Publisher's Synopsis
Historical
research has dispelled a number of myths surrounding Word War I:
whereas the outbreak of war was greeted by the urban middle classes with
frenzied enthusiasm, in working-class areas and smaller towns the mood
was more of
foreboding. Little attention has so far been paid to those who opposed
the war and its underlying culture of militarism, though opposition to
war and militarism has a distinguished German pedigree. This volume explores opposition to war and
militarism among a range of German-language authors in a period roughly
defined by two international bestsellers: Suttner's 'Die Waffen nieder' (1889) and Remarque's 'Im Westen nichts
Neues' (1928). Major figures (Kraus, Schnitzler, Zweig) have not
lacked attention, but some of the authors discussed here (Andreas
Latzko, Hans Chlumberg) are still far from being household names. These
essays remind us that the period's opposition to war
and militarism manifested itself in a broad range of literary forms and
publications, providing a different emphasis from previous volumes
exploring connections between German-language literature and pacifism.
