The First World War - The Centenary Commemorations, New Research and Debates One Hundred Years After Its Beginning

The year 2014 was dominated by the commemoration of the outbreak of the Great War. By analyzing both public ceremonies commemorating this event and the debates about the origins of the war among historians as well as selected new publications, this article tries to describe the different forms of commemoration and of the messages politicians and historians tried to convey as well as the current state of research. The article, however, focusses on the analysis of the most important books published in 2014, namely those written by Christopher Clark and Jorn Leonhard, Herfried Munkler and Oliver Janz. These books have greatly enlarged our knowledge about the origins, the course and the consequences of the Great War. Though the public took a great interest in these new publications, historians should be very reluctant to intervene in present day political debates utilizing the content of their books.