German Students’ War Letters by Philipp Witkop

German Students’ War Letters

  • recent increase in war literature because of “the authority of direct experience” that comes from the soldier’s writing their truth about war and combat p.v
  • letters offer an in depth look into the reality of war and give reflections on “comradeship and masculinity, on the image of the enemy, on national sentiment, on the burden of survival… and on the ‘lies’ that those who weren’t there told about those who were” p.v
  • tens of millions of letters sent to soldier’s families during the Great war p.v
  • letters were censored so not to cause panic at home and also so that the enemy wouldn’t know anything if the letters were intercepted p.v
  • censorship was difficult though because of the sheer amount of letters that were written but soldiers did self-censor as they did not want their families to know how awful the war was but some did still mention how “ugly” the war was in their letters p.vi
  • Robert Grave’s Goodbye to All That (potential resource for letters from English soldiers) p.vi
  • most resources that have influenced modern memory about the war were from British soldiers so other perspectives (like Europeans) have been neglected p.vi
  • search for cultural memory remains important and texts like letters (written by people who experienced these historical events) help to create this p.viii
  • “soldier’s letters form one such archive of cultural memory” p.viii
  • one recurring theme in these letters is the “story of the idealism and national unity that unfolded at the outbreak of war in 1914” p.viii
  • German’s had a unified front when war broke out (that they were fighting a defensive war that was not their doing) and this transcended class, region and religion p.ix
  • Witkop’s collections of letters were “foundational texts” p.ix
  • German’s war enthusiasm (termed “Augusterlebnis”) was not long lived and was replaced with fear and anxiety, as was the same in most other waring countries p.ix
  • footage of rallies and other such events cannot be taken as fact because these events were used to carefully construct an ideology that the German government wanted people to believe p.ix
  • the myth of a united Germany was strengthened by publications of war letters during and after the war p.ix
  • publications of letters like this disclosed and constructed German cultural memory p.x
  • 100,000 men joined the German army before conscription made it compulsory and this number included 10,000 German jews p.xii
  • Witkop wanted to show the idealism that was shown in these early soldiers even though their life expectancy was so short and soldiers soon became much more frightened p.xi
  • Witkop contacted families of soldiers who had died and asked them to submit letters to this project and he received thousands of responses p.xiii
  • these collections of letters provide a sort of resting place for the bereaved families of soldiers who had no known grave p.xiv
  • these letters show that the soldiers were “fully aware of the evils of war” p.xv
  • see the changing of attitudes from men who wanted to fight for their country but who’s views have been changed after seeing the horrors of war p.xv
  • one soldier described the war as “a very, very evil thing” but said that it was something that must be faced in order to protect his nation p.xv
  • “I am ready to endure anything for your sakes, so that you may never see what ruined villages and shell-destroyed fields look like; so you may never learn what the word war really means” Willi Bohle in 1917 p.xvi
  • Martin Muller (killed in the bottle of the Somme in 1916) said about the christmas truce where silent night was sung by soldiers and they had a christmas tree in the trench that was decorated by threads and bells p.xvi and p.xvii
  • the letters show what the war meant in a way that only those who were there could know (although they are also an attempt at communicating this experience to others that have no experienced it) p.xix
  • Phillip Witkop ended up having over 20,000 letters to select from for this collection p.xxv
  • conscription did occur in Germany but if you could pass an examination (and so were well educated) you can reduce your serving time from three years to one and students were often allowed to play their service until they had finished their degree p.xxvi
  • all letters written by men who were later killed or died of existing wounds p.xxvii
  • Walter Limmer-
          • embarrassed for a girl he knew to see him in civilian clothes
          • “the first mental picture of hours which are no longer mere possibilities, but actually approaching realities”
          • “please don’t think me cruel for saying this, but it would be a good thing if already you too would, with brave hearts and firm self control, get accustomed to the idea that you will not see or any of my brothers again”
          • they were excited to fight for their company initially (“we were so full of excitement, fury and enthusiasm. It is a joy to go to the front with such comrades”)
          • “ I shall look into your dear eyes once more” (he died four days later)
  • Willi Bohne-
          • working in the trenches: digging the trenches to prevent the English from gaining land
          • “we have constructed dig-outs in which we can lay our weary heads at night and slip into to be out of the way of the shrapnel”
          • A hero’s death for the fatherland”
  • Kurt Peterson-
    • out of 180 men only 110 unwounded (at Dixmuide)
    • “human-beings are slaughtering thousands of other human-beings whom they neither know, nor hate, nor love”
    • “I have been in two attacks, may I never see another”
    • “What has become of all of one’s courage? We have had enough of war”
    • “one thinks that one will never be able to learn to laugh again after one has been through such an experience!”
    • found two soldiers but could only save one, the younger one told him to save the older one as he had a family but that he did not want to be left alone so they came back and rescued him later
  • Peter Frenzel
    • “the world ended at the railhead-far away lay the war, but the space between was empty”
    • simple wooden crosses beside the road
    • “it is very extraordinary how I seem to have ceased to feel nothing here”
  • Gotthold Von Rohden
    • attempted attack on the French on christmas eve
    • tried to get to the french trenches and were shot at
    • but both sides sang hymns and listened to the others
    • “not a single house has been spared. Even the church has been shot to bits by the French”
    • “even the dead have no rest beneath the earth”
  • Eduard Offenbacher
    • spent time with French children who were upset when they left, didn’t think of them as enemies
    • the enemy (the French were only 20 yards away) and they fought for two days with no break in a partly destroyed trench
    • ate the bread of a dead French soldier and found love letters in his uniform
    • “one can only suppose from past experience that this will go on until complete exhaustion is reached”
  • Max Gorler
    • asking his father for permission to enlist
    • 270 students from Leipzig University had been killed in 1916
    • feels shame about students younger than him fighting when he is not
    • suggested he joined the artillery instead of the Infantry “cannon-fodder” because they suffer less losses
  • Heinrich Muller
    • writing to his friends that have taken the Sekunda which allowed for them to do one year of service instead of three
    • “the present generation is doomed to be offered up as a blood-sacrifice upon the battlefield”