War Experiences in Rural Germany: 1914-1923

Legacy of the Great War

by Benjamin Ziemann

World War I was a uniquely devastating total war that surpassed all previous conflicts for its destruction. But what was the reality like on the ground, for both the soldiers on the front-lines and the women on the homefront?Drawing on intimate firsthand accounts in diaries and letters, War Experiences in Rural Germany examines this question in detail and challenges some strongly held assumptions about the Great War. The author makes the controversial case for the blurring of 'front' and 'homefront'. He shows that through the constant exchange of letters and frequent furloughs, rural soldiers maintained a high degree of contact with their home lives. In addition, the author provides a more nuanced interpretation of the alleged brutalizing effect of the war experience, suggesting that it was by far not as complete as has been previously understood. This pathbreaking book paints a vivid picture of the dynamics of total war on rural communities, from the calling up of troops to the reintegration of veterans into society.

Genres: History, World War I

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2007

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based upon the correspondence between Bavarian farmers and their families back home, this book explores how the Great war disturbed & changed rural society. The answer is: not that much. Women were burdened with the workload, requisitioned horses were sorely missed and the men at the front could think of little else but these two matters, often writing down detailed instructions on how to run the farm and handle leftover horses (traditionally an activity requiring the physical strength of an adult male). Most of this is familiar through Remarque's Detering. So is the socio-economic conflict between the agrarian producers and the deprived city-dwellers.



Not unexpectedly, the post-war liberating modernisation of German society affected the rural world least of all. Commemoration of the fallen was flawlessly incorporated into established religious practices. The economic regulations established by Weimar to combat wartime inflation cut quite deep, however.

I miss a deeper insight into the equine requisitions and the rural veterans' involvement in the Freikorps. One surprise is the torough demolition of the post-war view on universal Kameradshaft at the front. The social gulf between enlisted men and officers, reinforced by material benefits, was only bridged briefly in combat by examplary first-line CO's. As for amidst the ranks, I think an Iraq veteran put it nicely: "imagine your average office building full of co-workers you don't really like but have to work with. Do that for months on end 24/7". Rural Bavarian recruits seem to have felt this particularly hard, coming from close-knit communities and relying on their pre-war social framework wherever possible.

Academically, the book deserves credit: Ziemann has published extensively on rural Germany during 14-18, the Bavarian correspondence is an important rural source since the Prussian version was bombed to shreds in 1945 together with all the other Great War archives in Potsdam. He sprinkles his research with historiographical discussions of a vast German-language literature inaccessible to many English-speaking readers. The reason so much of the content seems familiar is because the book was part of the bibliography for the centennial heavyweight masterpiece Ring Of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I