The Global War pitted not only German speaking nation against German speaking nation, but sometimes family against one another. A example of this was highlighted by the poems of
Hans Merhoff, a prominent Bavarian poet who served in the German forces against Austria-Hungary. Despite being away from the front with Prussia-Poland, on three separate occasions he encountered Merhoffs of the Prussian branch of the family (who had converted to Lutheranism and moved to East Prussia during the Reformation). The most famous of these chance encounters was during the Christmas holiday in 1890, when Hans Merhoff and his distant relative, Wilhelm Merhoff, brokered a truce for the Christmas celebrations. While this lasted only the day, it was one of the few bright moments in the Year of Blood, and prompted Merhoff's first break-out poem. Shortly after the war, Hans Merhoff was named Poet Laureate of Bavaria and later in his career that of the Empire of Germany.