Hand-drawn map by the author Walter Flex with bullet hole

Medium

There is earth sticking to the corners of this hand-drawn map. And it has a hole – apparently the hole made by a bullet. This bullet probably put an end to one of the most important German authors of the First World War, Walter Flex, one of the first war volunteers, who wrote the story, read by millions, “Wanderer between two worlds”, after his best friend had fallen.

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – HS, Signatur: Nachl. Walter Flex, K. 12, IV, 6

Verwendet bei

Object

The role of the intellectual in the war

The year 1914 brought about an incisive change in their private and professional lives of many intellectuals. Formerly international intellectual and artist circles collapsed, many intellectuals entered the war, voluntarily or not, and many of them failed to return.

Chapter

‘Rabble of words’ – Writers in the War

The beginning of the First World War released a wave of enthusiasm throughout Europe, especially among intellectuals and the middle classes, the like of which it is utterly impossible for us to understand nowadays. It was the writers who led the way in propaganda, their verbal attacks making an essential contribution in preparing the ground for the general mood of unthinking nationalism.