Deutsche Kriegszeitung 1914 Number 1 Aug 2 WWI Outbreak Luxembourg Lokal-Anzeiger

Original Imperial German war newspaper, the first issue (Nummer 1) of the Deutsche Kriegszeitung 1914, dated Sunday 2 August 1914 and published in Berlin by the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, reporting the opening moves of the First World War as they broke. The paper is a large-format sheet measuring 18 by 12 inches (approximately 45.7 by 30.5 cm) per page, printed as a four-page issue on a single folded sheet, in dense German Fraktur across four columns.

The front page is dominated by a woodcut masthead of an eagle perched on a trophy of arms between the split date 19–14, beneath the ornate title Deutsche Kriegszeitung and the line Herausgegeben vom "Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger" (published by the Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger). It is marked Nummer 1 at upper left and Sonntag, 2. August at upper right. The banner headline reads Luxemburg vom achten Armeekorps besetzt ("Luxembourg Occupied by the Eighth Army Corps"), followed by a stack of sub-headlines announcing that Russian troops had entered German Reich territory in East Prussia and so opened hostilities, that the Russian ambassador had received his passports, that a failed bombing had been attempted on the great Thorn railway bridge, that French aviators had dropped bombs near Nuremberg, and that France had given an evasive answer to Germany's inquiry, closing with a note that a solemn service had been held that noon at the Bismarck monument.

The interior and following pages carry the detailed dispatches of those first hours. Among them are the report of the Russian declaration of war, the German ambassador in St. Petersburg having delivered the declaration to the Russian foreign minister at half past seven on the evening of 1 August; a column on Russian patrols crossing the East Prussian frontier and the occupation of the border town of Eydtkuhnen; accounts of arrests of suspected Russian spies within Germany and passport checks in the Berlin hotels; the mobilization manifesto of King Ludwig III of Bavaria to the Bavarian army, dated Munich 1 August 1914 and calling his troops to the field under the supreme command of the German Kaiser; King Christian of Denmark's proclamation of Danish neutrality; a telegram from King Ludwig to Kaiser Wilhelm; a report of the imperial family attending divine service; and official price-control notices against wartime profiteering in flour and salt. A boxed announcement records that the Lokal-Anzeiger would from that day issue the Deutsche Kriegszeitung 1914 with the latest war reports on all special occasions. The foot of the sheet carries the imprint of the August Scherl publishing house of Berlin and the responsible editor, Julius Gubitz.

The historical position of the paper could hardly be more central. 2 August 1914 was the day German troops occupied neutral Luxembourg, the opening territorial act of the war in the West, one day before Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium, and the same weekend that Germany and Russia went formally to war in the East. This first issue of the Deutsche Kriegszeitung thus captures the very outbreak of the First World War from the German side, in the confused and headlong rush of mobilization, border incidents, spy scares, royal manifestos, and appeals to God and country that filled the German press in the first days of August. Issued by the Scherl house, the same publisher whose Lokal-Anzeiger extra had carried the news of the Sarajevo assassination five weeks earlier, it stands as a bookend to that document: where the June extra announced the murder that lit the fuse, this 2 August first issue records the moment the war itself began.

The paper shows the physical characteristics of a genuine 1914 newspaper. The stock is thin newsprint, evenly age-toned, with the dense text showing strongly through each leaf, printed in letterpress with the solid blacks and ragged ink edges of the period and without the halftone screen of photographic reproduction. There is chipping and small losses along the top edge, horizontal and vertical folds from storage, and light edge wear, consistent with a fragile newspaper that has survived folded for over a century. As with all famous first-days-of-the-war papers, the buyer is encouraged to confirm the letterpress printing and period newsprint in hand, the means by which an original is distinguished from a later facsimile.

Condition is good and sound for a large-format newspaper of its age and fragility. The sheet is complete as a four-page issue, with the masthead, headline, and all columns clear and fully legible. There is edge chipping with some loss at the top margin, fold lines, light toning, and minor wear, but no significant loss to the printed text area and no tape or repair evident. It presents as a displayable original, the front page in particular making a striking exhibit.

For the collector, this is a foundational document of the First World War: the first issue of a Berlin war newspaper, dated to the day German forces marched into Luxembourg and the war in the West began, from the major Scherl publishing house. First-issue war papers of the opening days of August 1914 are keenly sought and considerably scarcer than the mid-war illustrated bulletins, and one uniting the occupation of Luxembourg, the Russian declaration of war, the Bavarian mobilization manifesto, and the spy-fever of the first hours on a single dated front is a centerpiece for any collection of Imperial German, First World War, or press-history material. It pairs naturally with the Sarajevo assassination extra from the same publisher.