It's very Prussian, and very 1914...youthful idealism obliviously facing the mincer. Exactly what the contemporary term 'Kindermord' alludes to.
I've just finished reading Ernst Junger's Copse 125 (Das Waldchen 125), the little appreciated (nowadays) companion piece to In Storms of Steel (In Stahlgewittern).
For my project Kindermord (or rather for the personal obsessions expressed through Kindermord) I have been reading voraciously from WW1 memoirs of all nations (though mainly British and German).
For the German experience of 1914, I would highly recommend Walter Bloem's The Advance From Mons. Herr Bloem was at the time a middle-aged professional writer who had produced successful, studiously researched historical novels on the war of 1870 - the outbreak of war saw him called up as a reserve officer to command a company of eager young Prussian Grenadiers. The book describes their experiences during the great advance in vivid and emotionally wrenching detail - as the author struggles to keep his 'boys' disciplined and alive in
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Largely a note for myself either, to research further...
While googling for Walter Bloem, I found this fascinating article about his ultimately unsuccessful advocacy of a philosemitic, enlightened German nationalism in the '20s, principally through his 1922 novel Brotherhood (Die Brüderlichkeit).
This is a fascinating area to me, one which I shall probably explore later with Kindermord...to contribute, in my own small way, to the mission for which my great-grandfather fought and heroes like von Stauffenberg died - to reclaim and cleanse German nationhood from the Nazis (and neo-Nazis), to re-sanctify 'heimliches Deutschland'.
I hope I bump into Richard Leviathan again soon...he appears to have some very similar interests (based on Kapo! and his later reworkings of the material from that album).
Am I right in remembering that your great-grandfather was part of the German Resistance?
I agree with nathan_nothing that they are more than a little creepy, but I have seen very similar British and French images from the period and they have that same flavour. In the second card, do you think the variety of costume is intended to represent the different constituent nations of the Kaiserreich?
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I've just finished reading Ernst Junger's Copse 125 (Das Waldchen 125), the little appreciated (nowadays) companion piece to In Storms of Steel (In Stahlgewittern).
For my project Kindermord (or rather for the personal obsessions expressed through Kindermord) I have been reading voraciously from WW1 memoirs of all nations (though mainly British and German).
For the German experience of 1914, I would highly recommend Walter Bloem's The Advance From Mons. Herr Bloem was at the time a middle-aged professional writer who had produced successful, studiously researched historical novels on the war of 1870 - the outbreak of war saw him called up as a reserve officer to command a company of eager young Prussian Grenadiers. The book describes their experiences during the great advance in vivid and emotionally wrenching detail - as the author struggles to keep his 'boys' disciplined and alive in ( ... )
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While googling for Walter Bloem, I found this fascinating article about his ultimately unsuccessful advocacy of a philosemitic, enlightened German nationalism in the '20s, principally through his 1922 novel Brotherhood (Die Brüderlichkeit).
This is a fascinating area to me, one which I shall probably explore later with Kindermord...to contribute, in my own small way, to the mission for which my great-grandfather fought and heroes like von Stauffenberg died - to reclaim and cleanse German nationhood from the Nazis (and neo-Nazis), to re-sanctify 'heimliches Deutschland'.
I hope I bump into Richard Leviathan again soon...he appears to have some very similar interests (based on Kapo! and his later reworkings of the material from that album).
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I agree with nathan_nothing that they are more than a little creepy, but I have seen very similar British and French images from the period and they have that same flavour. In the second card, do you think the variety of costume is intended to represent the different constituent nations of the Kaiserreich?
Soph
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