August 1914: Enthusiasm In The Ranks

Felix Kiefer started a diary as soon as he joined up to serve in Munich at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Later, he typed up these initial notes, and probably supplemented them to a certain extent. The result is an extremely detailed memoir of the first few months of Felix's war. It also reflects the high degree of enthusiasm for war that was felt generally across Europe at this time. Felix's other diaries, from 1914 through to 1916, will be shown on this site under Felix's Diaries and have been transcribed and translated from his handwritten books.

Note: The Himmler to whom Felix refers in his memoir below cannot refer to Heinrich Himmler, who was too young to join up in 1914. From the description that Felix provides, however, it is also unlikely that the Himmler referred to is Gebhard Himmler, Heinrich's older brother, who also came from Munich and who also served in the same regiment as Felix - the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 16. The identity of the Himmler referred to here thus remains a mystery, but it seems extremely likely that Felix would have come to know Gebhard Himmler during the course of the war.

This initial extract from Felix's diary tells us about his trip to the Western Front from Munich, with the first stop at Lechfeld.

"After mobilization was announced on August 2, 1914, I endeavored to be accepted into the Bavarian army. After a lot of back-and-forth I succeeded, on August 10. I was accepted into the  Reserve Batallion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Company. Shortly before the company marched out to the field, I was moved to the 4th new company of the Regiment list, on September 1, 1914. This regiment was later named the Bavarian Reserve Regiment 16. It belonged to the 12th Bavarian Infantry Brigade, 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, and initially to the 15th Baden Army Corps. On our journey to enemy territory, we were informed that we now belonged to the 24th Reserve Army Corps. Our superior officers were Oberst List, Major Graf Zech, Hauptmann Rubenbauer and Leutnant Abelein.

In the night of October 12, at 3 am, our embarkation into a 48-wagon railway train was complete, and we travelled with much cheering to the camp at Lechfeld. I wrote in my diary, "Finally we're at the point where either they need us in the field or they have to let our enthusiasm run wild. We've been waiting for this move for weeks. At last!"
I'm a cyclist and as an Unteroffizier, I more or less have the command over the other cyclists in the company. My comrade, Unteroffizier Lueginger is, let's say, my good-natured companion. And then we have a few jolly people who are new to the whole thing, witty and stalwart, as one expects from good military cyclists. [Felix then goes on to list and describe his cyclist comrades].

Felix in 1914

So, we're on the train and there's quite a lot to tell about that. 6 of us have taken a compartment, which is jammed full. In peacetime, it would be sufficient for 10 people, but you have to realize that we weren't just travelling by day, also by night and that our benches are also full of a mass of luggage for which there is no room at all in the nets, which are much too small. Our compartment is such that one of the benches takes up the whole width of the carriage, while the other one is shortened due to the door to the WC. In my compartment, there's Lueginger, Kaiser, Kühnert, me and a Tambour Geith, a Landwehr 2, an old gentleman, jovial and modest, as well as our driver of the food truck, Himmler, from Munich, an entertaining blighter, just lamenting now and again how he had to leave his business. But he can usually be appeased with some grub, especially if the grub is swimming in wine. The night encampment was initially quite a problem. Since last night, three men have been lying on the benches and three on the floor. One is lying underneath a bench, the luggage is underneath the long bench and the two other men are lying in the corridor".