Pre-war
1914
Outbreak of the war
1915
1916
1917
1918
End of the war
Post-war

The daily newspapers in Austria and Hungary published frequent appeals urging women to send only cheerful and edifying letters to their relatives at the front.
 

As recommended by the authorities, the model letter sent to the front should demonstrate calm endurance and the courageous bearing of the various burdens and travails resulting from the war. There should be no place in these letters for personal fears, worries or even criticism of the prevailing conditions.

In Germany for example Malita von Rundstedt propagated the following guidelines for women in her treatise Der Schützengraben der Frau (The German Woman’s Trench) published in 1916: ‘Yes, letters from home constitute a great power at the front, and this [power] is put into our womanly hands. A letter can easily make a man a hero or a coward, can help him to earn the Iron Cross, but also tempt him into abandoning his soldier’s honour […]. Therefore I would urge you, women of Germany, always to write only letters of a sunny nature to the front.’

If women disregarded these guidelines, their letters were frequently returned by the Imperial and Royal Censor’s Office, together with the appropriate admonition.

None other than Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf later censured women for repeatedly rejecting the role demanded of them as correspondents courageously bearing their adversity in silence. As the historian Christa Hämmerle has pointed out, he accused the women of the time with the ‘moaning and wailing’ in their letters of bearing major responsibility for the undermining of morale among soldiers at the front and thus also of negatively influencing the outcome of the war. Hämmerle also states that the so-called Dolchstoßlegende (‘stab-in-the-back myth’) therefore also assumes ‘an explicitly gender-political dimension’.

The responsible military and political authorities recognized that the letters written by women and men were mutually dependent and had a reciprocal influence on one another. This is an aspect that has long been neglected by researchers in the field, who have tended to concentrate on soldiers’ letters and the ‘male experience of war’ that they reflect. This has changed only recently, above all in research focusing on the history of women and gender. On the one hand this research has critically re-examined wartime society, which was organized in keeping with traditional gender attribution. On the other hand it has enabled scholars to elaborate the letter-writers’ multifarious images of ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’, which were closely bound up with contemporaneous definitions of ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles. In their wartime correspondence, many male letter-writers for example sought to maintain their role as family bread-winner and father. Conversely, as the war progressed, in their letters to their husbands, fathers, brothers or sons, many women assumed a new active role in the mutual exchange of ideas about politics by relating and often critically reflecting upon what they read every day as well as the political, social and economic debates that were being conducted on the home front.

Translation: Sophie Kidd

Bibliografie 

Hämmerle, Christa: Entzweite Beziehungen? Zur Feldpost der beiden Weltkriege aus frauen- und geschlechtergeschichtlicher Perspektive, in: Veit Didczuneit/Jens Ebert/Thomas Jander (Hrsg.): Schreiben im Krieg. Schreiben vom Krieg. Feldpost im Zeitalter der Weltkriege, Essen 2011, 241-252

Hämmerle, Christa: „… wirf Ihnen alles hin und schau, dass Du fortkommst.“ Die Feldpost eines Paares in der Geschlechter(un)ordnung des Ersten Weltkriegs, in: Historische Anthropologie (1998), 6/3, 431-458

Rebhan-Glück, Ines: „Wenn wir nur glücklich wieder beisammen wären …“ Der Krieg, der Frieden und die Liebe am Beispiel der Feldpostkorrespondenz von Mathilde und Ottokar Hanzel (1917/18), Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Wien 2010

Rebhan-Glück, Ines: Liebe in Zeiten des Krieges. Die Feldpostkorrespondenz eines Wiener Ehepaares (1917/18), in: ÖGL (2012), 56/3, 231–246

Spann, Gustav: Vom Leben im Kriege. Die Erkundung der Lebensverhältnisse der Bevölkerung Ungarns im Ersten Weltkrieg durch die Briefzensur, in: Ardelt, Rudolf G./Huber, Wolfgang J.A. (Hrsg.): Unterdrückung und Emanzipation. Festschrift für Erika Weinzierl zum 60. Geburtstag, Wien 1985, 149-165

Tramitz, Angelika: Vom Umgang mit Helden. Kriegs(vor)schriften und Benimmregeln für deutsche Frauen im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Knoch, Peter (Hrsg.): Kriegsalltag: die Rekonstruktion des Kriegsalltags als Aufgabe der historischen Forschung und der Friedenserziehung, Stuttgart 1989, 84-113

 

Quotes:

„Yes, letters from home ...“: Malita von Rundstedt, Der Schützengraben der Deutschen Frau, quoted from: Tramitz, Angelika: Vom Umgang mit Helden. Kriegs(vor)schriften und Benimmregeln für deutsche Frauen im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Knoch, Peter (Hrsg.): Kriegsalltag: die Rekonstruktion des Kriegsalltags als Aufgabe der historischen Forschung und der Friedenserziehung, Stuttgart 1989, 97 (Translation: Sophie Kidd)

„If women disregarded these guidelines …“: Spann, Gustav: Vom Leben im Kriege. Die Erkundung der Lebensverhältnisse der Bevölkerung Ungarns im Ersten Weltkrieg durch die Briefzensur, in: Ardelt, Rudolf G./Huber, Wolfgang J.A. (Hrsg.): Unterdrückung und Emanzipation. Festschrift für Erika Weinzierl zum 60. Geburtstag, Wien 1985, 153

„[…] he accused the women of the time ...“: Hämmerle, Christa: Entzweite Beziehungen? Zur Feldpost der beiden Weltkriege aus frauen- und geschlechtergeschichtlicher Perspektive, in: Veit Didczuneit/Jens Ebert/Thomas Jander (Hrsg.): Schreiben im Krieg. Schreiben vom Krieg. Feldpost im Zeitalter der Weltkriege, Essen 2011, 245

„an explicitly gender-political dimension ...“: Hämmerle, Christa: Entzweite Beziehungen? Zur Feldpost der beiden Weltkriege aus frauen- und geschlechtergeschichtlicher Perspektive, in: Veit Didczuneit/Jens Ebert/Thomas Jander (Hrsg.): Schreiben im Krieg. Schreiben vom Krieg. Feldpost im Zeitalter der Weltkriege, Essen 2011, 245

Contents related to this chapter

Aspects

  • Aspect

    Staying in contact

    The First World War separated thousands of families, in some cases for many years. It was therefore all the more important for each individual to stay in touch with loved ones far away. Many people hitherto unaccustomed to writing now took up a pen or pencil and attempted to stay in contact with absent families, friends and acquaintances.

Persons, Objects & Events

  • Object

    Mobilisation of the civilian population

    During the "Gold for Iron” campaign, gold rings or jewellery donated to finance the war were exchanged for iron rings. The civilian population was called upon to play an active role in welfare and aid associations and to offer its services for the fatherland. Women and children collected clothes and blankets for the army and hospitals, and materials like wastepaper and iron for recycling. They knitted and sewed, and these "Liebesgaben” or charitable gifts were sent to the front to provide emotional encouragement to the troops.

     

  • Object

    Personal war testimonies

    For a long time, the First World War was narrated only from the point of view of prominent personalities or generals. The way in which the people of the Austro‑Hungarian Monarchy experienced and survived it remained unheard. Personal documents like this diary give us new and diverse insights into how individuals experienced, understood and felt about the war.

  • Object

    Monitoring & control

    Everyday life in the Habsburg Monarchy was characterised by propaganda, monitoring and control, as can be seen by the many blank spaces in the daily newspapers and deletions in private correspondence and telegrams. At the same time an attempt was made in texts and audio-visual media to whip up general enthusiasm for the war. Not even the youngest inhabitants of the empire remained untouched, and the influence of the state was also felt in the schools of the Monarchy.

Developments

  • Development

    Daily life on the (home) front

    How was daily life at home and on the front between 1914 and 1918? Was the life of a middle-class woman similar to that of a worker? Did officers experience warfare in the same way as other ranks? Or were the experiences of the population at home and the soldiers at the front too individual and diverse for generalisations?