Karl Fries (1861–1943) stands behind John R. Mott in this 1909 photograph; the two men founded the World's Student Christian Federation in 1895 and became life long friends. Source: YMCA Biographical Records B, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, Minneapolis, MN.

Portraits of the leaders of the German YMCA movement adorned the pages of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Berlin Association commemorative booklet. Friedrich von Schluembach (middle) and Christian Phildius (center lower row) were among the leaders honored in this publication. Source: CVJM, Berlin 1883–1908, 1908, 22.

Portrait of Christian Phildius (d. 1937), the World's Alliance of YMCA's General Secretary from 1896 to 1922; he conducted negotiations to establish WPA programs in Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey during the war. Source: YMCA Biographical Records—World's Alliance, Kautz Family YMCA Archives.

Charles Fermaud served as the General Secretary of the World's Alliance from 1878 to 1912 and led the world-wide growth of the Association before World War I. Source: YMCA Biographical Records—World's Alliance, Kautz Family YMCA Archives.

Edward Bosworth (1861–1927) was an American educator and theologian at Oberlin College from 1887 until his death and wrote a number of books that became YMCA standard texts. Source: New England Magazine, 23 (September 1900): 78.

Francis Clarke was a leader in the Christian Endeavor Society missionary movement and established a branch in Bulgaria in 1888. Source: New England Magazine, 33 (February 1906): 654.

Tsarina Eleonor of Bulgaria (1860–1917) supported a number of wartime charities including WPA work for Allied POW's in Bulgaria. Source: The Great War in Pictures, No. 10 (1915): 22.

The members of the Board of Managers of the Constantinople YMCA conduct a meeting during 1913. The membership of the board is cosmopolitan representing Americans, Germans, and other foreigners. The Association was struggling to develop the movement in the Ottoman Empire and the war severely curtailed Red Triangle operations. Source: Foreign Work Photo Collection, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota.

Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1842–1918) salutes Turkish troops from an open coach. Source: Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1919, 304B.

Photograph of Mohammad V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1844–1918) during most of the Great War. Source: Der Weltkrieg, 2 (1915): 137.

Portrait of Ernst Offo Jacob (1886–1966); he first served as a YMCA secretary in Constantinople from 1910 to 1916 before he transferred to Germany to serve as an American YMCA WPA Secretary in Saxony. Source: YMCA Biographical Records, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota.

Photograph of a younger Darius A. Davis (1883–1970), an American YMCA WPA Secretary in France and Italy early in the war, Davis became the Senior American YMCA Secretary in France when the United States joined the Allies in 1917. Source: YMCA Biographical Records, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota.

Photograph of Dirk Johannes Van Bommel, a Dutch subject who worked for the American YMCA in Constantinople before and during World War I. Van Bommel managed the supply warehouse established in the YMCA building in the Turkish capital and sent relief parcels to Allied prisoners in the Ottoman Empire. Source: YMCA Biographical Records, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota.

Exterior view of the Association building in Constantinople where Van Bommel prepared parcels for Allied prisoners of war in Turkish prisons. During the war, the YMCA building became a warehouse for relief work for Allied POW's. Source: Association Men, 46 (April 1921): 358.

Photograph of Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Turkish Minister of War, during the war. Source: Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1919, 120B.

Field Marshal Otto Liman von Sanders (1855–1929) led the German military mission to the Ottoman Empire in 1913 to reorganize the Turkish Army; he assumed overall command of Ottoman forces after the Turks entered the war in November 1914. Source: Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1919, 136C.

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934), right, and General Erich Ludendorff stand on the platform of a railroad station. Source: Harper's Pictorial Library of the World War, Volume 2, 1920, 325.

Members of the World's Committee met for the last time before the war at Windsor Castle in England in early Summer 1914. They planned an extensive global campaign, which collapsed with the outbreak of the Great War. The war would pit many of these men against each other in support of their nation's military efforts. Source: World's Alliance of YMCA's Year Book 1920, 1920, 11.

Christian Phildius, left, and Emmanuel Sautter, right, work at their desks in the World's Alliance headquarters in Geneva; both men served as General Secretaries of the World's Committee, although Sautter took a leave of absence during the war to serve French troops in the Foyer du Soldat program. Source: International Yearbook of the World's Alliance of YMCA's, 1920.

The members of the Executive Committee of the World's Committee met on a monthly basis in the World's Alliance headquarters in Geneva. This photograph was taken in 1913 and many of these men would soon return home to support the young men called to their national colors. Source: World's Alliance of YMCA's Year Book 1913, 1913, 12A.