The hope among soldiers of a rapid end to the war that broke out in the summer of 1914 began to fade more and more by the end of that year. The lulls between fighting, the demoralising trench warfare and the monotony of the military hospitals all meant that the soldiers felt in great need of distraction. Booksellers met this need by setting up so-called front-line book shops. The photographs recently acquired by the German Museum of Books and Writing from the antiquarian book trade document the many activities of the bookseller Hermann Stilke (1870–1928), son of Georg Stilke, founder of the publishers’ and railway-station book-trading company that bore his name. Hermann Stilke became a major front-line bookseller during the First World War.
From February 1915, he was initially commissioned by the German military authorities to set up his shops and newspaper kiosks for front-line bookshops on the Western front. These were intended to supply the German troops in occupied areas with books, newspapers, magazines and postcards. By July 1918, Hermann Stilke had set up 74 railway-station book shops and 95 front-line book shops along the railway routes used to transport troops and books, as well as 41 book shops and kiosks in all larger cities such as Brussels, Liège, Leuven, Namur, Gent and Courtrai and in many smaller towns.
The collection of images comprises of 160 black-and-white photographs with exterior and interior shots of the sales points for the book trade, including at railway stations and in shops, kiosks and barns along the Western front during the First World War. Some photographs show old shop signage that indicates the original purpose of the respective building as a bakery (boulangerie) or café.
The photographs are mounted on cardboard and do not provide any clues as to who was the photographer. As the name plaques of G. Stilke can be seen in virtually every image, the photographs were presumably commissioned by him. The views of the shop windows and the displays inside the stores show a wide range of reading material and stationery. The documentation accompanying the photographs includes notes with the names of the booksellers and locations, which have yet to be paired with the respective photographs. The necessary research must still be performed.
Bibliographic information and order in the reading room
Photo / Repro: DNB / Christine Hartmann
Interiors views of front-line book shops
