The 2014 Christmas Truce
2014 year marks the 100th anniversary of the Christmas truce during World War I. On December 25, 1914, two-thirds of the Western Front (roughly 100,000 British and German troops) spontaneously exited their trenches to exchange chocolate, cigarettes, brandy rum and souvenirs. They took photos of themselves together, played football (soccer) and shared gripes about the war and their superior officers. In some areas, the truce continued for days.
Short truces between British and German units dated from early November 1914, when static trench warfare began. The close proximity of trench lines made it easy for opposing armies to shout greetings to each other. It seems to have been the most common method for arranging informal truces during to attend to the wounded and collect the dead for burials. Several British soldiers recalled instances of Germans asking about the outcome of important football matches.
This 1981 BBC documentary features interviews with two British veterans of the Christmas truce. One vet describes how his unit pre-scheduled a second truce on New Year’s Day because the Germans wanted to see how the pictures turned out. Because they traded caps and jackets, it’s impossible to distinguish the opposing armies in the photo above.
High Command Livid
Soldiers naturally wrote home to their families about the impromptu truce. The British high command was livid when the New York Times broke the story on December 31, 1914.
Over the next three Christmases they issued strict orders that any troops who fraternized with German soldiers would be court martialed for treason. Despite the dire warnings, a few British troops participated in spontaneous celebrations with German soldiers in December 1915.
The German Revolution that Ended World War I
Thanks to the Christmas truce, soldiers on both sides made the shocking realization they had more in common with each other than with their superior officers – despite the intense propaganda they were fed by their respective governments. In 1918, a longer better organized mutiny would force the German Kaiser to surrender to the Allies.
Mainstream history textbooks go on at length about the 1917 Russian revolution that ended Russian participation in World War I. They rarely mention that the revolution spread to Germany the following year. A combination of revolutionary fervor and severe food and fuel shortages would lead to a series of three mutinies by German sailors.
During the third mutiny, on Oct 29, sailors stationed in the port city Kiel organized armed demonstrations that spread throughout the fleet and docks. By November 3, the entire city was controlled by a revolutionary council. Success at Kiel led to huge demonstrations across Germany. Within days, scores of German towns were controlled by councils of workers, soldiers, and sailors.
As Neil Faulkner writes in 1918 How the War Ended, the revolution reached Berlin by November 9:
Hundreds of thousands were on the streets. The city was awash with red flags and socialist banners. The anti-war revolutionary socialist Karl Liebknecht addressed the crowds from the balcony of the imperial palace and proclaimed a ‘socialist republic’ and ‘world revolution.’
Once the popular uprising reached the German capitol, Kaiser Wilhelm would have no choice but to surrender to Allied forces on November 11.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons
Also posted at Veterans Today
The Most Revolutionary Act 
One of the fine events in human history; sadly the story is most likely absent from history books. Can’t be giving those young people any incentives for becoming students of peace. Would make for an excellent feature film.
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Nowadays I seem to spend most of my time unlearning the history I was taught in school.
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It is our participation that keeps the Matrix in place. Paraphrasing Steven Greer at the end of his movie “Sirius Disclosure:” It’s not about fighting the Pentagon, we’re simply going to leave it behind. This will be my focus for 2015 — moving on to the New Paradigm and letting the old one dissolve behind me. Thank you for this wonderful reminder that our forebears had the right idea — just a 100 years too early. I think we’re more ready now.
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Thanks, New Earth. I’m definitely in that space myself, along with many of my friends.
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Quite some invaluable piece of [buried] history, Dr. Bramhall.
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Definitely my reaction, Kutukamas. Thanks for stopping by.
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That would be my approach. They are already priming us to go to war. Let’s not participate.
Leslie
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I think it’s also time to revive some of the old tax resistance networks, to support non-participation via refusal to pay income taxes.
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That is going to be difficult to do but we certainly should be very noisy at political meetings and talk to our local representatives.
Leslie
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Tax and corporate boycotts, alongside workers’ strikes are the effective noncompliance tools to halting the current world war escalation.
Until that time the failures of petitions, legal complaints, and public protests will continue to wake up more People to remove their chains of obedience.
The signal of a transition to look for is when the protests stop and the boycotts begin.
The decline in Tax revenues and corporate retail chains…
D.I.Y., P2P, Creative Commons, Free Source/Open Source, Complementary Currencies, community farms, etc.
Self Organizing Communities implementing alternatives and local solutions.
(Governments will try to label them as tax evaders, anarchists, terrorists, rebels, enemies…)
Reach out to the career minded men and women to nurture their personal sovereignty now before governments declare their next state of emergency, martial law, or war.
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Well in today’s wars just how would you greet the drone and shake hands?
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Clearly this is the major motivation in moving to mechanized warfare. If anything, fragging is only increasing over time – that and the infamous “search and avoid” missions in Iraq. Human beings can no longer be trusted to kill on command.
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Yeah, but enough of them still do. And with all that job training they can become mercenaries in the private sector. Ahh, free enterprise.
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Great suggestions, Ron. It’s gratifying to see so much of this already happening in various places.
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Reblogged this on Dogma and Geopolitics.
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There was also a small truce in a town between French and Germans in 1915, recounted by the German guy that began the youth hostel movement. snowfar4.wix.com/1914-christmas-truce
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Great link, Michael. Thanks for sharing.
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