Occasionally the different perception of being alone is a question of perspective. War is an archetypal example of different perspectives. Generals and war propaganda portray soldiers as fighters for freedom and independence. However, their death on the battlefield feels rather lonely than liberating to them.

Alsace changed nationality between Germany and France six times within 300 years and is thus exemplary for the causes of wars all over the world. Traditionally German territory, it passed to France in 1648 after the Thirty Years’ War. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871, Germany reconquered the region.

As both countries asserted historical rights, the Western Front was the subject of years of fierce fighting during the First World War 1914 to 1918, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. The Alsatians were literally caught between the fronts. Having grown up in the German Empire, younger soldiers fought quite naturally in the
German army, while older people sympathised with France. Even within families, opinions differed as to whether the French should be seen as liberators or occupiers.

1940 the Germans once again occupied the Alsace. Its liberation by the Allies in March 1945 was one of the last battles of the Second World War. The young age of the dead  German soldiers bears witness to the fact that the Germans had fought with their very last resources. The series shows the discrepancy between the soldier as a “fighter for freedom and independence” on the one hand and the “lonely death on the battlefield” on the other, using philatelic artefacts and images of Alsatian necropoles.