Meeting in No Man’s Land: German and British Elders Exchange Family Histories from the First World War

'Meeting in No Man’s Land' was an Age Exchange-sponsored project that brought together twenty three British and German descendants of First World War soldiers in Bavaria from 7th to 12th April 2016, in order to share their family history of the war and its legacies across generations. The idea grew from meetings between David Savill of Age Exchange and Elfriede Pauli of Caritas Rosenheim. It was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the 'Everyday Lives in War' First World War Engagement Centre (Universities of Hertfordshire and Essex), with Professor Mike Roper and Dr Rachel Duffett acting as participant observers. Before the event, each descendant was interviewed individually about their family history. The meeting of descendants consisted of filmed activities, paired interviews and discussion groups, producing sixty hours of interviews and project activity, and the digitisation of almost 700 family artefacts including First World War letters, diaries, trench art and photos. A chief outcome from the project was a ninety minute film, titled 'Meeting in No Man's Land', which was produced by David Savill with the film-maker Ivan Riches. This documentary premiered in July 2016 at the National Film Theatre, marking the one hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. and has since been played in heritage venues and schools, libraries, and care settings in Bavaria and the UK. It is available via 'https://youtu.be/ZtOvjVihEfA'. The project also produced a smartphone app with schools in London. Between September and December 2016, Age Exchange worked with four secondary schools, using the film and digital material from the project to inspire students to create their own interpretation and response through art, poetry, animation, performance, and film. Simon Purins and Malcolm Jones from Age Exchange led on this element of the project. The app has subsequently been used by Battlefield Tours and the Institute of Education for all UK secondary schools studying the First World War, alongside schools in Southern Germany and Austria. Two academic articles about the project are recorded here: M. Roper and R. Duffett, ’Family legacies in the Centenary: motives for First World War commemoration among British and German descendants’, History and Memory, 30 (1), Spring/Summer, 2018, pp. 76-115 (available via the 'Project Evaluation' link below); R. Duffett and M. Roper, ‘Making Histories. The Meeting of German and British Descendants of First World War Veterans in “No Man’s Land”, Bavaria, 2016’, The Public Historian 40 (1), 2018, pp. 13-33, 2018.