Die Schlacht von Gallipoli 1915

Gallipoli and the battles there in 1915 have always had significance for New Zealanders as a type of birth of nation narrative. The 100 year commemoration of the actions on the peninsula and the memory of those who lost their lives there is a major event for our country. For ANZAC Day, 25 April, 2015 a number of schools in Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand have been working on creating a website to remember the historical event but also to honour the personal stories of those who served and died there. Each subject area in my school, Otago Girls' High School, was tasked with adding something to this website and my senior German class immediately started searching the web for some connection between the language we learn and Gallipoli. I knew that there were some German officers in an advisory role at Gallipoli but was surprised to stumble upon the www.Gallipoli1915.de website and learn that around 1000 troops had been stationed and seen action there and 200 had lost their lives. To make this story better known to speakers of English we decided to translate some of the pages into English for our own project but also to allow for more web users to access the information. Boys from one of the other schools in Dunedin which teaches German, John McGlashan College, have also been working on this project. It feels like an appropriate way for the descendants of one of the combatant nations to help shed light on an unknown part of this conflict and honour the memory of the troops of all sides who lost their lives. (Text Chris Durrant)