Fritzl 1914. Kriegsbeginn.

 

That's how the first photo in the 1914 lot is inscribed. It's loose ... so I don't know it's exact date, but I suspect it is later in time, when the Krieg had officially begun ...  Fritzl is grown somewhat ...

Fritzl and Onkel Fritz Ganzl
During Onkel Fritz's short stay in Vienna on business..

Anyway, the war had not yet exploded in early 1914, and Rudi recounts everyday events ... 

22 February 'Heute war ein grosser Tag für Fritz ...'. His first dance. A Kinderball at the Baumgartner Casino in Penzing ...

The little boy was dressed up in fancy dress and he had his first dance, with a four year-old girlchild dressed as a snowflake. He seems to be enjoying the experience! 

Rudi liked the photo. Round this time the little family had several of their photos put onto metal discs. They sit on my bookshelves, today .. Fritzl mostly, and Marie ..

Other entertainment included a visit to the new 'Flottenvereinskino' in Mariahilferstrasee. I wonder what they saw! In March, the house was offering the drama 'Versäumtes Glück', 'Der  Einzurg des Fürsten Wied in Durazzo', 'Das verschlechte Bild von Gross-Kleindorf', the cinematic tragedy 'Das Werk' ..    I think a three year-old might have been a bit bemused. But mother and grandmother ..

The theatre might have been more attractive. A kiddie version of Aschenbrödl -- ie Cinderella -- at the Garser Sommertheater  .. while Rudi and Fritzl were having a 'Sommerfrische' at ...  is this Gars am Kamp? Josef Solderer was 'of the Burgtheater, Wien' ...

Two weeks later, it was war.

 The holiday photos this year are not labelled. Just pasted all together under '1914'.  So I am having a go at the half-dozen entries in the diaries for the years.

 

There is always an entry for Fritzl's birthday. 'Our child is three years old ..'.   Easter ...Berndorf, Aigen, Herrnstein, Piesting, Dreistätten, Ober Piesting ..   Then July and Cinderella .. then September 

Where? And who ...

Where?

Who's your little friend?

Father was there ...

'Fritz shoots every Serb and Russian .. he is a Soldier!'   Hmmm.

November.  Our little soldier .. as a Brosniak or Kanonier .. marches against Warsaw ... 'Lebe wohl, sei gesünd' says Onkel Fritz ...

And, then, it's not so funny. News comes from the front that (real) Tante Hermine's husband, Max Hecher, has been killed at the front on 23 October. 42 years old ...

Well, it turned out that Max '4th Jägerregiment, second army' had 'merely' been taken prisoner of war ... but he was not home for Christmas, or for a good while after.

The Soldier tir'd ... Xmas 1914

The Christmas bulletin was not its usual self. Rudi records that Eduard, Minna, she and Fritzl had two days at Gäsing an der Landesberg (?), before being joined by Marie, Pepi and Richard at Mariazell 'in a private house' ..

Fred and his sled! in "unser Standquartier"

Unfamiliar wartime words in the horrid handwriting .. but Fritzl seems to be doing a fair amount of "Schlitting" ('Fritzl aum Teil zu Fuss, zum Teil in Schlitten' 'Großmama und Kind sassen in Wirts Schlitten zu Tal, wir auf unseren xxxx  ..') .. I asume it's not he doing a "Militär Skikurse" ..

And Onkel Max ..? In Siberia.

(All mis-transcriptions for the Sütterlin or related scripts apologised for, as I open the pages of 1915 ..)