Getting to know the unknown soldier

The extensive photograph exhibit taken by an unknown soldier during World War I, which opened at Prague Castle in mid-April, took a revelatory turn just months after it commenced. The photographer was identified during the summer as Jindřich Bišecky by his grandson Michal Rybák, who had been caring for his grandfather's photos, preserving them much like a professional archivist-historian for years.

Thus the original exhibit of the unknown soldier, with a fine bilingual (Czech and English) printed-edition catalog, became mainly an exhibit of 150 works by Bišecky (1889-1949).

A Czech of Jewish descent, he was born in in the Slaný region of central Bohemia, earned a certificate as a bricklayer and then studied at the State Secondary School in Prague's Smíchov from 1909 to 1910. He then worked in an oil refinery in Galicia before beginning military service in 1911 as a draughtsman in Trent - now Italy, but, at that time, part of the Habsburg Empire. At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, he joined up with the 47th infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army as the regiment's official photographer and staff officer.

The regiment first deployed along the Galician front, near Zborov. Then, after the fall of the famous Austrian fortress Przemyśl (in present-day southeast Poland) in the spring of 1915, the soldiers moved to east Slovakia, to Dukla, then to Stebník on the river Ondava and next into the Carpathian Mountains.

Photographs from this initial period of bucolic hills and villages are filled with peaceful civilians and soldiers on the march. Bišecky also manages carefully composed photos of onion-domed Eastern Orthodox monasteries and Galician Jews in crowds on busy streets or walking alone down streets of unknown towns.

In the Carpathians, photographs of Russian Army captives reveal a surprisingly large number of non-Russians. A standout in this section depicts a line-up of ragtag multi-ethnic captives in trench coats as a defiant-looking Circassian in a white sheep's-hair hat stands in the middle.

Opposite these photos, there are close-ups of war technology (mainly heavy-duty artillery) of the period. The Škoda-Pilsen company is well represented, while an Italian howitzer - used to demolish buildings and fortresses - looks like an enormous, fantastic creature from a Miyazaki film.

After Italy entered the war in 1915, the 47th infantry regiment was redeployed to the southern borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, primarily around Primorje (now Croatia) and Monfalcone (now Italy). Here, the regiment engaged in combat and photos of dead and wounded soldiers are among the most captivating in this exhibit.

In contrast, there are photos showing supreme commanders, like Emperor Charles I, head commander of the Monarchy Army, or Archduke Eugen speaking to lined-up troops of the 47th infantry regiment before they march to either death or glory.

Bišecky remained on the Italian front, redeployed to Tyrol, Primorje and the Dolomites region, where the war ended for him in October 1918. There are remarkable views from above, from a bi-plane overlooking rivers and valleys, almost all of which show destroyed bridges or railroads. There are also photos of majestic ruins, showing destroyed Italian villages, towns and cities - damaged castles and Baroque churches left in piles of rubble.

Besides the photos of modern ruins, Bišecky's greatest achievement is his ability to capture the ordinary, human side of the life of soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In their down time, the soldiers lounged around on extensive breaks - drinking, smoking or simply socializing in small groups. The photos of soldiers posing by their weapons reveal ordinary-looking men who just happen to be in uniform.

In the catalog to the exhibit, one of the co-curators, Daniela Mrázková, writes that the photographs in the exhibit are likely the works of several anonymous photographers. However, the other co-curator, Jaroslav Kučera, seemed certain the works were that of a single man and that he was even identifiable by his face, but only as "a young man with a moustache, depicted in many photographs."

Kučera writes in the introduction to the catalog: "Apparently, he is the only sought-after artist. So the only thing that remains is to find his name."

Thanks to Bišecky's grandson, the man behind these previously unclaimed photos is now possibly the most famous Czech wartime photographer, with photos at their best as striking as the works by famous photo-journalists of World War II, like Robert Capa and Lee Miller.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com