Serbien 1914, Karpaten - San - Blozewkasumpf 1915: Ein Weltkriegstagebuch des österreichisch-ungarischen Soldaten Richard Riedl

This edition presents the war diary of an Austro-Hungarian soldier from a German speaking part of Bohemia in World War I. Mainly limited on the first few weeks of the Habsburg War against Serbia in 1914 and several weeks in early 1915 covering the war in the Carpathians, the crossing of the river San, a couple of weeks in the flatlands of Galicia and the recovery from two wounds it vividly conveys the physical and emotional experience of war. War is recorded in its confusion and brutality. The diary also includes a range of drawings by its author, Richard Riedl (1883-1942) which contribute in an essential way to the force of expression of this ego-document. In its own right it covers the courage, commitment, frustration, suffering and moral confusion of an individual thrown into the everydayness of the “seminal catastrophe” (George Kennan) of the 20th century in an outstanding manner.