A recently published book by a young German journalist, Florian Illies, deals with the happy life of Europeans in 1913, a year before the outbreak of World War I. The book, 1913: A Year a Hundred Years Ago, has been on the bestseller list in Germany for several weeks. The book, 1913: A Year a Hundred Years Ago, has been on the German bestseller list for several weeks issue . It deals with everyday scenes of people who were oblivious to the great catastrophe that was looming.

In 1913 Europe was at the zenith of its power and lived in an atmosphere of security. Paris, London, Berlin, Munich or Vienna were the great capitals of the time that prided themselves on being the champions of modernity. The whole of Europe was a hotbed of new ideas and trends that were springing up everywhere. Optimism reigned, advances in science and technology seemed unstoppable, and the best informed people thought that war would never break out again. Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Europe had known the longest period of peace in its history. The British Norman Angell argued in 1911 in his book The Great Illusion that internationalization prevented world wars from breaking out. The International Office, made, according to Angell, that a war was absurd. But within a few months, Europe would plunge into the abyss of the First World War.
 

Europeans must reflect on the tragedy that was the Great War in order not to repeat it.

None of the protagonists of Florian Illies' work could foresee what would happen in 1914: the assassination of the Archduke of Austria in Sarajevo, the beginning of the Great War in which more than 60 million soldiers fought and 9 million died, the collapse of four empires and the beginning of the end of Europe's supremacy in the world. How could such a catastrophe have come about? Five elements pushed towards the abyss: the alliances established between countries, the degeneration of the golden years, the resentments produced as a consequence of small crises, the rampant nationalism and the code of honor prevailing in the different chancelleries. Who were mainly responsible? Historians apportion blame between Serbia's irresponsibility, Austria's desire for revenge, Germany's blank check to Austria and the exacerbation of the crisis by Great Britain, France and Russia.

The protagonists of Florian Illies' book were unknowingly living the end of an era. We are on the threshold of the centenary of the beginning of the most tragic period in the history of Europe, from 1914 to 1945. We Europeans, who today enjoy more than half a century of peace and prosperity thanks essentially to the EU, must learn about and reflect on the beginnings of that tragedy in order to prevent it from ever happening again.