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The decades leading up to the Great War were marked by huge industrial expansion and the growth of cities, the increasing instability of societies across Europe, rising nationalism and economic, social and colonial rivalries between imperial powers. The widespread feelings of fear and uncertainty were reflected in clashes over religion, power, language, ideas and, of course, art.
In the early years of the century artists such as Kandinsky were experimenting with a revolutionary new language - abstraction; Ludwig Meidner was producing the Apocalyptic Vision series, which predicted the violent conflict to come; George Heym, a poet in Meidner's circle, created images of fiery comets as death-dealing portents of gloom. The warnings were clear, and when war came, artists of all nations recorded its horror and pity.
The Great War was a man-made catastrophe on a scale never seen before. The spark that ignited the conflagration was the assassination, on June 28th 1914, of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
He was shot while on a state visit to Serbia, which Austria then invaded. The armed forces of Europe were mobilised and complex military alliances were formed. On August 1st 1914 the German army invaded Belgium, and three days later Britain declared war on Germany.
On a tide of national fervour and in the belief that the war would be over in a matter of months, millions of hopeful and patriotic young men on both sides enlisted. Four long years later the fearful human cost was also counted in millions - an entire generation slaughtered on the seas, in the air and, most memorably, in the trenches.
Koelz's brother Hans was amongst the first to be sent to the front on 3rd August 1914. He was killed the following month.
Koelz himself joined up in January 1915. He was nineteen.
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