Erich Kaesner, Last German Great War Veteran Poem by Paul Warren

It was believed the last German Great War veteran died aged 107 years on 25th January 2008 in a nursing home in Cologne, Germany. His name was Erich Kaestner. The Bundeswehr had no comment.

Erich Kaesner marched off to war
With his friends probably not knowing the score
And there was mud blood bullets and guns
As each day merged together as one

He lost mates to the war machine
As it ground down with deaths so obscene
And his army rode their ups and downs
Until finally losing the Great War when an Armistice was bound

So he marched home to Germany
Seeing his country ripped apart so terribly
His sacrifice in the war came to nothing in the end
With the surrender becoming more difficult to defend

He saw the fall of the Weimar Republic
And the rise of Hitler and his rhetoric
Hitler refuted the Great War defeat
Blaming the stab in the back at home not a battlefield feat

He endured the Second World War
And defeat was again at his door
So he had to be part of the rebuild for Germany again
With Germany split apart to East and West in the end

There was no recognition when Erich died in 2008
As there were no records left to confirm his fate
And so he passed into history nearly unknown
A defeated warrior whose nation didn't care leaving him alone.

© Paul Warren Poetry