Two views of camp life
Barracks at Ruhleben
The up-side ...
Ruhleben was a pre-war race course just outside
Berlin, and throughout the war the men were
housed in the stables, hay barns, etc., so
the accommodation was often known as 'boxes'.
Due to the great number of teachers, university
lecturers, writers, travellers, etc. who ended
up there, it became a hot bed of culture with
its own newspaper, theatre, band and orchestras,
etc. It is recorded that one man who was due to
be repatriated, hid because he didn't want to
leave. There were never any POW there, and strange
to tell the internees were very hard on anyone
who tried to escape to Holland or Switzerland.
based on the book by J. Davidson Ketchum
Boxing match at the camp
The
account given of the First World War prisoner of war camp, Ruhleben, by
Ketchum (1965) is that of a holiday camp in comparison to the
deprivations experienced by others. The camp was made up mainly of
non-service personnel rounded up from their legitimate business in
Germany at the outset of hostilities - businessmen, academics,
holiday-makers, merchant seamen, entertainers and sportsmen, waiters
and "resourceful vagabonds". For all it was an experience of learning,
of education and for much of the time, of comradeship. An Arts and
Science Union emerged in the camp to promote education and a Camp
School was formed. Courses were given on Shakespeare, Mathematics,
foreign languages and science. One student, Graham, wrote to his wife:
"I am speaking four languages now in this camp, and only wish I had had
this little experience twenty years ago." (1965:234) The Royal Society
of Arts, the London Chamber of Commerce and London University allowed
their courses to be studied at Ruhleben.
Bill Williamson
http://www.erill.uni-bremen.de/lios/sections/s7_williamson.html [this link does not seem to work any longer.]
At
the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, there were approximately 5 000
British subjects living in Germany. Along with the crews of several
merchant ships either captured at sea, or trapped in German harbours,
they were detained in a prisoner of war camp - a racecourse at Ruhleben,
in Spandau, a Berlin suburb. After a while, the prisoners began to
manage their own internal affairs with no objection from the Germans,
who strictly adhered to the Geneva Convention. Letters, books, sports
equipment, craft material and when a printing press was allowed into
the camp, this led to the production of the above two journals. These journals give an insight into how the prisoners, or 'campers'
as they referred to themselves, tried to re-create normal civilian
life. Numerous advertisements are included, from tailors, shoemakers,
carpenters and barbers to language instructors, Japanese laundry,
watchmakers and even a bookshop. Sports results and reports are also
well represented, with football, rugby, cricket and golf being the most
popular. Dramatic reviews, poetry, short stories and cartoons also
featured, as did coverage of the election they held in July 1915. This
fairly comfortable life the prisoners enjoyed became undone when the Ruhleben postal system they had introduced was declared illegal by the German Post Office.
from an introduction to the files of the camp magazine
http://www.nls.uk/collections/rarebooks/acquisitions/singlebook.cfm/idfind/242
... and on the other hand -
Professor
Alonzo E. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania, a food expert, and
Dr. D. J. McCarthy, also of Philadelphia, joined my staff in 1916 and
proved most efficient and fearless inspectors of prison camps. Dr.
Taylor could use the terms calories, proteins, etc., as readily as
German experts and at a greater rate of speed. His report showing that
the official diet of the prisoners in Ruhleben was a starvation diet
incensed the German authorities to such fury that they forbade him to
revisit Ruhleben. Professor Buckhaus, the German expert, agreed with
him in some of his findings. I do not know what will happen to the
Professor, who seemed willing to do his best for the prisoners. He
wrote a booklet on the prison camps which he asked permission to
dedicate to me, but the War Office, which published the book, refused
to allow him to make this dedication. It was a real pleasure to see the
way in which Dr. Taylor carried on his work of food inspection; and his
work, as well as that of the other doctors sent from America to join my
staff, Drs. Furbush, McCarthy, Roler, Harns, Webster and Luginbuhl, did
much to better camp conditions.
Dr.
Caldwell, the sanitary expert, known for his great work in Serbia, now
I believe head of the hospital at Pittsburgh, reported in regard to the
prison diet: "While of good quality and perhaps sufficient in quantity
by weight, it is lacking in the essential elements which contribute to
the making of a well-balanced and satisfactory diet. It is lacking
particularly in fat and protein content which is especially desirable
during the colder months of the year. . . . There is considerable doubt
whether this diet alone without being supplemented by the articles of
food received by the prisoners from their homes would in any way be
sufficient to maintain the prisoners in health and strength."
. . .
With
the lapse of time the mental condition of the older prisoners in
Ruhleben had become quite alarming. Soldier prisoners, when they enter
the army, are always in good physical condition and enter with the
expectation of either being killed or wounded or taken prisoner, and
have made their arrangements accordingly. But these unfortunate
civilian prisoners were often men in delicate health, and all were in a
constant state of great mental anxiety as to the fate of their business
and their enterprises and their families. In 1916, not only Mr. Grafton
Minot, who for some time had devoted himself exclusively to the
Ruhleben prisoners, but also Mr. Ellis Dresel, a distinguished lawyer
of Boston, who had joined the Embassy as a volunteer, took up the work.
Mr. Dresel visited Ruhleben almost daily and by listening to the
stories and complaints of the prisoners materially helped their mental
condition.
from My Four Years in Germany by US Ambassador, James W. Gerard
Greenhouse at Ruhleben Camp
