Veteran's Day

Grandpa Herman Klingler

Circa 1917

This is a photograph of our mother's father in his German Army uniform.  Oh dear, he looks about 12 years old. He was born in 1900, so he was probably 16 when he was drafted.  I found this picture at my parent's house and brought it home to scan and share with the family.

Herman was a teenage soldier during WWI.  He was one of the lucky ones who survived the war, but apparently his lungs were damaged for life by just a "whiff" of mustard gas.  

Germany was wrecked after the war and became a hopeless, desperate place. The economy was destroyed.  I remember my grandparents talking about "a wheelbarrow full of paper money" just to buy a loaf of bread.   Herman and many other young Germans emigrated to America in the early 1920's.  My Grandmother Anna followed him, and they were married in Pennsylvania in about 1925.  Herman died in 1959, so I feel lucky I can still remember him pretty well.

Today is Veteran's Day, originally called Armistice Day. On this date in 1918 the Allies and Germany signed an agreement to end hostilities on the Western Front and WWI ended.