Embedded Files
DOCUMENT 1
The following is an excerpt from The Excitement of War by Stefan Zweig, an Austrian who describes what the city of Vienna was like right after World War I began.
The next morning I was in Austria. In every station placards had been put up announcing general mobilization. The trains were filled with fresh recruits, banners were flying, music sounded, and in Vienna I found the entire city in a tumult. . . . There were parades in the street, flags, ribbons, and music burst forth everywhere, young recruits were marching triumphantly, their faces lighting up at the cheering . . .
What did the great mass know of war in 1914, after nearly half a century of peace? They didn't know war, they had hardly given it a thought. It had become legendary, and distance had made it seem romantic and heroic. They still saw it in the perspective of their school readers [textbooks] and of paintings in museums; brilliant cavalry attacks in glittering uniforms, the fatal shot always straight through the heart, the entire campaign a resounding march of victory—“We’ll be home at Christmas,” the recruits shouted laughingly to their mothers in August of 1914. . . . A rapid excursion into the romantic, a wild, manly adventure—that is how the war of 1914 was painted in the imagination of the simple man, and the younger people were honestly afraid that they might miss this most wonderful and exciting experience of their lives…
mobilization: assembling troops and supplies for war
tumult: chaos or confusion
cavalry: soldiers who fought on horseback
What signs of nationalism and patriotism in Vienna are described by the author?
What did the Austrian people think about war in early 1900's? What did they think the war would be like?
How long was the war expected the last, according to the author?
Why were young men to eager to enlist in the war?
DOCUMENT 2
The following is a map showing the major alliances during World War I, as well as the number of soldiers that each country had at the beginning of the war in 1914.
Which countries were in the Allies? Which countries were in the Central Powers?
Which two countries were originally neutral, but then joined the Central Powers?
Which five countries were originally neutral, but then joined the Allies?
How many soldiers did Britain have ready to fight in 1914?
List the following countries in order of how many soldiers they had, from the least soldiers to the most soldiers: Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia.
DOCUMENT 3
The following are two diagrams that give information about trench warfare. The first shows what the layout of the trenches looks like from above, as well as what percent of time a soldier would spend in each trench. The second shows a cross-section of a trench and how a soldier would fight in a firing line trench.
Based on the first image, which of the trenches would be most dangerous for soldiers? Why?
Based on the first image, what is the purpose of a communication trench?
Where did soldiers spend the majority of their time when they were fighting?
What was the purpose of the parapet in the second image? What was the purpose of the dugout?
DOCUMENT 4
The following is a poem by poet Wilfred Owen, of Britain, who fought and died in World War I. The title, Dulce et Decorum Est, means "it is sweet and honorable." The full phrase, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, means "It is sweet and honorable to die for your country.
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares (2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots (4)
Of tired, outstripped (5) Five-Nines (6) that dropped behind.
Gas! (7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets (8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime (9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes (10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, (11) choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud (12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest (13)
To children ardent (14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori. (15)
2. Flares - rockets which were sent up to burn with a brilliant glare to light up men and other targets in the area between the front lines
3. Distant rest - a camp away from the front line where exhausted soldiers might rest for a few days, or longer
4. Hoots - the noise made by the shells rushing through the air
5. Outstripped - outpaced, the soldiers have struggled beyond the reach of these shells which are now falling behind them as they struggle away from the scene of battle
6. Five-Nines - 5.9 caliber explosive shells
7. Gas! - poison gas. From the symptoms it would appear to be chlorine or phosgene gas. The filling of the lungs with fluid had the same effects as when a person drowned
8. Helmets - the early name for gas masks
9. Lime - a white chalky substance which can burn live tissue
10. Panes - the glass in the eyepieces of the gas masks
11. Guttering - Owen probably meant flickering out like a candle or gurgling like water draining down a gutter, referring to the sounds in the throat of the choking man
12. Cud - normally the regurgitated grass that cows chew usually green and bubbling. Here a similar looking material was coming from the soldier's mouth
13. High zest - enthusiasm, eagerness
14. ardent – desiring
In 2-3 sentences, describe what happens in this poem.
How is Wilfred Owen's attitude toward war different from the attitude of Stefan Zweig in the first document? Explain how they are different.
Who do you think is more correct about what war is really like? Stefan Zweig or Wilfred Owen?
DOCUMENT 5
The following are images created by Otto Dix, a German artist who created art based on his experiences during World War I. His collective work, called The War, was mainly created in 1924 based off of sketches from the diary he kept during the war.
Mealtime in the Trench, 1924
Assault Under Gas, 1924
Dead Sentry in the Trenches, 1924
Wounded Soldier - Autumn 1916, 1924
Collapsed Trench, 1924
What kinds of images do you see in Otto Dix's art?
What kinds of emotions do you think that the artist is trying to get his readers to feel? Explain.
Based on these images and what you already know about him, do you think Otto Dix supported the war? Why or why not?
DOCUMENT 6
The following are two quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel about World War I by Erich Maria Remarque, that he wrote based on his own experiences as a soldier in the war.
“But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony--Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”
“We're no longer young men. We've lost any desire to conquer the world. We are refugees. We are fleeing from ourselves. From our lives. We were eighteen years old, and we had just begun to love the world and to love being in it; but we had to shoot at it. The first shell to land went straight for our hearts. We've been cut off from real action, from getting on, from progress. We don't believe in those things any more; we believe in the war.”
1. What realization does the author come to in the first quotation? Why would he be surprised by this?
2. Using the second quote: In your own words, what were the men like before the war? How has the war changed them?
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