1914: First wartime Christmas in Offenbach
The people of Offenbach became friends with "K-Brot" as the city approached Christmas in 1914. The abbreviation stood for "war bread"; potato flakes were added to the flour. According to the Offenbach newspaper, the tasty baked goods were even served to the Kaiser at the Grand Headquarters. But the first wartime Christmas in 1914 was not only celebrated with "K-Bread". Those who were not depressed by the rising prices could still live quite well at the beginning of the First World War. There was a grace period before the hunger riots. It still sounded funny when the vernacular rhymed: "Better K-bread than kaa bread".
The retailer Georg Pullmann still offered "perfectly fattened geese" at Waldstraße 9, "guaranteed young and tender". He also sold butter, cheese and eggs, as well as "fresh rabbits and deer every day". The Dullstein department store on Frankfurter Strasse beguiled its customers with furs and muffs. M. Schneider enticed customers with cotton textiles and bed linen. Ready-packed love gift packages for the men "in the field" became a flourishing business. The Machers drugstore, for example, packed bouillon cubes, honey in tubes, small heating stoves with coals and, optionally, rum, cognac or Steinhäger.
The clothing store Berger & Schmelzer advertised "despite the general inflation" with prices that remained civilian. You could get a suit for 12 marks, a pair of trousers for 2.50. Newspapers and school teachers encouraged children to please their fathers at the front with homemade gifts. Stockings and wrist warmers were suitable, said the newspaper. Electric flashlights are also welcome outside. It is also advisable to enclose a fir branch.
Meanwhile, the appearance of the newspaper has changed. The paper now features a daily headline that runs across the entire width of page 1. For days in December, it reads the same: "The great people's war". The number of job vacancies in companies stripped of men has exploded. Among the obituaries of the families, you can tell where a fallen soldier is being mourned by the Iron Cross inserted in each case.
The casualty reports from the military authorities are published daily. The Offenbacher Zeitung has a section entitled "Loyal to the death - Our roll of honor". It lists the names of the fallen, but also the names of living soldiers who have been honored with an award. Only later, when the lists of the dead became longer and longer, did the newspaper only list awards.
But the war is still young. Many things have been preserved from the peaceful summer. One of the novelties was the "Youth Army", sponsored by the authorities, in which Offenbach's young people practiced their war skills. They cheerfully play at the war that is already lurking outside waiting to devour them. Everywhere there are appeals for donations. The newspaper collects donations for those in need in the East Prussian war zone, from which the Russians have only recently been expelled. Donations are also collected for the people affected by the war in Alsace-Lorraine.
In the Christmas edition of the newspaper, editor Curt Müller addresses the Christian message of peace: "We have always sought and kept the peace, as warlike and armed as we were at every hour. Now it is up to German weapons to create peace again." On the same page you can read that German Zeppelins had bombed English and French cities.
A quiet Christmas is followed by a quiet New Year without the usual New Year's Eve hype in Offenbach. Only in the outskirts of the city, the newspaper complains, had young people "not yet grasped the seriousness of the times" and were happily firing off fireworks. However, the police were able to prevent riots. Sundays and public holidays, the newspaper writes, have "once again become what they are supposed to be, days of rest, recreation and edification". Church services are now attended more than before. "Necessity teaches us to pray," the paper concludes.
In the first issue, dated 1915, the newspaper renews its confidence: "Ever new crowds are turning against us and our faithful allies. But the numbers do not frighten us. (...) Therefore, undaunted, we look forward to the new year, to new deeds, to new victories for our beloved fatherland."
At the beginning of January 1915, the draft for the new year of conscripts begins in Offenbach. It now takes place with more seriousness than in previous years. In the past, the draft was celebrated with exuberance, parades and lots of beer. In January 1915, the young men go to the muster hall without joking or frolicking.
Lothar Lothar R. Brown