Shared Photo: Alfred Böbisch - Died at 19 yo. During the Great War

Question

The genealogy research gods (mother's younger sister) were kind to me this week and provided photos of two great-uncles and one great-aunt.  Coincidentally, one of them was the subject of another G2G post earlier in the week.  This is a photo of Alfred Böbisch , my maternal grandmother's brother.  He was training to become a pilot during the Great War and died during a training exercise (the newspaper casualty list gave his status as "tötlich verunglücht," which basically means "deadly accident.")  He was only nineteen.  I had previously known that he died at that age but hadn't really comprehended just how young nineteen looks.

Click here for the image details page or here for the full-sized version (1080 x 1705).

Answer 1

You're right -- nineteen looks so young. It's a different world now; most 19 year olds aren't facing the same things today that Alfred and others faced then. Thank you for sharing this photo.

Answer 2

Sadly, it is usually the young who are sent to war.

Answer 3

My nephew enlisted in the Army and was sent to the Korean DMZ in February 2017, when he finished training as a medic--also at age 19.  It was tough to deal with the contemporaneous tweeting about bombing North Korea off the map because 19 is really, REALLY young!  Thanks for sharing.