The Hague Convention of 1899 banned chemical warfare, with the US being the only ones to not have signed it.
Doesn't mean that the Germans weren't hypocrits, the complains about shotguns might have been rooted in wanting to point fingers back: https://youtu.be/fvrIVZn1jH8
The French used tear gas first, the Germans were the first to use chlorine. There's a big difference between these gasses.
One gives you trouble breathing and is used widely against civilian demonstrants, because it is very mild - the other one - the one the german army was first to use - kills or cripples your loungs in a horrible way.
But I rather leave this debate.
P.s. I tasted some tear gas, it is certainly not nice. But thats it. It doesn't actually harm you, unless you have a precondition. Chlorine on the other hand is just pure deadly poison
The comment I was responding to made what I interpreted as a false equivalence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_...
All sides started to develop these weapons before the war, and apparently it's the Germans who were capable of deploying these weapons sooner and with greater success.
What you present here nothing less than a one-sided propaganda. It reminds of French villages hundreds of kilometers far from any WWI front line, deep in the rear with memorials dedicated to "Innocent children fallen in the great war" followed by a list of some 10 to 15 male names.
Innocent children, the throat cutter sort, same as those from the other side.
Oh and later, when the war was lost, it was of course the fault of the communist and socialdemocrats, who stabbed the army in the back and not of the glorious, heroic army. And there are still lots of people glorifying the Kaiserreich. I am glad its gone.