Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour

This month’s focus of the Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour is on Luxembourg. In our dedicated gallery, a selection of images depicting various aspects of life during the First World War in the Grand Duchy can be viewed.  In addition, you can browse through all the contributions that were made at the collection days that were held in March 2012 in Luxembourg. This includes the touching story of Charles Grauss and the figurines he made for his children while serving in the French army.

Water colour "Blooding hearts" by Nestor Outer - Europeana 1914-1918 / André Schoup CC BY-SA

For a more in-depth insight in this important but neglected and understudied period in the history of the Grand Duchy we would like to point at two other initiatives of WW1 Centenary commemorations by our Europeana 1914-1918 project partners: the University of Luxembourg and the Centre de documentation sur les migrations humaines (CDMH).

In cooperation with the Ministry of State the University of Luxembourg designed the digital exhibition Éischte Welkrich: Remembering the Great War in Luxembourg. Drawing on the collections and expertise of some of the major Luxembourgish museums, archives and cultural institutions the project has progressively deepened and widened its scope, aspiring to become a long-term online resource.

The website is designed to engage a broad base of users with varying interests and degrees of expertise. It is available in three languages (French, German and English) and offers four independent but interconnected modes of navigation: a story-driven mode, a digital archive, an interactive geo-referenced map and a timeline. Additional sections contain educational pages for schools and downloadable academic articles.

All salient Luxembourgish locations linked to WW1 (war cemeteries, hospitals, bombed sites, shelters etc.) are displayed on an interactive map which provides a geo-exploration mode. Enabling location-awareness when viewing the website on mobile devices allows the user to discover the relevant places located in the proximity and use the website as a touring app.

The Timeline offers a more classic event-based exploration, following a chronology that can be expanded to reveal the significant events for each year with groups of associated objects linking back to the Collection.

The overall structure of the exhibition remains flexible and open, allowing for the continuous integration of new themes and documents, either provided by institutions or crowdsourced.

The exhibition project has been directed by Prof Andreas Fickers and Prof Denis Scuto and curated and coordinated by Dr Sandra Camarda and is accompanied by a rich programme of related activities, conferences, workshops, and publications.

Postcards showing potato distribution in Luxembourg City in 1916 - Europeana 1914-1918 / Guy May CC BY-SA

As part of this programme, the offline exhibition “Être ailleurs en temps de guerre (14-18) – Étrangers à Dudelange / Dudelangeois à l’étranger” runs from 29 March to 9 December 2018 at the Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines in Dudelange. The exhibition explores the experience of the migrant town of Dudelange during the First World War, looking at the various trajectories drawn by those who left, arrived or remained within its borders. You can see a video teaser here.

The exhibition, curated by Antoinette Reuter, Denis Scuto and Sandra Camarda, is a collaboration between the CDMH - Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations humaines and the C2DH - Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg.

Both the digital exhibition Éischte Weltkrich and the exhibition in Dudelange are part of the “2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage” program. Within this frame the Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations humaines will host a Europeana Migration Collection Day on 23 September 2018 around the theme of migration in Luxembourg during the First World War.