Rear Area

North, east, and southeast of the later central battlefield area at Verdun, deeply echeloned position areas were established by German troops starting in late 1914, as the front became static. They received wire entanglements, bulletproof dugouts for the garrison, as well as concrete bunkers for MG, observation, and also artillery.

From the autumn of 1916, it became apparent that a conquest of the fortress of Verdun and the associated hope foralos the resumption of mobile warfare could not be realized. French offensive efforts were successful, and the Germans went on the defensive. Therefore, work began on establishing rear position systems. Behind the actual combat zone, defense lines were created that received such high-sounding names as the Kriemhild, Hagen, Etzel, or Volker position, but ultimately failed to live up to their heroic designations. Individual villages were expanded into strong fortresses. Remains of these positions can still be found frequently in the landscape today.

The hinterland, the rear area, was characterized by countless supply facilities. Staffs and other military administrative agencies were established in almost every village and town between the front and the home territory. Localities close to the front were subject to continued shelling by French artillery during the fighting, resulting in massive destruction. Consequently, countless camouflaged camp complexes and artillery positions were created in the surrounding forests. A complete civilian and military infrastructure was created. Power plants, charcoal works, sawmills, laundries, mineral water factories, and slaughterhouses had to cover the needs of the German war machine with its hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Over time, an ever-increasing number of military cemeteries was added.

Over the course of the war, every village and every strip of forest in the area had accommodated some sort of military installation. The amount of remains is immense even a hundred years after the end of the First World War and will not be fully researched or documented even in another hundred years.