Germany and Austro-Hungary: the cartography of the defeated

Abstract

ABSTRACTEven cautiously extrapolated, Germany printed about eight hundred million map sheets between 1914 and 1918, and its principal brother-in-arms Austria-Hungary about another 65 million. The French printed 40 million and the British 32 million (Eckert 1925:807). Arguably, this places Germany well ahead of all countries participating in the Great War (Espenhorst 2016: 126). Therefore, it is evident that this article can only be a concentrated survey of the Mittelmächte (central powers) wartime cartography. It begins with an assessment of their mapping position on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities, then goes on to discuss large-scale trench maps, which served tactical combat. However, of greater importance, for planning of military operations, were operational maps on a smaller scale. A completely new field for cartography were aeronautical charts of wide-ranging scales extending from the theatres of war bordering the North Sea to the vast areas of central Russia. To dig deeper to the actual trench level at least on two occasions, this article includes two case studies: The first showing how the surveying sections of various German armies on the western front developed their tactical trench maps. The second introduces a simple but effective targeting board devised for artillerists.