Status: 07/23/2023 5:00 a.m
In the summer of 1915, war had been raging in Europe for a year. It is mainly paid for by those who are waiting for their husbands, sons and fathers to return – with so-called war bonds. That’s why the then 24-year-old Anna Lendt from Groß Laasch went “drawing”.
Anna Lendt hesitated for a long time before entering the savings bank in Ludwigslust on September 4, 1915. For the third time, the German Reich has called on the population to invest money in the war. Now Anna also wants to subscribe to a 100-mark war bond. That’s a lot of money for her, because she grew up in Groß Laasch in modest circumstances and had no job. Anna’s father earns 100 marks a month as a postman.
Grandson writes a book about his grandmother
In 1915, Anna Lendt decides to help finance the war – so that it ends quickly.
Her grandson Michael Herms reconstructed all of this from documents and stories and wrote a book about ten years from the life of his grandmother Anna. He didn’t get to know her, but today he can easily explain why she decided in September 1915 to help finance the First World War: “Shortly before that, the news came that one of her brothers had died at the front. Two other brothers and their fiancé Hermann were still fighting in the war and she wished that the three would return safely,” says Michael Herms. So his grandmother wanted to speed up the end of the war with her drawing.
War Bond: Patriotic duty with prospect of profit
Such personal motives ensure that war bonds are the most important means of financing the war from the outset. The last time the German Reich tried to get a loan on Wall Street was in the summer of 1914 – in vain. In contrast to France and Great Britain, it is thus cut off from the international financial markets. Taxes are out of the question, they would dampen people’s morale.
With newspaper advertisements, posters and films, the German Reich instead calls for subscription to the war bond every six months and promises five percent interest. That built up a lot of moral pressure that hardly anyone could resist at the time, says the Rostock historian Antje Strahl: “The message from the German Reich was: ‘You are supporting your men and the war will be over more quickly. Everything will turn out for the better, you just have to give your money’.” Social pressure, the promise of high interest rates and the initial enthusiasm for the war prompted millions of Germans to “subscribe”. In the four years of war they paid in a total of 98 billion marks, covering 60 percent of the war costs.
Church bells are melted down for war purposes
Just married: Anna Lendt and her husband Hermann.
But the war lasts longer than many expect and quickly turns into a battle for material. Supply is not only bad at the front, but also at home. Already in the first year of the war there are hardly any farm workers bringing in the harvest. The population suffers from the extremely cold “turnip winter” of 1916/17. “All staple foods were rationed and it went so far that there were hunger riots in Mecklenburg in 1917,” says Antje Strahl. “Bakery shops were stormed and bread stolen, not only in Rostock and Schwerin, but also in cities like Ludwigslust.”
From there Anna Lendt moved back to Groß Laasch in the spring of 1917 because it was even easier to feed herself in the village. She still fears for her brothers, but one wish comes true for her: In May 1917, Anna gets married in the church in Groß Laasch. Her fiancé Hermann gets a week’s leave from the front for the wedding. At their wedding, the church bells probably ring for the last time, because shortly afterwards they are melted down for war purposes.
Every fourth man from Groß Laasch dies in the war
Michael Herms, grandson of Anna Lendt, also researched the history of Groß Laasch.
A total of 850 million grenades were fired in World War I. Ten million soldiers are killed – between 10,000 and 12,000 of them from what is now Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. In addition, there are thousands of starvation deaths and victims of the Spanish flu. Anna Lendt’s two brothers, who fought at the front, also die. She loses three of her four brothers in the war. There is a memorial to the war dead on the village square in Groß Laasch. Luckily, Anna Lendt’s husband comes home. At the end of 1918 he was one of the first to return.
For his book, Michael Herms also researched what the war had done to the village, which was still the largest in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg around 1900 with 1,000 inhabitants: “Every fourth man from Groß Laasch was killed in the war. If you count the injured, crippled and traumatized, every second person was affected by the war. That shook me a lot,” says Michael Herms.
The war bonds “burst”
The donors get nothing from the promised profits, because the German Reich loses the war. Inflation had already set in before that and the financial system had collapsed completely, explains Antje Strahl: “When the war ended, the German Reich was burdened with reparations payments to France and Great Britain. This money was to be paid continuously and more and more was printed for it, but there was no equivalent value. So the money lost its value practically by the hour.”
“They were years of hope”
Anna Lendt and her husband received mail from the Reich Debt Administration in 1925 – with a bond. This means they still have the right to their 100 marks plus interest on paper. But they aren’t worth anything anymore at this point. This is also the end of Michael Herms’ story about his grandmother, who between 1915 and 1925 probably spent her most terrible years, but also her happiest: “These were years of hope that their marital bliss would come true, their first two children were born. But it was also a time of war and it was difficult to get the family through this turbulent water,” says Michael Herms. The story of his grandmother Anna stands for that of millions of Germans who feared, paid and lost everything.
Further information
On November 9, 1918, the last German monarchy ends. The revolution began with rebellious sailors in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel. more
From 1914 to 1918, about 17 million people died in World War I, including millions of civilians. A revolution beginning in northern Germany ends the tragedy. more
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North Magazine | 07/23/2023 | 19:30 o’clock