Dying for the Kaiser: Photos, letters and diaries from the frontlines of WWI

"What's the use of calling the stretcher bearers to bring him to the dressing station? He can no longer be saved; a funny, courageous, powerful man, one of many – oh, amongst how many! – has gone over to the other side with love for his mother on his pale lips." These personal stories and photos from the front lines are painful and sad, wistful or grim, full of hope or fear; they are all the voices of a destroyed future that is now our past, returned after 100 years to warn the present that having forgotten their pleas and sacrifices it is condemned to harm our future. Dramatic, emotional and thoughtful, these excerpts and photos are a reminder of what war with its trauma and ruthless beauty, was all about for the young German soldiers, who sacrificed their lives for their Kaiser and their fatherland, tragically convinced of the rightness of their cause.