“A breathtaking, multi-perspectival close-up view of World War I has not – and cannot be – told in history books.” These words refer to the comparatively modest opening volume of the Hidden Chronicle – and now this major project has been completed: A montage of over a hundred previously unpublished diaries from the period of World War I creates a harrowing, breathtaking and deeply thought-provoking picture of the first great global conflagration. The Hidden Chronicle is a tremendous collage of original testimonies by soldiers on the front and rear lines, recruits, working-class women, children, caretaking family members, doctors, field officers, nurses, propagandistic press releases, officers who had already fought in earlier wars, war widows, military chaplains, prisoners of war, etc., etc., who entrusted their hopes, impressions and fears to their diaries, uncensored and completely openly. With previously unseen authenticity and directness, they reveal the bewildering variety and asynchronicity of the impressions that existentially shook the lives of their authors. In this way, from mobilization to defeat, an echo sounding of those days emerges: pain of separation and patriotic high, mortal fear and valor, songs of joy and naked dread all coexist directly side-by-side. Simultaneously history told from the bottom up and a remarkable record of the time.
