Europeana 1914-1918. CC0
Resolute and dauntless, 18 year-old German soldier Hellmut Heinsen faces the photographer. An inhabitant of Hamburg, Heinsen voluntarily reported to the German army to fight for his country. He was sent to the eastern front and spent about two years in the trenches. He became an officer of the ‘Wandsbecker Husaren’: a famed regiment of the cavalry. Cristian Heinsen, Hellmut’s grandchild, only learned about this as a grown-up: “When I realized the man in this portrait was my grandfather, I was shocked. I used to think it was just the portrait of an unknown soldier. My father probably thought it would be confusing for a child to be told that grandpa had been in a war and maybe killed people. Grandfather never talked about his days in the war. Maybe because it was too hard for him to remember.” After the war, Hellmut left Germany and sailed to Chile, where he became an upstanding citizen of Viña del Mar, Valparaíso.
