When Janet and I first got into this subject matter we ran smack into what I call “conventional wisdom.” The tried and true explanation of historical facts and artifacts. The problem was that as we scratched the paint the ”conventional wisdom” story frequently fell apart. All of our books have been based around trying to set the story straight. The explanations in our books will become dated. The follow on problem was that many of these stories were backed up by books and professional historians. So let’s go to an example:
This is an incredibly famous picture. Students worldwide of World War I have gazed upon this picture to get a feel for the German assault in France and Belgium in 1914. History book after history book has copied this picture, cropped it changed it may be a little bit and included it in their works. For instance, the 2003 “All the Kaiser’s Men” on page 16 includes this photo with the caption: German infantry advance to contact in France August 1914. Not to single this work out as collectors and historians will recall the same picture from childhood. This is a classic example of “conventional wisdom.” There is no more famous picture than this representing the German attack in 1914. When you scratch the paint you can discover that this is all wrong.
There had been questions as a few amateur folks blew the picture up and faintly discerned guard Litzen on the uniforms and maneuver bands on the helmets. This did not make sense, especially given that some sources attributed the picture to Lorraine, where no guard units fought. The helmet detail of the maneuver bands was faint at best, maybe even airbrushed, but certainly would lead to some questions. The additional pictures below show the 11th Grenadier Litzen and maneuver bands worn in a 1912 picture.
As Janet and I were paging through a series of German magazines on a lazy day back in 2005 we were taken aback by the discovery of our old friend the well-known picture. It was on the cover the 13 September 1913 copy of a German newspaper. The main title says: “from this year’s Kaiser Maneuver in Schlesien.” Further reading attributes the maneuver to the VI Army Corps. VI Army Corps definitely came from the area cited. The Litzen on the uniform might indeed be from the 11th Grenadier Regiment of the VI Army Corps.
There is no way to prove exactly what this is a picture of. The photograph may have indeed, predated this newspaper significantly. One thing is for certain and it certainly changed the way we looked at traditional histories. The picture was also included in some mid-war German picture books. This picture was not taken after 13 September 1913, and it was not taken in France, Belgium or Lorraine. This just goes to show that collectors and historians cannot rely upon “conventional wisdom” when dealing with any issue.
Word of the discrediting of this frequently used picture spread quickly. In many colleges and schools [including the US Army War College] visual aids were changed. The picture was not repeated all that much in books any longer. A debate even started about what exactly was displayed in the picture? Obviously it was some sort of unit movement. But what kind? Was this really a movement to contact? Which doctrinal methodology was used in 1913 in VI Corps? Did this represent the spread out formations mentioned in the 1906 infantry methodology? Was this an example of units moving shoulder to shoulder? Was this methodology ”traditionalist” or ”reformer?” Suddenly, enter stage left the argument of Zuber that the Germans were homogenous in their application of what he called doctrine. On an academic basis in the United States the Zuber argument gained the upper hand.
Some professional historians handled this argument very nicely and tried to put it into context. They recognized the new knowledge as a small step in improving our understanding of Imperial German History. Other professional historians did not handle it quite so nicely. While it was only a minor discovery of a long held truth, it came from the amateur world and was not worthy of the small cloistered society of PhD professionals. Not everybody got the word and the picture ended up on the cover of a 2012 book: “Home Before the Leaves Fall.” In 2019, Janet took one of those “Great Courses.” The discussion of early war was at best egregious. Written by a full professor of history at a major State University, we contacted him, explained that we would be driving through his city on the way back from a Disney cruise and would be very pleased to show him some different, updated points of view that were included in our book with the late great historian Dennis Showalter. He was not interested and could care less if he was showing that picture to paying students. When I discussed this with Dennis Showalter who knew the individual all he said was ”I expected better.”
What does it all mean to you as a member? I would extol you all to read history critically. Like we explained him our blog on unit histories, you have to understand a bit about the context, who wrote it and why. Histories become dated over time. Read critically. Question things. As one noted historian said: it is not the facts in history that are interesting but rather the questions.