New exhibit on the German soldiers opens at National World War I Museum

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - A new exhibit, “Man and Machine: The German Soldier in World War I” , opened Friday at the National World War I Museum.

Machine guns are the featured machine in this exhibit. What started out as an American invention was quickly adopted by many countries by the time World War I started.

"In August 1914 of the fighting, the Germans really had taken that technology to heart and were really using that and it changed the scope of the battle very quickly," museum curator Doran Cart said.

Wanda Hauber donated a large collection to the museum which enabled the exhibit to take flight.

Wanda Hauber’s husband, Carl Hauber, collected unique historical objects from World War I for more than 30 years. He traveled the world searching for items that help explain the story of the machine gun during World War I.

After he passed away, Wanda Hauber decided to donate his collection to the National World War I Museum.

The donation was the largest number of historical objects given by one donor in the museum’s 89-year history.

Several weapons are on display and what makes them unique is many of the weapons support equipment will be on display too. Cart says it is these small details that give the visitor a greater impression of what the soldier encountered during the conflict.

"When you get that connection between the people who lived almost 100 years ago and were in this war, that makes us a very strong connection."

Another connection that visitors to the museum will see for the first time is the fighting from the German side of the battle lines. No other museum in the country has presented an exhibit through the enemy’s eyes.

Some of the pieces on display are uniforms, a handmade calendar for 1918, a Christmas cigar box given to soldiers with patriotic images of Kaiser Wilhelm II on the lid, and a small pull toy depicting German machine-gunners.

"They had foibles just like anyone else, they had concerns they were thinking about their families but they also remarked at how they thought they were very much just a part of a machine," Cart said about the writings contained in the collection.

The exhibit is housed in one of the two original 1926 buildings flanking the Liberty Memorial tower and will run through 2011.