Kaiser's mobilisation orders
Large crowds gathered in town squares throughout Germany to welcome the coming of war. One famous picture taken in Munich city centre on 1 August shows a joyous crowd (whose ranks included Adolf Hitler) cheering the declaration of war on Russia. In contrast, the crowd in the photograph reproduced here, which was taken on the same day, appears more subdued by the turn of events. Many Germans, as local police reports from this period illustrate, greeted the outbreak of war with a sense of foreboding.
IWM Q 81755 (1 Aug 1914)
