De Moderne Tijd - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2023

Abstract Hungary and Dutch fencing diplomacy after the First World War In the restoration of Hungarian sovereignty after the First World War, Hungarian officers of the Austro-Hungarian Army (K. und k. Army) played an important role. They were generally trained at the Austro-Hungarian Military Academy, the Theresianum in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, where they were required to participate in a course to become instruct Read More

Abstract ‘Deplorable wretches’. Belgian refugees during the First World War During the first weeks of World War I, more than one and a half million Belgians fled. Most sought refuge in the Netherlands first, others headed for France or The United Kingdom. As the war drew to a close, approximately 600,000 Belgians still remained abroad as refugees. Their reception and experiences varied significantly, influenced not o Read More

Abstract Robert Saudek. A shrewd chameleon on The Hague’s parquet floor, 1915-1918 Robert Saudek (1880-1935) was a versatile man of letters. He was born in Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. What moved him to leave Berlin and settle in The Hague during the First World War to start a new life as a journalist? How did he manage to lead an international press agency and make it a success enterprise under Read More

Abstract A sign of life on the Western Front. The reception of Im Westen nichts Neues in the Netherlands, 1929-1940 Shortly after its release in 1929, Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel Im Westen nichts Neues became a bestseller in the Netherlands. Though it was a novel and thus fictional, it was seen as an honest and true-to-life representation of what went on during the First World War. The novel (and its later ada Read More