ABSTRACT
Between 1921 and 1933, the Reichsarchiv published a 36-volume monographic series entitled Schlachten des Weltkrieges (Battles of the World War). In the spirit of Weimar, these were concerned not so much with the mere ‘representation of battles’, but the portrayal of ‘the emotional mood of the war’ wherein the ‘frightfulness and hopelessness of armed conflict’ in that war, would serve as a ‘warning to the coming generation’. Nonetheless at least one future, and ardent, National Socialist is listed among the contributing authors. But Werner Beuemelburg’s pro-war propaganda of the Nazi era is rarely visible in his treatment of Douaumont (Verdun), Ypres 1914, Loretto or Flanders (Third Ypres) 1917. Given the dispassionate approach to war evident in so many of these monographs, it seems no wonder that the series was (presumably) abandoned in 1933. Its mood is scarcely in keeping with the attitudes of a regime intent on glorifying war.391
