The 'Great War' in Belgium
The exhibition "Expo 14-18, It's Our History!" at the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels highlights how the small, neutral country was transformed into a gaping battlefield.
When cannons talk
In 1914, politics and diplomacy failed, and the major European powers faced off in Belgium. Germany occupied the country and turned it into a battlefield. The new exhibition "Expo 14-18, It's Our History!" at the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels remembers the Great War.
A struggle between two men
German Kaiser Wilhelm II (center, standing) confronts his relative, Albert I (far right,) the King of Belgium. Albert I went on to become a war hero, while Wilhelm II eventually lost power. For Belgium, World War I was also a duel between these two men. The photo is from a funeral service in 1910.
Ultimatum
The German kaiser threatened to invade Belgium on August 2, 1914. The photo shows the handwritten dispatch from Berlin. King Albert I allowed the deadline to pass. Germany attacked the country, and occupied it until 1918. Albert himself fought on the front. In the end, the British and Americans came to the rescue.
Map of horror
The war fronts are sketched out on the floor of the exhibition, with Belgian cities marked. Multimedia displays provide information about the German invasion and the battle on the Yser River. Visitors feel their way through the dimly-lit hall, with the noise of guns booming out around them from loudspeakers.
'The war nobody wanted'
Elie Barnavi, a history professor from Tel Aviv, was an advisor to the exhibition organizers. He comments that nobody wanted the war that devastated Belgium and led to its occupation, but no other power prevented it. Many innocent people suffered, as Expo 14-18 clearly shows.
Take cover!
Soldiers on both sides held out in trenches - like this replica - awash in mud, and were sacrificed in senseless attacks. The front remained unchanged for nearly four years.
Boredom in the trenches
Soldiers' main activity was waiting for the next grueling attack, sometimes for several weeks. Some of the soldiers used the time to make Madonna sculptures or tank models from empty artillery shells and metal pieces, resulting in what came to be known as "trench art."
Chemical warfare
In 1915, near Ypres, the Germans used poison gas for the first time. Belgian soldiers tried to protect themselves with glasses, towels and makeshift masks. The deadly gas was then used by all sides in the war, resulting in 1.2 million wounded people and 90,000 deaths.
On the ruins
Many Belgian cities were laid to waste, as the exhibition shows. Visitors stand above a photograph of the ruins of Ypres, with only a pane of glass separating them. A screen wall displays the stark statistics of those killed, wounded and displaced.
Occupying forces
The German governor-general ruled the country, issuing posters and calls for action. Obedience was the top priority. Arrests and the poor supply situation weakened people's resistance - but there was resistance. However, there was also collaboration in parts of Flanders.
Macabre souvenirs
German occupiers decorated a Christmas tree in 1915 with these Christmas ornaments, which were modeled on bombs and bullets and named after cities that had been invaded and destroyed.
Turning munition shells into vases
After the end of the war, Belgian artists created flower vases from the empty ammunition shells they found everywhere. This is post-war art of a different kind. After being liberated, Belgians assumed the "Great War" would be the last war - but the country would be occupied by the Germans again in 1940.
What would you do?
One hundred years after World War I, the exhibition asks visitors: What would you have done? They can vote interactively on other questions, too, such as: Is there such a thing as a just war? What would you die for today?
Poppies for remembrance
The exhibition ends with a heap of red poppies. Belgians remember the horrors of World War I by wearing a symbolic poppy on their clothes. The red color is a memento of the blood-soaked battlefields. Poppies also bloomed on the soldiers' fresh graves.