ABSTRACT
The War finally buried bourgeois individualism under a hail of steel and a holocaust of fire. Man, the individual, existing as an isolated being, independent (at least seemingly) of social connections, revolving egocentrically around the concept of the self, in fact lies buried beneath a marble slab inscribed “The Unknown Soldier.” Or, as Remarque1
formulated it, “The generation of 1914 perished in the war, even if some did survive the shellfire.” What came back had nothing more in common with concepts like man, mankind, and humanity, which had symbolised the eternal nature of the God-given order in the parlours of prewar days….
