ABSTRACT
Baschwitz's experiences, feelings, and views concerning ‘The Great War’ of 1914-18, and the resulting Versailles conference of 1919, were reflected in his reporting of those days. But he also initiated a more thorough reflection on the processes underlying these events, which culminated in his first book aimed at a larger audience, Der Massenwahn (literally The mass delusion), printed in 1923. It soon sold out, and had to be reprinted that same year. Der Massenwahn provided large amounts of alternative information about these same traumatic events, but also the outline of an entirely new theory about propaganda and the psychodynamics of enemy images – half a century before that became standard fare.
