A Changing Europe : Influence Of War On Art

Art in World War I was observed in many forms, from photography to art movements on the home fronts of many countries. What many people did not realize is that art was also used in the war for battle. Propaganda and camouflage were crucial to the success on the battlefield and they were used and produced in ways not normally seen in history before. Propaganda had existed before WWI but was used heavily in this war and was often negatively themed, to promote involvement in a war against the evil enemy. Complex camouflage of machinery, ships, and uniforms also arose during the Great War, and this

This essay will try to answer the question: should Ernst Junger’s book “Storm of Steel” narrative describing his personal experiences during his service in German Army on Western Front of WW1 be consider anti or pro war?

An artist's job is to interpret, and express the aspects of life in a creative fashion. War has played a big part in shaping our human history, and many artists have portrayed their feelings about art through paintings, and even monuments. Whether it be to show; the joy of victory, the sorrow of defeat, or to educate the public on the gory realities of war. Art about war can also show us a great amount of history of the kinds of weapons that were used at the time. It is necessary for artists to interpret, and criticize all aspects of life; even ones as tragic as war, It can make the public more aware of what goes on in times of war.

Storm of Steel follows the author, Ernst Junger, as he navigates the different battlegrounds of World War 1. The story takes place from 1915 to 1918 and is primarily on the western front with France. The story begins with Ernst Junger’s initial deployment and tracks his time in the war using excerpts from his journal. Junger takes part in many famous battles across Europe including the battles of the Somme, Arras, Ypres, and Cambrai, and he helps repel invaders from Guillemont. He has many encounters that show the horrors of war but he depicts them in an non-attached or even unemotional way. Ernst steadily rises through the ranks until he is taken out of action in 1918 due to a shot to his chest. Even though many scenes show the horrors of war and the terrible things it does to people, the book as a whole never takes a stance on war. The authors true purpose for writing this book is not to make war look glorious, nor is it to make war seem like the worse thing that humans will ever do, it is to simply show war from the view of a soldier.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

The Great War, also known as World War I, is a defining moment in Europe’s history. Its aftermath consists of the demolition of Germany’s economy, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the loss of an entire generation of young men who were sent into combat. All Quiet on the Western Front chronicles the experiences of Paul Baumer, a 19-year old student who volunteers for the military during World War I along with his classmates Muller and Kropp. They are compelled to enlist by Kantorek, their fiercely patriotic but misguided schoolmaster. Paul’s life in the military is told in short entries that reveal the reality of war: horrifying battles, violence, alienation, emotional indifference. His accounts of war are personal and emotional, and the bleak tone

In the opening remarks of the first chapter, Ernst Junger describes the idealistic origins of many of the soldiers called to action. Most of the soldiers drafted into the war were students and factory workers, all of whom lived a fairly sheltered life beforehand. Being drafted was seen as the adventure of a lifetime. They “shared a yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary.” Much like his comrades, Junger had the same sense of adventure, seeing the war as merely a new challenge to conquer. After his first real experience with war however, his enthusiasm is quickly dashed. The harsh reality set in that this war was not, in fact, an adventure. Junger and the former schoolboys and craftsmen quickly learned that life in the trenches was a challenge of endurance. As the war persists, reality slowly sets in and Junger learns the true violent nature of the war and the constant threat of imminent danger through which he must persevere. Ernst Junger’s accounts in the memoir Storm of Steel show the reality of a soldier in World War I and the taxation of enduring such great trauma.

All Quite on the Western Front and Storm of Steel are two of many influential pieces of literature that reflect World War one from a German point of view. It is important to note that All Quite on the Western Front is a work of fiction that is based on the events of the war, Were as Storm of Steel is memoir that is based on the events of Ernst Junger on the western front. Junger is criticized that he takes a positive stance on the war, were as Erich Remarque’s novel tries to show the reality behind the war. The two authors believed the Great war had effects on those who fought in it through the influence of their perception of the war and how new technology had changed the way it is understood. The psychological implications on the soldiers were a direct link between survival, technology and their rural life style. This phenomenon can be seen in both Remarque and Jungar’s works.

It is obvious that different circumstances would dictate that every person involved in the First World War would have different experiences. This concept is exemplified in the works of two different soldiers, Ernst Jünger, and Erich Remarque; both German, both coming into adult (they were 19 and 18 years of age, respectively, when they joined the war), both fighting on the Western Front. However, the stark contrast in their different opinions about the war may perhaps have been a reflection of their expectations going into the war. At the same time, their different accounts serve to give audiences an understanding of the whole of Europe 's feelings towards the war during the different time periods the authors had joined in the war effort.

The purpose of this paper is to recognize Jünger’s Storm of Steel as a “pro”-war memoir; the analyzation in this paper will describe its reason for being pro-war memoir, how war is considered proper during Jünger’s time, the brutality on the battlefield, as well as its extent to which it is pro-war. According to Karl Marlantes, the writer of the foreword for Storm of Steel, Storm of Steel is often condemned for praising war, however, this pro-war memoir does not praise violence. Those living among war in Germany are anticipated as unaffected by the battles that are occurring, and citizens being contemplated as remorseless, insensitive, or sociopaths. Marlantes states that, “The born warriors I lived with wept when their friends died, were often frightened, struggled with issues of when to kill and when not to kill, missed their girlfriends, and appreciated the song of a bird or a beautiful jungle stream just like the rest of us,” indicating the contrary of the assumptions of many people living outside of war nations.

Intensively striking war imagery emerges throughout the course of the text and therefore effectively joins its underlining fore.  Graphic images of the grotesque face of war characterize and develop the

World War I had a more profound effect on society than wars prior. With new deadly weapons, like poison gas, high death tolls, and the first occurrence of total war, shocked the world, tearing people between the modern and the tradition. Traditional society was torn down by the destruction of the war. As with most literary movements, writers reflect the world

The novel “The Rites of Spring” is written by a Modris Ekstein is a Latvian author whose family was negatively impacted by the German occupation during the war. This literary work is based on the Ekstein’s claims about modernisms influence in the cause of World War 1. He divides the book into the acts similar to the play in that is the books namesake. Throughout this work, Ekstein argues that the ideology of modernism, which is primarily concerned with “introspection, death, emancipation, primitivism, abstraction, movement, and the creation of myths”; in the modern world, has mixed art and life and made aesthetics more important than previous eras. He further hypothesizes that this progression of Modernism is the cause of the Nazi regime taking hold of leadership in Germany, which resulted in World War 2 led by Adolf Hitler. Eckstein’s understanding of the outcome of the war centers on change that the US society underwent due to the cultural exchange brought on by the war with Germany, which served as the standard for the epitome of modernism. However, despite the influence the US society may have absorbed, Americans still maintain their socialist ideas, preserved their Anglo-American religion, and the ability to not have a consummating ethnocentric view. If war can serve as a medium of cultural exchange, then it is also likely that the ideals of Modernism would soon spread to the Western society via normal interaction outside of war, especially if Modernism is the ultimate

In Ernst Junger’s memoir, Storm of Steel, the first remarks are of him stepping off the train at Bazancourt, France. Junger eliminates any details about his life before the war, already contrasting most war memoirs written. This serious demeanor that Junger takes on, one that removes emotion from the equation, persists throughout the memoir and can be clearly seen by the way Junger processes the death of his comrades. By getting down to brass tacks, Junger is able to give a detailed recollection of what the life of a soldier in the German Army was like. Ernst Junger’s accounts in the memoir Storm of Steel show the reality of what World War I was truly like, and how he slowly realizes that there’s more nuance to war than he anticipated.

Art for art's sake was, essentially, the 19th century's attempt to secure for aesthetics what the medieval "age of faith" had secured for Christianity: primacy of importance. From 1873 to just before the outbreak of World War I, art began to undergo another shift, expressing at once both a longing for an old world spirit and an appreciation for modern and revolutionary ideas. The century of feeling and realism would culminate, of course, in the irony of Oscar Wilde who understood that all art was "quite useless" if beauty itself had no function in the modern world. Wilde accepted beauty on the virtue of its own merits signaling a transcendental belief (of which De Profundis is the ultimate expression). Yet, the art world after Wilde's death in 1900 had already moved beyond belief. This paper will examine the movement of the art world from the rise of Van Gogh to the rise of Kandinsky.