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Social Injustice in the German Military The beginning of the First World War encouraged the longing for a sense of community, and intensified aspirations for equality and equal rights within the German nation. While these expectations heightened political and national solidarity at the beginning of the war, in the long run they led to considerable difficulties within German society. As the war drew on, social inequality in particular became a serious challenge to political order in the German Reich. Significantly, the conflict first flared up within the military. Instances of socia…

Field Grey Color of the German field uniform. Field grey was gradually introduced from 1907 in all regiments of the army of the German Reich, beginning with the infantry and artillery. The cavalry and officers followed between 1908 and 1910. Rifle units wore grey-green. The decision was in reaction to experiences in the Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War, where colored uniforms had always offered a good target to enemies equipped with modern weapons. Functional aspects now superseded consideratio…

War Experience Experience as such had been discovered around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Authors such as Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Simmel popularized the concept, which expressed a longing for wholeness and a need for totality. Within the process of experiencing, distinctions such as those between reflection and sensory perception or thought and action were believed to disappear. Simmel gave this notion a more emphatic note by comparing experience with adventure. Experience thus stoo…