ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter is a German expression that cannot be translated literally into English. Perhaps also, the objects discussed have no equivalent in England or elsewhere. Nagelfiguren are wooden objects, representing for example knights, blacksmiths, eagles, crosses, submarines, and shields. These objects were covered with nails, which people hammered into the soft material. Nagelfiguren were very popular in Germany during the First World War, especially between 1915 and 1916. They were set up in the streets and other public places, were part of war-exhibitions, and were shown in museums and in schools. Civilians as well as soldiers bought nails – sometimes of silver or gold – which were used to cover the wood with a literal and symbolic metal surface. The money raised by the sale of the nails went to the Red Cross or other charity organisations, local authorities, and the Army, and was used to support war widows, orphans and disabled soldiers. During the First World War, no nation-wide organisation existed in Germany to co-ordinate the ‘nailing’ of these wooden figures. Instead, numerous communities and associations were responsible for hundreds of public acts of creating Nagelfiguren, thereby producing a distinctive German materiality of war (Figure 5.1). 1
