Nursery rhymes

If the English could only guess
That they also cannot expect great happiness
They will want to return to peace
Scared of our power, they will breathless run,
From the German gun.

These childish rhymes were written and illustrated by the Koepke siblings in September 1914. From the perspective of a child, they reflect perfectly the patriotic and war enthusiastic Zeitgeist in the early stages of the First World War. They also show an honest indignation that Germany, in their opinion, was groundlessly attacked by enemies from all sides. The poems often refer to current war events, such as the surrender of the French fortress of Mauberge on 7 September 1914 and the sinking of three British armoured cruisers 'Aboukir', 'Hogue' and 'Cressy' by the German submarine U-9 on 22nd September 1914.

These very interesting pages with poems and drawings were a contribution to the public participation day in Dresden on 22.6.2011.