On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was shot dead by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and declared war. Germany, backing Austria-Hungary fully, entered the conflict on August 1, 1914. Within days, German armies were marching through neutral Belgium, aiming straight for Paris. The war that followed lasted four years and killed millions.
These colorized photographs by Duriez Frederic put faces to that history. They show German soldiers not just in combat, but in portraits, at aerodromes, in prisoner columns, and in quiet moments between the fighting. The colorization transforms what might feel like distant history into something immediate and human. Below are over 50 of these images, spanning the entire war from 1914 to 1918.
Germany fielded some of the most specialized units of the war. The Sturmtruppen, or storm troopers, were assault units trained to break through enemy trenches using grenades, flamethrowers, and close-quarters tactics. Assault Battalion No. 5, known as Battalion Rohr, was among the first and most elite of these formations. The flamethrower, or Flammenwerfer, became one of the war’s most feared weapons when first used by German forces at Hooge in 1915.
Artillery dominated the Western Front. German batteries fired millions of shells over the course of the war, reshaping entire landscapes. The 9 cm field gun was a standard piece in the early war German arsenal. Ersatz battalions were replacement units, filled with reservists and trained men called up to plug gaps in the front line as casualties mounted.
The German army was not a single unified force. It was made up of contingents from Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, and other states, each with their own traditions and uniforms. Saxon units like the 101st Grenadiers were known as tough, disciplined fighters. By 1914, they were already being thrown into combat as Germany’s war plan moved into full swing.
Despite the image of a fully mechanized war, horses remained essential throughout the conflict. German forces relied heavily on horse-drawn transport to move artillery, supplies, and wounded men across the front. The Montdidier-Noyon sector saw intense fighting in 1918 during Germany’s Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, as well as the Allied counterattacks that followed.
Many of the men photographed here were young. The war consumed an enormous number of soldiers in their teens and early twenties. Bavaria contributed large numbers of troops to the German war effort, including its own army corps that fought on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. A young Bavarian infantryman in 1914 faced years of trench warfare, artillery bombardment, and gas attacks before the war ended.
Angres is a small town in northern France near Lens, in an area that saw constant fighting throughout the war. The year 1916 was one of the bloodiest of the entire conflict, with the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme both grinding on for months. German forces held much of this region for most of the war, defending elaborate trench systems against French and British attacks.
Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry, a unit type that had dominated European battlefields for centuries. By 1914, cavalry charges against entrenched machine guns were suicidal. Most cuirassier regiments were dismounted and used as infantry or shifted to reconnaissance roles. Officers like the one pictured here often came from aristocratic Prussian families, and their elaborate dress uniforms reflected that old-world tradition.
The Battle of Hill 70 in August 1917 was a Canadian Corps operation near Lens, France. Under General Arthur Currie, Canadian forces took the hill and held it against fourteen German counterattacks. It was a significant Allied victory, and the capture of German prisoners was part of the Canadian effort to draw German reserves away from the Battle of Passchendaele happening at the same time.
Railway guns were enormous artillery pieces mounted on rail cars. Germany used them to bombard targets far behind enemy lines, including Paris, which was shelled by a long-range gun known as the Paris Gun in 1918. When Allied forces captured German railway guns, they were major prizes. The guns at Mont-Notre-Dame were seized during the Allied advance in the summer and fall of 1918.
The Alpenkorps was a Bavarian mountain division that fought in some of the most difficult terrain of the war, including the Alps, the Carpathians, and later Romania and Italy. Ski troops built and repaired infrastructure in conditions where standard infantry units could not operate. Field engineering like this bridge was essential to keeping supply lines and troop movements running in mountainous regions.
Aircraft changed warfare permanently during World War I. Germany organized its air units into Fliegerabteilungen, or flying detachments, assigned to specific army corps for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and later bombing and fighter missions. The Lichtbild Artillerie designation indicates this unit specifically photographed enemy positions to help direct artillery fire — one of the most important uses of early military aviation.
The A7V was Germany’s only domestically produced tank of the war. Only 20 were ever built. The Battle of Villers-Bretonneux on April 24, 1918, saw the first tank-versus-tank battle in history, when German A7Vs met British Mark IVs. Several A7Vs were knocked out or captured during the fighting, and Allied soldiers were eager to examine the machines up close.
German military aerodromes were busy, dangerous places. Aircraft had to be fueled, armed, repaired, and launched in conditions that ranged from muddy fields to freezing cold. Germany’s air arm, which later became the Luftstreitkräfte, grew rapidly from a small reconnaissance force in 1914 into a major fighting arm by 1918, operating fighters, bombers, and observation aircraft across multiple fronts.
The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, ran from July to November 1917 in Belgium. It became one of the most grueling campaigns of the entire war, fought in rain-soaked mud that swallowed men and equipment. Thousands of German soldiers were captured during the fighting. Many arrived at Allied lines exhausted, wounded, and barely able to walk.
German prisoners of war were put to work in France and Belgium throughout the conflict. Under international rules, they were assigned labor behind the lines — farming, road building, and other manual tasks. The images of prisoners plowing fields show the practical reality of wartime labor. By the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were in Allied captivity.
The German Red Cross operated throughout the war, providing medical care to wounded soldiers on all fronts. Field hospitals, dressing stations, and ambulance units were staffed by both military medical personnel and Red Cross volunteers. Wounded men were often treated regardless of nationality at front-line stations, following the Geneva Convention’s rules on the care of the wounded.
Gas warfare was introduced at Ypres in April 1915, when Germany released chlorine gas against French and Canadian troops. Both sides quickly developed gas masks and their own chemical weapons programs. By the middle of the war, German soldiers were equipped with rubber-sealed masks that filtered chlorine, phosgene, and eventually mustard gas. Carrying and maintaining a gas mask became a basic part of every soldier’s daily routine.
Germany occupied most of Belgium from August 1914 until the armistice in November 1918. Belgian civilians under occupation were subject to forced labor, requisitions of food and property, and strict curfews. Road repair was one of the most common tasks assigned to civilians, as German military transport needed functioning roads to supply the front. Violations of German orders could result in severe punishment.
Liège, Belgium, was the first major obstacle in Germany’s invasion plan. The city’s ring of forts held out longer than expected, slowing the German advance. Once the forts fell under heavy artillery bombardment, German troops moved through the city. Photographs of German soldiers posing in front of Liège’s landmarks were common — soldiers documenting what felt, in those early weeks, like a quick and decisive campaign.
The standard German uniform evolved over the course of the war. The Feldgrau, or field grey, tunic and trousers replaced the older dark blue uniforms before 1914. The iconic Pickelhaube spiked helmet gave way to the steel Stahlhelm in 1916, a design so effective it influenced helmet designs for decades afterward. Uniforms varied between Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, and other state contingents, each with distinct insignia.
The Spring Offensive of 1918 saw the most rapid movement of the Western Front since 1914. German forces advanced quickly in some sectors but suffered enormous casualties. When the Allied counteroffensives began in August 1918, German units were pushed back, and the dead were left where they fell. The image from Plessis-de-Roye, taken in April 1918, captures the human cost of those few weeks of movement.
Pioneer battalions were the combat engineers of the German army. They built bridges, dug trenches, laid mines, and cleared obstacles under fire. Kurhessian pioneers came from the Hesse-Kassel region of Germany, a territory with a long military tradition. Pioneer units were present in every major operation, and their work was essential to both offensive advances and defensive preparations.
The Landwehr was Germany’s reserve military force, made up of men who had completed their active service and were liable for call-up in wartime. By the middle of the war, the distinction between frontline and reserve units had largely collapsed. Landwehr regiments fought in the same trenches as regular infantry and suffered the same casualties. The Landsturmmann rank was the lowest in the Landwehr, equivalent to a basic private.
Otto Frank served as a lieutenant in the German army during World War I and was decorated for his service. He fought loyally for Germany, a country he considered his home. Two decades later, that same country would implement the policies that forced him and his family into hiding in Amsterdam. Of the eight people concealed in the Annex, only Otto Frank survived Nazi imprisonment and the war.
Ernst Jünger was one of the most decorated soldiers of the entire war. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany’s highest military honor, and was wounded fourteen times in combat. His memoir, Storm of Steel, published in 1920, is considered one of the most vivid first-person accounts of World War I ever written. Jünger described the war with a clinical, almost detached intensity that set his work apart from the antiwar literature of the same era.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 was a defining moment for the Canadian Corps. In four days of fighting, Canadian forces took a ridge that French and British units had failed to capture for years. Over 4,000 German prisoners were taken during the assault. These photographs show the faces of those men — some barely older than teenagers — being marched away from the ridge they had just lost.
Prussia was the dominant military power within the German Empire, and its reserve infantry regiments formed the backbone of the wartime army. The 93rd Reserve Infantry Regiment served on the Western Front throughout the war. Reserve regiments were fully equipped and trained for front-line combat, not just rear-area duties. The man pictured here carries the standard kit of a German infantryman, including the Gewehr 98 rifle.
By November 1918, the German army was in full retreat. The armistice signed on November 11 ended the fighting, and German troops began withdrawing east across the Rhine. Echternach sits on the German-Luxembourg border, and images of German soldiers passing through it in late 1918 capture the end of four years of war — not a defeat in the field, as many German commanders would later claim, but a collapse driven by exhaustion, disease, and political crisis at home.
The Saint-Chamond was a French heavy tank introduced in 1917. It was plagued by mechanical problems and had a front-heavy design that made it prone to getting stuck in trenches. Several were captured by German forces during the Spring Offensive in 1918, when rapidly advancing German units overran French positions before the tanks could be moved. German engineers examined captured Allied tanks closely, studying designs they had been slow to develop themselves.
Germany’s naval war extended well beyond the surface fleet. Divers were used to inspect and repair ships, recover equipment, and support harbor operations. The Imperial German Navy operated one of the largest submarine fleets in the world, and the men who maintained and crewed those vessels worked in some of the most dangerous conditions of the entire war. A ship’s diver in wartime faced the combined risks of enemy action and the hazards of working underwater in improvised equipment.
The Fokker Dr.I was a triplane fighter made famous by Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, who was flying one when he was killed in April 1918. Jasta 27 was an active fighter unit on the Western Front in 1918, identified by the yellow markings on its aircraft. By mid-1918, the Fokker Dr.I was being phased out in favor of faster biplanes, but units still flying them remained dangerous opponents.
