound on the island of Ösel on October 15 and died of his injuries the day after.
Max Heinrich was with the regiment at this time, so he must have played his tuba when the band played the last march for Walter Flex. A copy of Flex’s famous book lived on my grandparents’ bookshelves well into the 21st century. By the time its significance dawned on me, it has sadly and mysteriously disappeared.
The Russian Revolution began on October 25. The Bolsheviks had promised the Russian population peace, and thus a ceasefire between Germany and Russia came into force on December 15, leading to the peace of Brest-Litovsk the following year.
For Max Heinrich’s regiment, this meant a return to France and another rendez-vous with death. In January 1918 his regiment took position at Pérenchies West of Armentières, near Lille. During the battle of Armentières, it crossed the river Leie and got involved in fighting near Doulieu and Merris. By August the regiment was so severely decimated that it was no longer fit for service and had to be reconstituted. Later, defensive engagements in the Champagne region brought further severe losses. Overall we get the impression that Max Heinrich had to play lots of funeral marches that year, but he managed to hang on with no further illnesses nor injuries.
After the Armistice of November 11, the remainders of the regiment marched homewards through the Eifel mountans to Schupbach (Hesse). As their home barracks in Dieuze was out of bounds (reclaimed by the French), they marched onwards to Coswig on the river Elbe, where the regiment was officially disbanded. In May 1919, Max Heinrich was moved to an “Auflösungs-Kompanie” – a company with the purpose of managing its own dissolution, I love the absurdity of that – and at the end of October he was dismissed from the army.
As the Versailles Treaty only allowed a German army of 100,000 men and the Lower Alsatian Regiment was disbanded, there was no question that Max Heinrich’s military career was finished. Instead, there was the prospect of the quieter life of a civil servant – and chamber musician.
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