The World War I, or the Great War lasted from 1914 to 1918, and was fought between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and The Ottoman Empire) and the Allied Powers (originally the former Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) but the Allies eventually came to include most of Western Europe, the United States and Japan.

Presented in this grouping are national flags, ensigns and ephemera for the Central Powers. Of particular interest are the naval ensign and jack of Imperial Germany, perhaps one of the most distinctively recognizable flags of the conflict and a small shipboard made Austria-Hungarian ensign. The most unusual item in the Grouping is an Imperial German Army aviation message drop flag taken from a German U-Boat. In addition, the grouping contains postcards of German soldiers, small parade flags and uniform insignia.

The end of the war would made these flags obsolete, all of the national flags of the Central Powers were replaced when their imperial governments were replaced by "democratic" regimes.