The Heroes Death

This small pencil sketch on a field postcard was sent by Hans Gaigl, a soldier with the Bayrischen Landwehr Fußartillerie Batallion Nr. 2, 6. Batterie, to his wife Marie in Munich in November 1917. It is just one of a number of such cards contributed to the online collection by Günter Gaigl.

It was not uncommon for German soldiers to use plain cards to write home, decorating them with their own pictures. Easter and Christmas festive designs, as well as trench scenes, survive in some numbers. Bavarian Hans Gaigl was however a particularly accomplished artist, whose wide ranging and evocative wartime subject matter on cards included landscapes and scenes, portraits of soldiers of various nations, and women, both grieving for war dead, and nudes.

(Text by Dr. Stephen Bull)

You can find more of Hans Gaigl's cards by searching the online First World War archive.