Project Beginnings

The First World War cannot be said to have lacked coverage of late, and perhaps it’s no surprise that the bulk of it is on the trenches, the trauma, poetry and poppies. The scale of the carnage and the apparent political indifference to it beggars belief even now. Which makes it all the more baffling how scant the focus has been on the scale of opposition to it there was, both here and in Germany, when it was so powerful in both countries.

Jude and I came to this as a result of our knowledge of Cyril Pearce’s seminal book Comrades In Conscience which tells the little known story of Arthur Gardiner, leader of The Huddersfield Socialist CO’s. Our 2014 project, ‘England, Arise!’ told his story, drawn from the first hand source of his appearance before the Military Service Tribunal in 1916.  It was during that project we met Prof Ingrid Sharp (cue fanfare/ loud cheering) of University of Leeds. Ingrid liked our play very much (so she said anyway!) what’s more was researching the role of women in the German anti-war movement. There seemed an immediate point of contact between us.

It was Ingrid who introduced us to the scale and extent of the German revolution of 1918, and to the role it, and therefore the women whose efforts drove it, played in the end to hostilities in France. This seemed a perfect sister project to England, Arise, and one that would cap the commemorations for 2018. The seeds of Women Of Aktion were duly sewn.

The slight problem was we had no idea what the project might be. We had no specific story, sense of what the centre of it might be, the research hasn’t really been done. The challenge of the project became clear, we will have to do our own research. Whilst this does tend to make life harder, it also serves to make it all the more interesting from our point of view.

So, in 2015, began a Research and Development project with Ingrid and us embarking on a trip to Berlin, and as many meetings as we could cram into three days. We spoke to historians and theatres too but it was hard to pin down what the story was. The theatres looked at us slightly askance in that we didn’t actually have a specific project to offer them.

It was only when Jude discovered the name Gertrud Voelcker, and her role in the Kiel Uprising of 1918, that a light bulb came on, our project began to loom, albeit hazily, into view.

A second trip to Berlin and Kiel set things in motion. Further research began to throw up the names of other women, like Martha Riedl, Maria Seyring, Anita Augspurg and others and it became apparent that far from there being no women involved, there were in fact many. What’s more since our (Jude’s) research flagged up Gertrud, hitherto ignored, she has been adopted and made a central part of the Kiel Commemorations for 2018 too. Which makes it all the more appropriate and exciting that we’ll be taking the play there in October of this year. But first we have to book a tour up and write a play…

By Mick Martin