For the 2027 season, the Franco-German Hartmannswillerkopf Museum is presenting a new exhibition: “Mountain Troops in the Great War: A Comparative Approach.” For the first time, as part of an international collaboration, the exhibition offers a comparative perspective on the deployment of French, German, Austrian, and Italian mountain units during World War I.
From the peaks of the Vosges to the Alps, from the Carpathians to the Austro-Russian Eastern Front, visitors discover spectacular and often little-known theaters of operations: those of high-altitude warfare. In these extreme environments—marked by cold, snow, steep slopes, and isolation—the armies had to devise new ways to fight, move, and resupply their positions.
Through exceptional artifacts, rare photographs, firsthand accounts from soldiers, and historical documents, the exhibition highlights how men and armies adapted to these extraordinary conditions. A captivating journey into the heart of the history of mountain troops, where courage, endurance, and innovation shaped a war unlike any other.
From the peaks of the Vosges to the Alps, from the Carpathians to the Austro-Russian Eastern Front, visitors discover spectacular and often little-known theaters of operations: those of high-altitude warfare. In these extreme environments—marked by cold, snow, steep slopes, and isolation—the armies had to devise new ways to fight, move, and resupply their positions.
Through exceptional artifacts, rare photographs, firsthand accounts from soldiers, and historical documents, the exhibition highlights how men and armies adapted to these extraordinary conditions. A captivating journey into the heart of the history of mountain troops, where courage, endurance, and innovation shaped a war unlike any other.
