The Front in the East

As he attempts to process on the myriad images that present themselves to him, Ludwig Ganghofer is unable to suppress his humanity when confronted with the cruelty and grim reality of trench warfare, despite his propagandising, which is thought-provoking, nonetheless, and even though he occasionally feels that he must wrap the bloodstained face of the fighting in a shroud of heroism. Designed to  prevent those at home from wilting in their support of the German war effort and often presenting an idealised frontline scene for the newspaper in the German living room, Ganghofer’s reports show that he is not immune to – and they express his emotional reaction to – the unbearable contrast between the battlefield horror, the loss of life and the immense natural beauty with which he is surrounded.