2016 > 2018 Brochure Flanders Fields. A place to remember. FLANDERSFIELDS1418.COM UNITED KINGDOM NEDERLAND Dover North Sea ANTWERP BRUGES Nieuwpoort GHENT MECHELEN Diksmuide Dendermonde Calais AARSCHOT Flanders Fields Poperinge HASSELT Zonnebeke BRUSSELS © Westtoer FLANDERS LEUVEN Ypres Mesen DEUTSCHLAND FRANCE Lille WALLONIE EUROPE BELGIUM Flanders Fields. © VISITFLANDERS Silent city meets A place living city to remember. © Westtoer © Artothek 1917, from mine explosions to © Erskine Williams © Erskine floating mud sea War in Short China in Poperinge Pants The Power of Avant-Garde NEDERLAND North Sea ANTWERP BRUGES Nieuwpoort GHENT MECHELEN Diksmuide Calais Flanders Fields Poperinge HASSELT Zonnebeke BRUSSELS FLANDERS LEUVEN Ypres Menen Mesen DEUTSCHLAND FRANCE Lille WALLONIE Greenwich Coming © Royal Museums Menin Road WWI, the World battle of the Remember North Sea Her side Me of the war Edition 2015 Note: This document will be regularly updated with new information as it becomes available. The latest version is always available to download from: www.visitflanders.com and has been compiled with information provided to Visit Flanders by partners throughout Belgium and around the world. All information is correct to the best of our knowledge, at the time of going to print (October 2015). However, no liability can be accepted 2 for any loss resulting from use of information contained in this document. Please check opening dates and times before travelling. 3 COMMEMORATION YEAR 2016 > 6 Her side of the war. Remarkable women at the centre of WWI > 7 Introduction Commemoration of the first British execution in Poperinge > 10 Artists inspired by war > 11 Children during wartime > 12 Table of contents Table Other events in 2016 > 13 FLANDERS COMMEMORATES COMINGWORLDREMEMBERME (2014-2018) > 16 2017 PASSCHENDAELE REMEMBERED > 17 THE GREAT WAR Third Battle of Ypres > 17 Today, the landscape of Flanders Fields still reflects the dramatic scenes that took place Other events in 2017 > 19 during the First World War, when peaceful homes and fields were savagely transformed Memorial Ceremonies 2017 > 20 into battlefields. 2018 PEACE AT LAST > 21 Now, approximately one hundred years later, Flanders invites visitors to remember the victims of the conflict - and what better place to do so than Flanders Fields. > 24 WORLD WAR I SITES Many museums, events and exhibitions shed light on the various facets of the Great War: Ypres & surroundings > 25 the military operations, trench warfare, political alliances, propaganda, etc. In addition, various Zonnebeke > 29 art exhibitions offer a truly individual, artistic view of the horrors of WWI. Wherever you go in the Westhoek, whether by car, bike or on foot, you come across the Poperinge > 31 remnants and scars of the Great War. The region is dotted with hundreds of monuments and Diksmuide & surroundings > 33 graveyards, sometimes counting no more than a few graves. Themed walking, biking and Nieuwpoort > 35 driving tours guide you through this landscape bursting with reminders of the Great War. There are even several ways for visitors to contribute to the commemoration. Mesen & surroundings > 36 > 37 Other interesting sites in Flanders Fields This “2016-2018 Brochure” guides you through the commemorative highlights in Flanders in 2016, Other interesting sites in Flanders & Brussels > 38 2017 and 2018 and provides an overview of many of the region’s key memorial sites. CALENDAR OF EVENTS > 39 DISCOVER THE BATTLEFIELDS > 43 TRADE AND PRESS INFORMATION > 46 4 5 © Westtoer Her side of the war. Remarkable COMMEMORATION women at the centre of WWI The Great War was not an exclusively male affair. Women, too, played their part, YEAR 2016 although not on the battlefield. Their work was focused on local communities and family life, and it was these women who, during the war, handled childcare and business matters, took initiatives in order to maintain health care and education and established a network of solidarity across ethnic and cultural boundaries. In a series of exhibitions, theatre walks and other events in the northern part of Im Westen nichts Neues Flanders Fields, we honour several iconic women: the scientist Marie Curie, Queen (All Quiet on the Western Front) Elizabeth of Belgium and the artist Käthe Kollwitz. By means of personal stories and experiences we offer the women of In 1916, the prospect of a speedy end of the war seemed further away than ever. In Germany, it WWI a platform and link them to a range of females involved was decided to shift the focus west to Verdun (France). The city was surprised with a massive in present-day conflicts. bombardment. The French and German losses were enormous but Verdun ultimately remained For more information about the exhibitions, theatre walks in French hands. On 1 July 1916 a British offensive broke loose in the Somme that eventually lasted INTRO four months. The result were hundreds of thousands killed or wounded soldiers on both sides and other events, visit www.hersideofthewar.be (as of 2016). OK of the front. Although no major offensive took place, the fighting was still ongoing in Flanders Fields. In this period, about 100,000 soldiers fell in the Westhoek, about 127 per day. “Im Westen nichts Neues” (All Quiet on the Western Front) refers to the book about the horrors 9 APR 2016 > 31 DEC 2016 3 SEPT 2016 > 2 OCT 2016 and absurdity of war written by Erich Maria Remarque, a German WWI veteran. The book, which has already been turned into a movie twice, describes the insanity that a group of young German KÄTHE KOLLWITZ KÄTHE KOLLWITZ 1.9 & KÄTHE KOLLWITZ 2.0 soldiers face in the trenches during WWI. EXHIBITION EXHIBITION Käthe Kollwitz Museum - Koekelare Gothic Hall in the City Hall and Galerie Montanus.5 - Diksmuide During the war years 1914-1918, Käthe The “Käthe Kollwitz 1.9” exhibition at Diksmuide’s town hall boasts a selection of Kollwitz began to sculpt. On October 23rd exclusive artworks by Käthe Kollwitz, which reflect her thirst for social justice. These 1914, her son Peter Kollwitz, who was a unique creations - which were shipped from the famous Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum in musketeer in the German army, died in an Cologne especially for the occasion - offer insight into the life of this artist before, during attack on Diksmuide. In April 1915, a grieving and after the First World War. In addition, contemporary art by other women will also Käthe started working on tentative plans be showcased at the nearby Galerie Montanus.5 in the form of a double exhibition titled for a memorial for her son’s grave, which “Käthe Kollwitz 2.0”. The artists step into Käthe Kollwitz’s shoes and create art as if she resulted in the sculpture group “The were alive today… Mourning Parents” at the German Military Website i Address Cemetery of Vladslo. Stadhuis Diksmuide www.diksmuide.be Grote Markt 6 Opening hours The renovated Käthe Kollwitz Museum 8600 Diksmuide Every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. highlights the German expressionist Nocturnes on request artist and her work. While the temporary Contact Entrance exhibition, displaying 30 of her etchings, + 32 (0)51 79 32 50 Free mainly homes in on Käthe Kollwitz as [email protected] a person and a female artist, it also Website extensively covers her life after the war i Address and the impact of the Great War on her Galerie Montanus.5 www.montanusvijf.be work. Montanusstraat 5 Opening hours 8600 Diksmuide Every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. i Address & Contact Contact Nocturnes on request Käthe Kollwitz Museum see p. 34 + 32 (0)51 50 48 24 Entrance Website [email protected] Free Käthe Kollwitz www.koekelare.be Opening hours Käthe Kollwitz was one of Germany’s leading expressionist artists. She and her husband had Tuesday - Friday 9.30 a.m. to 12 p.m. a strong commitment to social justice: he practised as a doctor for the poor, while most of and 1.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Käthe’s drawings bore witness to social injustice. When the war began, she supported her 15 May - 15 November also open son Peter’s decision to enlist as a volunteer. On 22 October, Peter was killed in Esen near on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays: 1.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Diksmuide, not long after his 18th birthday. Closed on Mondays and Kollwitz sculpted a group of statues, The Grieving Parents, which now stands beside her son Wednesday mornings Peter’s grave in the German military cemetery in Vladslo. (see p. 34) Entrance Entrance included in the museum ticket. COMMEMORATION YEAR 2016 7 Events 9, 10 & 11 SEPT 2016 9 APR 2016 > 31 DEC 2016 TEN VREDE FESTIVAL MUSIC ELSIE & MAIRI Diksmuide MADAME TACK & MIETJE BOEUF 39 SEPTAPR 20162016 >> 312 OCTDEC 2016 EXHIBITION This festival takes a stand against all MARIE CURIE Museum at the Yser - Diksmuide forms of violence and war, past and EXHIBITION present, anywhere in the world. This Visitor Centre Vrij Vaderland (Free Fatherland) Veurne year’s festival will focus on women: 9 APR 2016 > 31 DEC 2016 The Museum at the Yser tells the story female artists, writers, peace activists and of four strong women who found QUEEN ELIZABETH journalists. At the outbreak of the First World War, Marie Curie decided to bring medical radiology to the front line, which was still in its infancy at that time. Curie managed to set up themselves at the Yser Front during the EXHIBITION Great War: Madame Tack, Mietje Boeuf, Cultuurhuis De Scharbiellie i Address & Contact mobile radiology units, called “petites Curies”, and also installed permanent radiology Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm. De Panne Museum at the Yser see p. 33 units in hospitals. As such, she not only saved the lives of both countless wounded soldiers and civilians.