“The Spirit of 1914” gives a comprehensive examination of the opinions and feelings felt during the beginning of the Great War by the German people. This monograph goes into extensive detail on the complexity of the German nation’s reactions and response to the vast, “patriotic outbursts…which many contemporaries and historians categorized as “war enthusiasm.””(2) The content of the book also centers on how German unity was portrayed. “Conservative journals claimed that these crowds spoke for public opinion…what had transformed a materialistic, egotistical German “society” into an idealistic, fraternal, national German “community.””(231)Verhey challenges the myth that all Germans wanted to go to war in 1914 by methodically explaining each of the different regions, classes, and political parties’ reactions and responses. The argument of his work comes down to how well he is able to answer the questions of:
“What were the German people feeling and thinking…in July and August 1914? How broad was the “war enthusiasm”? What were the geographical, occupational, and temporal variations in the way Germans greeted the outbreak of the war? What emotions are described by “war enthusiasm”? And what were the other emotions people felt in these exciting and confusing days?” (7)
By answering these five important questions, Verhey is able to give a new perspective on intentions of Germans before and during World War 1.
Organized in sections, Verhey pieces together a map of what “The Spirit of 1914” meant to the German public. The first three chapters he uses to discuss the opinions and the crowds’ responses, in and outside Berlin, to numerous variables. For example in response to the “proclamation of siege, 31 July,”(58) there “…were mixed crowds...
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...anda from the conservative elites, Verhey scrutinized the social, economical, political and geographical differences across the German land to piece together what the “Spirit of 1914” meant on a profound level.
In conclusion, “The Spirit of 1914” is a fundamental book for historians to read to understand how Germany and the German public honestly reacted to the oncoming, declaration, and the experience of war in 1914. To presume the entire country, or even the majority, of the German public felt the same would be presumptuous, and Verhey repeatedly reiterates the, “…generational, occupational, temporal, gender, and geographical differences in German public opinion…”(112) Verhey gives a new outlook on intentions of Germans before, during, and after World War 1 with extensive research and great respect showing a complexity of the German people from all walks of life.
In the history of modern western civilization, there have been few incidents of war, famine, and other calamities that severely affected the modern European society. The First World War was one such incident which served as a reflection of modern European society in its industrial age, altering mankind’s perception of war into catastrophic levels of carnage and violence. As a transition to modern warfare, the experiences of the Great War were entirely new and unfamiliar. In this anomalous environment, a range of first hand accounts have emerged, detailing the events and experiences of the authors. For instance, both the works of Ernst Junger and Erich Maria Remarque emphasize the frightening and inhumane nature of war to some degree – more explicit in Jünger’s than in Remarque’s – but the sense of glorification, heroism, and nationalism in Jünger’s The Storm of Steel is absent in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, they are replaced by psychological damage caused by the war – the internalization of loss and pain, coupled with a sense of helplessness and disconnectedness with the past and the future. As such, the accounts of Jünger and Remarque reveal the similar experiences of extreme violence and danger of World War I shared by soldiers but draw from their experiences differing ideologies and perception of war.
The next text analyzed for this study is the first monograph read for the study, therefore, there is a lot of information that had not been previously discussed by the latter authors: Claudia Koonz 's 1987 text Mothers in the Fatherland. The author begins her text with a Preface where she discusses her interview with Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, the leader of the Women 's Labor Service. While this is not the first time in the study that Scholtz-Klink 's name appears, but Koonz 's discussion of the interview personifies Scholtz-Klink, rather than just make her a two-dimensional character in historical research. For the first time in this study, the reader can understand the reasoning some people (right or wrong) sided with the Nazi Party. The interview
Between the years of 1914 to 1918, the whole of Europe was locked in arms, not only for pride but mostly for survival. The years of war brought devastation upon all societies. Men were massacred in droves, food stuff dwindled, and at times an end seemed non-existent. The foundation of the first Great War, one can muse, began as a nationalistic race between rival nations. By the onset of 1914, once the Archduke Frendinad had been assassinated in Saravejo, the march for war became not just a nationalistic opinion, but now a frenzy to fight. In battle, unlike previous wars, new weaponry caused drastic alterations in strategy. No longer will armies stand to face their rivals on the plains. Now the war will be fought in trenches, hidden underground from the new, highly accurate artillery. In many respects, World War I was a war of artillery, gas, and mechanization. Except as new weapons were becoming essential for battle, the leaders, on all sides, appeared too inept to fight this new style of warfare. Generals, or any leader for that matter higher in the chain of command, sent their troops in massive assaults. Regardless of their losses there were no deviations from the main ideology of sending massive waves of men and shells to take a position. On an individual level, the scene of repeated assaults and mayhem of the front line did little to foster hope for their superiors or even for the naiveté of their fellow countrymen who were not fighting. I submit that in times of sheer madness and destitution, as during World War I, men banded together to form make-shift families for support and companionship when all seemed lost; as exemplified in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
German propaganda spread throughout Germany like wildfire. The glory and enthusiasm of going to war to fight for your country aims and ideals was the mood set. Everyone wanted to be a hero, and if you did not want to fight than you would be thought of as a coward,.. “ because at the time even one’s parents were ready with the word ‘Coward’..” (Remarque p.11). The elders glorified war by writing and talking about it, expressing that duty to one’s country is the greatest thing. The soldiers saw the hideous wounds and dying men and distinguishing the false from the true, realizing that there is nothing of their world left. That is how Paul Baumer felt when he was in the Catholic hospital with his friend and comrade Albert Kropp. Looking around at all the wounded solders he saw what a waste war was. Up until this war, nobody had ever seen such a destructive war, partly due to all the advanced technology, and therefore none of the great world powers knew what they were getting themselves into. “ To shed one’s blood for the fatherland is not difficult it is enveloped in romantic heroism” (McKay/Hill/Bucker 904) as explained by a German soldier who volunteered for the front. The fact that the whole country of Germany was patriotic, energetic, and unified towards the war effort glorified it even that much more. Who would not want to fight for their homeland at that time? “ We were still crammed full of vague ideas which gave to life, and to the war also an ideal and almost romantic character” (Remarque 21). Once these combatants experienced the real life threats such as poisonous gasses, rapid machine gun fire and a constant flurry of explosive shells, these were propelled into a New World of killing or being killed. They are fighting with animal like instincts and all their proper manners that they are raised with vanish.
People did not expect the war to develop in the way it did. In 1914
3. Once the war began, Germany developed a clear set of aims, already discussed before the war, to gain large territorial gains in central and eastern Europe, very similar to Hitler’s later craving for Lebensraum (‘living space’) in eastern Europe
Treitschke, Heinrich. “History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century and Historical and Political Writings.” The Human Record. By Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield. Vol. 2. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. 2 vols. 292-295.
After World War II, the people of Germany endured torment from their conquerors in many forms, from being stolen from, to be tortured or killed. Over ten million Germans were forced to move out of their homes. Around half a million of those that were moved died on their journeys elsewhere, while others suffered greatly from famine, cold, and dehydration (Douglas). At a number this large, surely some of the people that lived in Germany were against the war. This begs the question: Why should all of the people of Germany suffer because of Hitler’s wrongdoings? Every day, German citizens were pushed off land that had belonged to them, regardless of their position on the war.
All the Kaiser’s Men, written by Ian Passionham, a retired British major and historian, picturesquely portrays the German soldier’s life and death on the Western Front during WWI. Passingham presents a very traditional view of WWI—viewing Germany not as a victim defending itself against hostile neighbors, but as a bully demanding influence and respect militarily. He asserts that, “The why, the point and the justification for the conflict were, and remain, rooted in containing the over-weaning ambition of what was a militaristic Germany.” Passionham argues that had Germany not been so militant, WWI would not have occurred.
Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer prize-winning book about the start of World War I is a fascinating and detailed work that delivers the thoughts and actions of the belligerents and their previously mysterious leaders to life on every page. This military history of the first month of the war is written in a way as to keep the reader interested because of the great detail. The author also manages to write about the events in such a manor as the reader sees them as they happened. Despite any previous knowledge about the historical events of the war, the book manages to keep you wondering if the Germans will succeed in its aims.
Retallack, James N. Germany in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II. New York: Macmillan St.
In the article, “The Germans as a Chosen People: Old Testament Themes in German Nationalism,” Hartmut Lehmann attempts to show to what extent the Protestant denominations of Germany contributed to the rise of German nationalism. He focuses on religion, theology, and how various Protestant groups developed the idea that major events in Germany were directly influenced by god. This idea of divine intervention among Protestants eventually transformed into the notion that Germans had developed a special connection with God, and that they were the “chosen people.”
However, when historians come to discuss militarism on this subject, their theme tends to be based around whether or not a sense of rivalry between Germany and Britain was one of the primary causes. The purpose of this paper is answering the essay question above by examining the Anglo-German relations before 1914, and its significance on outbreak of the war.
...makes to the store of war literature should prove of interest to the student of the specialist mind and of the author’s own personal career. It is of less interest as a study and analysis of German strategy and tactic. ”
“Bismarck and German Nationalism.” The American Historical Review Vol. 60, No.3 (1955): pg. 78. 548-556.