Trauma, Religion and Spirituality in Germany during the First World War

Prof. Jason Crouthamel (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

272 Seiten

2021
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-08370-7 (ISBN)

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This book explores the impact of violence on the religious beliefs of front soldiers and civilians in Germany during the First World War. The central argument is that religion was the main prism through which men and women in the Great War articulated and processed trauma. Inspired by trauma studies, the history of emotions, and the social and cultural history of religion, this book moves away from the history of clerical authorities and institutions at war and instead focuses on the history of religion and war ‘from below.’

Jason Crouthamel provides a fascinating exploration into the language and belief systems used by ordinary people to explain the inexplicable. From Judeo-Christian traditions to popular beliefs and ‘superstitions,’ German soldiers and civilians depended on a malleable psychological toolbox that included a hybrid of ideas stitched together using prewar concepts mixed with images or experiences derived from the surreal environment of modern combat. Perhaps most interestingly, studying the front experience exposes not only lived religion, but also how religious beliefs are invented. Front soldiers in particular constructed new, subjective spiritual and religious concepts based on encounters with industrialized weapons, the sacred experience of comradeship, and immersion in mass death, which profoundly altered their sense of self and the supernatural. More than just a coping mechanism, religious language and beliefs enabled victims, and perpetrators, of violence to narrate concepts of psychological renewal and rebirth. In the wake of defeat and revolution, religious concepts shaped by the war experience also became a cornerstone of visions for radical political movements, including the National Socialists, to transform a shattered and embittered German nation.

Making use of letters between soldiers and civilians, diaries, memoirs and front newspapers, Trauma, Religion and Spirituality in Germany during the First World War offers a unique glimpse into the belief systems of men and women at a turning point in European history.

Jason Crouthamel is Professor of History at Grand Valley State University, USA. He is the author of An Intimate History of the Front: Masculinity, Sexuality and Ordinary German Soldiers in the First World War (2014) and The Great War and German Memory: Society, Politics and Psychological Trauma (2009). He has also co-edited, along with Peter Leese, Psychological Trauma and the Legacy of the First World War (2016) and Traumatic Memories of the Second World War and After (2016). He recently co-edited, with Julia B. Köhne and Peter Leese, Languages of Trauma: History, Memory and Media (2021).

Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. “Gott Mit Uns”: Hegemonic Religious Ideals, Emotions and Mobilizing for War
2. God and the ‘Spirit of 1914’: Religiosity of Ordinary Soldiers and Civilians at the Outbreak of the War
3. Processing Trauma: Nerves, Religious Language and Coping with Violence
4. “Where is God?” The Brutalization of Faith in the Front Experience
5. Diagnosing Religious Beliefs: Contemporary Scientific and Popular Debates over the Spiritual-Psychological Effects of the War
6. Alternative Beliefs in the Trenches: Superstitions, Gods and Monsters, and Religious Humor
7. Spiritual Subjectivities: Constructing New Beliefs Out of Total War
Epilogue: Defeat, Revolution and Aftermath
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	19.11.2021
Zusatzinfo	14 bw illus
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	562 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-350-08370-4 / 1350083704
ISBN-13	978-1-350-08370-7 / 9781350083707
Zustand	Neuware