December 1914. World War I had been raging for five months. Between minefields and barbed-wire fences, millions of soldiers faced each other in trenches along the Western Front, sometimes only some 30 meters apart. The combat zone stretched from the English Channel through Belgium and France to the Swiss border.
As the war dragged on, soldiers huddled in their dugouts, where rats, lice, the cold and poor food wore them down, and death hung over them. Beyond the trenches, between the enemy lines, lay the muddy hell of no man's land, where the bodies of fallen comrades lay out of reach.
The war had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives — English, French, Belgian and German — torn apart by grenades, riddled with machine-gun fire and impaled in hand-to-hand bayonet combat. Many German soldiers had charged into battle, believing victory was within sight. They thought they would be home with their families by Christmas — at least that was what German Emperor Wilhelm II had promised. The French and British had also believed their leaders when they said the troops would return home quickly. But disillusionment soon set in at the front. Every day, the men looked death in the face, even on December 24. How could anyone get into the Christmas spirit under such circumstances?
Then something unexpected happened. In the middle of the freezing December night, a single German soldier in the trenches near the Belgian town of Ypres began singing "Silent Night." More and more men joined in. The British on the other side of no man's land could hardly believe their ears. "Silent Night" was also well known in England.
At first, the British did not trust "the Hun," as they pejoratively called the Germans, and wondered whether they were being lured into a trap. But then they applauded and began to sing along. The Germans responded with calls of "Merry Christmas" and shouted, "We not shoot, you not shoot!" The first brave soldiers on both sides clambered out of the trenches, stood among the bodies of their dead comrades, and shook hands.
Similar scenes unfolded along much of the Western Front. At Fleurbaix, near the English Channel, German soldiers placed decorated Christmas trees on the edge of their trenches. The bright lights came from candles, not muzzle flashes.
The German High Command had thousands of trees delivered to the front line to boost morale. Leaders knew how difficult it was for soldiers to be away from their loved ones on Christmas Eve.
Ordinarily, having bright candlelight visible to the enemy violated strict bans, and made it impossible for snipers to move unnoticed in no man's land. That night, none of it mattered.
"What I am about to tell you sounds incredible, but it is the truth," wrote Josef Wenzl of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 to his parents on December 28, 1914. "Between the trenches, bitter adversaries were standing around the Christmas tree and singing Christmas songs. I will never forget the sight for as long as I live."
Thousands of soldiers exchanged small gifts that night, trading corned beef for sausages or Dresden stollen for plum pudding. They shared wine, rum and cigarettes and showed one another photographs of their brides, wives and children. Uniform buttons were swapped as souvenirs. Most of the men were British and German, but some French soldiers also joined the truce, bringing out their reserves of champagne for Christmas.
They even played soccer, using German spiked helmets and British field caps as goalposts. A hard ball of straw or a tin can often served as the ball, though in some places the British managed to produce a real leather one. "We sent someone on a bicycle to the rear, to our reserve position," a soldier of the Scots Guards wrote to his parents, "and he brought back the ball."
There was something else dear to the hearts of the men on both sides: the chance to bury comrades who had fallen in no man's land. These were moments of humanity in a brutal war.
"I don't know how long it will go on," young officer Alfred Dougan Chater wrote to his mother. "We are, at any rate, having another truce on New Year's Day, as the Germans want to see how the photos came out!"
Not everyone along the Western Front was in the mood to fraternize with the enemy. In some areas, the fighting never stopped. That was exactly what senior officers on both sides wanted. They were deeply opposed to the Christmas Truce and believed such displays of friendship should never be repeated, even viewing them as treason.
"It is terrible," a German soldier later wrote home, "that one day you can interact with each other in such peace, and the next day you have to kill each other."
World War I ultimately claimed the lives of about 9 million soldiers, along with countless civilians. Josef Wenzl was killed in battle on May 6, 1917 — two and a half years after writing to his parents: "Christmas 1914 is one I will never forget." More than 100 years later, wars are still raging around the world — in Ukraine, Sudan and Congo. Yet the soldiers of 1914 showed how simple peace can be: Lay down your weapons and reach out to your enemy. Or is this simply a utopian dream?
This article was originally written in German.