It wears a large red band, in that madder shade that was also that of the collar and pants of the infantrymen of 1914. Jules-André Peugeot's kepi is the first to have rolled on the ground while a life flew away.
The first French victim of the Great War, the 21-year-old corporal was carried away on August 2, 1914, the day before the declaration of war between France and Germany.
Preserved until now in Joncherey (Territoire de Belfort), near the former border with German Alsace, the cap has just been placed in storage in the new Memorial of Haute-Alsace, in Dannemarie (Haut-Rhin ), where it will now be exhibited.
Read also: Paris inaugurates its first monument to the fallen of the First World War
“
Being able to associate an object like this with a face is very important for visitors,”
explains Marion Lavaux, the Memorial manager, to France Télévisions.
This allows you to connect emotionally to the story not of battles, politics, or past events, but of individuals who have known sometimes tragic fates, as was the case with Corporal Peugeot.
»His kepi is presented in a museographic device which recalls the brief life of the young man and the confused context of the beginning of the conflict.
A Memorial at the gates of Alsace
The object is expected to be one of the most important historical pieces in the collections of the future WWI museum.
Located on the western edge of Alsace, in the Sundgau region, Dannemarie had been occupied by French troops for most of the duration of the First World War;
one of the rare German territories to have been.
It is this singular history, and that of its civilian population shared between the two countries and by war, that the Memorial project seeks to highlight.
The museum is currently finishing the assembly of its collection of thousands of objects - including several uniforms and an "
educational trench
" - and hopes to be able to open its doors as soon as the health situation permits.
"All that will be ready for the month of May",
wants to believe the mayor of Dannemarie, Alexandre Berbett.
Nearly 1.4 million French soldiers died during the conflict.
Known for the butchery of its clashes, in Verdun, Chemin des Dames or in the Somme, it was above all during the first weeks of the conflict - the “
Battle of the Borders
” in the summer of 1914 - that the loss of life hit. unimaginable levels.
In the single day of August 22, 1914, the deadliest in the history of the French army, 27,000 soldiers were killed.
A strong symbol of the spirit of the Memorial, the sequence of the route dedicated to Jules-André Peugeot also pays tribute to the German lieutenant Albert Mayer, 22 years old.
The two young men had killed each other in the early days of the "
Der des Ders."
"