Ww1 Romantic Perspective

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World War I, the first war that is generally understood to be a total war, affected soldiers from around the world fighting on the Eastern and Western fronts in various ways. The experiences that individuals faced are generally dependant on random factors of military rank, ethnicity, which of the fronts someone was stationed and the time said soldier was stationed. There seems to be two overall perspectives of how soldiers made sense of the war at the time of writing their first-hand accounts, starting with a realistic perspective on one side and a romantic perspective on the other. It was the officers, such as Kriesler on the Eastern front, and certain British and German officers on the Western front in the readings who wrote about their …show more content…
For example, Ernst Junger, in his book Storm of Steel, describes the occupants of both trenches exchanging gifts, tools and other helpful goods amongst one another, and later describing a meeting with another officer and a polite negotiations ending with a “good-night!” and “Au revoir”. The most important detail of Ernst Junger’s perspective however, was the way he viewed the British, saying “... it was always my endeavour to view my opponent without animus, and to form an opinion of him as a man on the basis of the courage he showed.” (Ernst Junger, Storm of Steel). It was the fraternizations and his perspective on war essentially that form a romantic view of the war. Ernst’s treatment of the enemy almost idealized war as a concept, especially when officers in differing armies generally frowned upon both fraternization as well as the enemy they fought. The most extreme example of romanticism must be Julian Grenfell’s account in his first letter, saying “I adore war. It is like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic. I have never been so well or so happy.” (War Letters of …show more content…
One thing to add however, is that accounts can be both realistic and pro or against the war itself, whereas the romantic perspective was generally in favor of war. A good introduction to the realistic perspective was by a certain Herr Detterbeck, in the Landauer Volksblatt, who while stationed in France remarked about the loss of innocence one gets from war, and how lucky his family is while living in Germany as opposed to peasants near the frontline who’ve lost everything. With a realistic perspective, the subject, in this case Herr Detterbeck is able to take into account his own position, but the lives of other. So while being stationed in France is able to see the sort of misfortune farmers and peasants get struck with, and is able to explain to his family, in a rational way, that they are relatively lucky the war never ends up in Germany’s borders. Another big proponent of a realistic approach was Donald Hankey, a British officer on the Western front, who describes how, “it is, however, not sweet nor can it ever be a great source of satisfaction , to have experienced the blood lust, to have killed for one’s country and gloried in it.” (War Letters of Fallen Englishmen). Donald realizes that the rush he gets from killing isn’t a positive, however it is needed in order to survive. With this powerful experience, Donald broke the scenario down in a realistic manner,

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