Finding Your Roots

Growing up, Brendan had heard that his father's grandfather, a man named Herman Drobesch, had served in the artillery corps of the German army during World War I.

But Brendan's efforts to learn more about Herman had all come up empty, and we soon saw why.

In 1913, Herman married Brendan's great-grandmother in Essen, a city in western Germany, but the couple's marriage certificate shows that neither of them were actually German.

Your great-grandfather, Herman, was born in a place called St. Peter.

Yeah.

While your great-grandmother, Anna Maria, was born in a place called Aibl.

Take a look on that map.

And we've indicated them on the left, right?

Yes.

St. Peter is a village in the southern most Austrian state of Carinthia.

Aibl is a municipality in the southeastern Austrian state, of Styria.

So your great-grandparents were Austrian, not German.

Did you know that?

- No.

Yeah, they were Austrian.

Wow, okay, go on.

Learning Herman's true birthplace redirected our search, giving us access to the military records that Brendan had so wanted us to find.

Now, Brendan, we retrieved this document from the Upper Austrian State Archives.

Would you please read the translated section?

"Herman Drobesch, rank gunner, joined ranks October 1, 1908 to Cannon Battery No.

1.

Presented for active service October 6, 1908.

Promoted to senior gunner October 6, 1909.

Promoted to senior gunner telephonist" Mm-hmm.

"July 16, 1910.

Traits and temper of character, calm and earnest."

Isn't that cool?

What's it like to see that?

I was hopeful that this would be uncovered for me, but... just to look at it really as, as face value here, this is like... bringing the... the past to life before my eyes.

Herman's military file shows that he retired from active duty on December 31, 1911.

He moved to Germany just two years later, likely in search of economic opportunities that he couldn't find in rural Austria.

But he didn't stay in Germany for long.

In 1914, World War I erupted, and Herman was called back to serve the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

We believe that he ended up fighting against Russian forces along what became known as the Carpathian Front, a series of brutal battles in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.

These are depictions of soldiers on the Carpathian Front.

Was this how you pictured your ancestor when you heard he served?

Yeah, I, this was what I...

This...

When it was artillery, I knew that it would be a lot of heavy lifting, - Mm-hmm.

a lot of mach- machine operation.

Yep.

But, um, that it's... frigidly cold and... wow, those look like bitter conditions to fight in.

The bitter conditions made the Carpathian Front one of the deadliest battlegrounds of the entire war.

A killing zone in which many men simply froze to death.