ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the constant claim for acceleration of patients' discharge entailed more than just the demand for more troops at the front and manpower in the industry. It examines how the increasing pressure of military time and attritional warfare influenced other areas of German society. The chapter concentrates on military hospitals at the home front and investigated why military authorities insisted, almost obsessively, on shortening hospital stays at home and discharging soldiers as soon as possible. The analysis has shown that military and monetary considerations were the main reasons for this. However, the chapter also argues that the never-ending claim for acceleration also fulfilled several other, at least equally important, functions. The claim for acceleration reflected the military authorities' attempt to display bureaucratic activism and resoluteness in a situation of fading military options.
