MICK MARTIN is no stranger to unearthing the people’s history of war. The Bradford-based playwright created England, Arise!, a play about the Huddersfield socialist conscientious objectors to mark the centenary of the outbreak of WWI and, during the play’s run, he was approached by  University of Leeds Professor Ingrid Sharp, who has an interest in bringing the German anti-war movement to wider attention.

What followed was a period of research to uncover untold stories and Martin and Bent Architect co-founder Jude Wright went to Berlin where they drew complete blanks. People didn’t want to talk about the first world war — “Why are you bothered about that?” — was a response.

Undaunted, they later came across the memoirs and transcripts of prominent socialist activists Gertrud Voelcker and Martha Riedl, both of whom had been actively involved in the Kiel mutiny of 1918 which sparked the German revolution.