Ludwig Schnitzlein

Ludwig Schniztlein was a German Landser with the 16th Bavarian Infantry Reserve Regiment during the Great War. On Christmas Day, 1914, his company was in the trenches outside Messines, Belgium. He was able to still enjoy the informal truce the combatants had brokered for the day. His mother was injured in a tram accident in Munich, and so Schnitzlein was granted compassionate leave. Gefreiter Adolf Hitler was sent out to the trenches to find Schniztlein's company commander, Franz Wormser, leading to near breach of the truce.