About Us

We are a Great War Association affiliated WWI reenacting group portraying the German Red Cross (Rote Kreuz). 

In working to revamp the DRK, some disparaging remarks such as a “glorified lemonade stand” or “girlfriend babysitting club” (direct quotes) were presented. If this is the understanding on some reenactors’ parts, we want to ensure that this is not the focus of this group, but rather a group of serious reenactors performing a critical function for the Central Powers and the Great War Association. We intend to distance ourselves from this false perception. To further this mental separation, as well as being more historically accurate, the DRK will go by the proper wartime name – Das Rote Kreuz. While we will still obviously provide refreshments and snacks, as that is a much loved part of the group being at Newville, Das Rote Kreuz did so much more than that. The Roten Kreuz at Newville will provide a solid and consistent place for women (and men) to be.

A uniquely challenging aspect of the Roten Kreuz is how many local chapters and other organizations that were affiliated with the Roten Kreuz there were. While the primary region of focus for this group will be Berlin/Prussia (as that is one of the first established, and more well documented with English sources, etc.), other regions will absolutely be considered if there is an interest and research backing the impression.

Unit members at Newville fall 2024.

Short History of the RK

The International Red Cross was founded in 1863, and Germany founded her first chapter(s) of the Red Cross the following year (1864) in Berlin (Prussia), as well as in Oldenburg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg and Hesse. However, the various chapters did not go by the united name of Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (DRK) until 1921. The Central Committee of the Prussian Red Cross was made a permanent institution by 1869, and “it combined all the German principalities at a time when the political union of the country was still unrealized.” These chapters continued to operate through and after the German unification in 1871, however they were still very much regionally operated. In Austria-Hungary, shortly before the outbreak of the war, the National Red Cross Society was divided into various federalist associations under the coordination of the central office in Vienna. Like in other countries, the Red Cross’ activities were largely integrated within the military medical services. Other organizations that were very closely affiliated with the Roten Kreuz were “various confessional sisterhoods of trained nurses, both Catholic and Protestant, the Knights of St. John and of Malta and others”,“the great ‘Vaterländische Frauenverein’ or National League of Women,”” and the ‘Organization of Voluntary Nurses’ founded by John Wickern in 1866 for the training of men nurses.” 

A major subsection/affiliate organization of the Red Cross was the The Vaterländische Frauenverein, so that is another aspect the unit at Newville will likely focus on. The Vaterländische Frauenverein was founded in 1866, by Queen Augusta of Prussia, with the goal of preserving relief aid through times of peace and times of war, working in conjunction with the Central Committee of the Prussian Red Cross. This organization constituted the women's branch of the German Red Cross and used the Red Cross insignia. Its aim was to combine efforts of relief workers throughout the entire kingdom, and to increase membership by inviting all women's organizations in the empire to affiliate themselves as branch societies, as well as being devoted to the training and employment of competent nursing personnel. In 1914 the number of members amounted to 400,000 and the league owned property inclusive of real estate and institutions to the value of 20,000,000 marks. By September, 1916 there were 2335 branches throughout the Empire and a membership of 1,000,000 women. 

The Roten Kreuz at Newville can also be a place for men - “The Organization of Voluntary Nurses in the War Work of the Red Cross” was the society for the training of men nurses and hospital attendants. Its various branches belonged to the national and provincial societies of the Red Cross which supervised its work and financed it. The justification for its existence and activity in recruiting in times of peace is that it considered  itself “the shadow of the army.” Its personnel could be drawn only from those men who are unfit for military duty either in active service or in the reserve. 

Divisions/jobs:

There were three main roles of the Roten Kreuz: medical, military support (including support for POWs),  and relief for civilian populations. These were then split down further into thirteen divisions: 

• Mobilization
• Volunteer staff - male nurses
• Depot affairs
• Volunteer nurses - female
• For collections and recruiting,
• For administration
• For prisoners
• For exhibits of war booty for the purpose of raising funds
• For health resorts and institutional care for the disabled
• For welfare work divided into groups for
• Tuberculosis and contagious diseases
• The care of infants and mothers and group
• The care of families
• “The work of these groups extends over everything that is necessary to the maintenance and reattainment of health in families, and the training of a healthy, able-bodied rising generation… This division also sees to the training, examination and graduation of girls and women as voluntary nurses, their vaccination and so forth…”
• For the care of refugees and the families of interned Germans
•  For securing employment for the disabled
• Closely associated with Division 9, both divisions work closely with The Welfare Commission for the War Disabled. 
• For the “financial provision for the disabled and their families supplementary to State aid or pensions; the latter concerns itself only with the actual injury and not with the special requirements of the pensioner, such as a large family, old and feeble parents, sick relatives and similar conditions.”

Statistics:

By February, 1917, the Red Cross personnel amounted to 179,000: 

• 40,000 were men nurses, 30,000 of whom were in the line of communications; 
• 62,000 women nurses, 11,000 in the line of' communications; 
• 1,000 women laboratory assistants, 700 in the line of communications; 
• 5000 kitchen personnel, 1500 in the line of communications; 
• 45,000 bearers, 35,000 in home hospitals; 
• 2500 supply depot personnel, 1500 at home; 
• 700 clerks, 600 at home; 
• 800 disinfectors, half at home; 
• Remaining balance consists of laborers and workers of all kinds.

Sources for a short history:

"Lessons from the Enemy - How Germany Cares for her War Disabled", by John R. McDill, Major, Medical Reserve Corps, U.S.Army, 1918, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York. Website link.

Cotter, Cédric: Red Cross , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War,

ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill

Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2018-04-10. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.11237. Website link.