Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist
    Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist
    Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist
    Ebook67 pages58 minutes

    Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist

    By Fritz Kreisler

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 1981
    Four Weeks in the Trenches: The War Story of a Violinist
    Author

    Fritz Kreisler

    Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognisable as his own. Although it derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich (cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna. He wrote an autobiography about his life during WW I.

    Read more from Fritz Kreisler

    Related to Four Weeks in the Trenches

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tristram And The Tyrants

      Sep 30, 2021

      Tristram And The Tyrants
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Resister

      Feb 23, 2018

      The Resister
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Unheeded Warning

      Oct 16, 2022

      The Unheeded Warning
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Visionary Memoirs of Péter Nádas

      Jan 10, 2024

      'Shimmering Details' is a delicate fusion, supplementing the high-modernist realism of Proust and Musil with an expressionist’s commitment to the distortions generated by strong feeling. The post The Visionary Memoirs of Péter Nádas appeared first on

      5 min read

    • Article

      Churchill the Dramatist

      Nov 5, 2020

      Churchill the Dramatist
      9 min read

    • Article

      Lessons Of Bosnian War And Peace

      Nov 26, 2020

      TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO last month the Dayton Peace Accords were signed in Paris, ending the bitter Bosnian war. The general framework of the agreement was brokered during three weeks of negotiations at Wright-Patterson airbase in Ohio, thanks to a mix

      11 min read

    • Article

      Who Dares Wins

      May 3, 2023

      I was born in London in 1920, while my family was passing through the city. Two weeks later, with me a babe in arms, we moved to Gloucestershire, where life was hard – but we didn't see it that way. Today, of course, everyone's lives are so different

      3 min read

    • Article

      MICHAEL McMENAMIN’S

      Aug 2, 2018

      MICHAEL McMENAMIN’S
      6 min read

    • Article

      Living History: The Millions Interviews Jason Sommer

      Feb 1, 2022

      My father often seemed angry and didn’t sleep well. There was a recurrent, if intermittent, sense of unease around the family, a kind of haunting. Eventually the ghosts, and the demons, were named. The post Living History: The Millions Interviews Jas

      13 min read

    • Article

      Escape From Auschwitz: The Most Extraordinary Holocaust Story You’ve Never Heard

      Jun 4, 2022

      Escape was lunacy, escape was death. To attempt it was suicide. That much had been taught to Walter Rosenberg early, within a week of his arrival in Auschwitz, aged just 17, at the start of July 1942. One afternoon, he and thousands of others had bee

      14 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      Feb 8, 2023

      Readers' Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Voices From The Past

      May 23, 2023

      Voices From The Past
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Bitter Taste Of Victory

      Apr 16, 2020

      The Bitter Taste Of Victory
      9 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Feb 18, 2021

      The ruthless Roman general ravages the Greek city Of all the great characters in Roman history, Lucius Cornelius Sulla ranks as one of the most ruthless. A brilliant general and cunning politician, he rose to fame in his campaigns against Rome’s enem

      5 min read

    • Article

      How Shakespeare Can Help Us Understand the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

      Mar 9, 2022

      Hold your loved ones close. Don’t lose heart or give in to fear. A life defined by resentment, envy, or revenge is no life. It will lead to nothing good. The post How Shakespeare Can Help Us Understand the Russian Invasion of Ukraine appeared first o

      5 min read

    • Article

      Against Argument

      Aug 8, 2017

      Against Argument
      9 min read

    • Article

      Crossing The ‘Rubicon’

      Jul 27, 2021

      Crossing The ‘Rubicon’
      14 min read

    • Article

      Georges Clemenceau

      Aug 2, 2023

      Georges Clemenceau
      7 min read

    Reviews for Four Weeks in the Trenches

    4/5

    2 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Kreisler describes the four weeks he spent with the Austrian Army during the First World War. An excellent account of life on often neglected Eastern Front. A short book and it's available online.
    • 4/5
      This memoir of Kreisler’s brief service in the Austrian army during WWI gives the reader a realistic and moving account of a soldier’s life during battle. He honestly describes not only his actions but also his feelings during this time and allows the reader to get a glimpse of what it was like to be on the battlefield and in the trenches of WWI. As a musician, I was fascinated to know that one aspect of his musical training came into play—he discovered he could discern the apex of incoming artillery missiles by hearing the sound change as they went from ascending to descending. This enabled his artillery to determine the distance they needed to accurately fire upon those artillery positions.

    Book preview

    Four Weeks in the Trenches - Fritz Kreisler

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Weeks in the Trenches, by Fritz Kreisler

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: Four Weeks in the Trenches The War Story of a Violinist

    Author: Fritz Kreisler

    Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10967]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR WEEKS IN THE TRENCHES ***

    FOUR WEEKS IN THE TRENCHES

    by Fritz Kreisler

    To My Dear Wife Harriet

    The Best Friend Add Stanchest Comrade In All Circumstances Of

    Life I Dedicate This Little Book

    In Humble Token Of Everlasting Gratitude And Devotion

    Preface

    This brief record of the fighting on the Eastern front in the great war is the outcome of a fortunate meeting.

    The writer chanced to be dining with Mr. Kreisler soon after his arrival in this country, after his dismissal from the hospital where he recovered from his wound. For nearly two hours he listened, thrilled and moved, to the great violinist's modest, vivid narrative of his experiences and adventures. It seemed in the highest degree desirable that the American public should have an opportunity of reading this narrative from the pen of one in whose art so many of us take a profound interest. It also was apparent that since so little of an authentic nature had been heard from the Russo-Austrian field of warfare, this story would prove an important contribution to the contemporary history of the war.

    After much persuasion, Mr. Kreisler reluctantly acceded to the suggestion that he write out his personal memories of the war for publication. He has completed his narrative in the midst of grave difficulties, writing it piecemeal in hotels and railway trains in the course of a concert tour through the country. It is offered by the publishers to the public with confidence that it will be found one of the most absorbing and informing narratives of the war that has yet appeared.

    F. G.

    Four Weeks In The Trenches

    I

    In trying to recall my impressions during my short war duty as an officer in the Austrian Army, I find that my recollections of this period are very uneven and confused. Some of the experiences stand out with absolute clearness; others, however, are blurred. Two or three events which took place in different localities seem merged into one, while in other instances recollection of the chronological order of things is missing. This curious indifference of the memory to values of time and space may be due to the extraordinary physical and mental stress under which the impressions I am trying to chronicle were received. The same state of mind I find is rather characteristic of most people I have met who were in the war. It should not be forgotten, too, that the gigantic upheaval which changed the fundamental condition of life overnight and threatened the very existence of nations naturally dwarfed the individual into nothingness, and the existing interest in the common welfare left practically no room for personal considerations. Then again, at the front, the extreme uncertainty of the morrow tended to lessen the interest in the details of to-day; consequently I may have missed a great many interesting happenings alongside of me which I would have wanted to note under other circumstances. One gets into a strange psychological, almost hypnotic, state of mind while on the firing line which probably prevents the mind's eye from observing and noticing things in a normal way. This accounts, perhaps, for some blank spaces in my memory. Besides, I went out completely resigned to my fate, without much thought for the future. It never occurred to me that I might ever want to write my experiences, and consequently I failed to take notes or to establish certain mnemo-technical landmarks by the aid of which I might now be able to reconstruct all details. I am, therefore, reduced to present an incoherent and rather piecemeal narrative of such episodes as forcibly impressed themselves upon my mind and left an ineradicable mark upon my memory.

    The outbreak of the war found my wife and me in Switzerland, where we were taking a cure. On the 31st of July, on opening the paper, I read that the Third Army Corps, to which my regiment (which is stationed in Graz) belonged, had received an order for mobilization.

    Although I had resigned my commission as an officer two years before, I immediately left Switzerland, accompanied by my wife, in order to report for duty. As it happened, a wire reached me a day later calling me to the colors.

    We went by way of Munich. It was the first day of the declaration of the state of war in Germany. Intense excitement prevailed.

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1