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• The Centre for Popular Culture and Music (ZPKM) of the University of Freiburg is publishing historic sources from World War I
• The poems reflect the glorification of war in Germany between 1914 and 1918
• Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Fischer says, "It is an enormous treasure for interdisciplinary research on World War I as well as an appeal for peace."
Many Germans viewed the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 with satisfaction. They welcomed the "great era" and celebrated the outbreak of hostilities. The Centre for Popular Culture and Music (ZPKM) of the University of Freiburg has digitised fourteen thousand war poems published in newspapers between 1914 und 1918. They are now accessible online. The texts have been written by both academics and laypeople. The authors praised the country. They glorified the battle at the front and reviled the enemy. Critical, or even pacifist voices, are barely present.
"This unique testimony of patriotism, nationalism, and militarism in Germany is an enormous treasure for interdisciplinary research, above all into the history of the culture, mentalities, and media of World War I," emphasises the ZPKM’s Managing Director, Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Fischer. "At the same time, the historical sources are an appeal for peace. Two million German war dead are juxtaposed with the fourteen thousand poems, as are the more than nine million people who were killed in the entire war," he adds.
The poetry collection was set up by Germanist and Ethnologist John Meier, the founder of the "Deutsche Volksliedarchiv" a collection of German folksongs also known as the "DVA". At that time, Meier took part in gathering what were known as "world war collections". Between 1914 and 1918, the DVA was interested in lyric texts – on the one hand of soldiers’ songs, and on the other, poetry, which back then was euphemistically classified as "war poetry".
Access link of the digital library of the ZPKM:
https://www.zpkm.uni-freiburg.de/Digitale_Bibliothek
Direct link to the collection of war poetry:
https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/251654
Background:
The Centre for Popular Culture and Music of the University of Freiburg was founded in 2014. It originated from the "Deutsche Volksliedarchiv" and is continuing its work based on a new structural and contextual foundation. The ZPKM’s collections are subject to a government historic preservation order. The Centre is concerned with making historic sources – with particular emphasis on traditional and popular song, working class musical culture, and World War I – available to researchers and the public online.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Fischer
michael.fischer@zpkm.uni-freiburg.de
https://www.zpkm.uni-freiburg.de/Digitale_Bibliothek
https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/251654
https://uni-freiburg.de/en/fourteen-thousand-world-war-i-poems-digitised/
Three excerpts from old German war poems.
ZPKM / Universität Freiburg
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, all interested persons
History / archaeology, Social studies
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