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Furies, Spies and Fallen Women: Gender in German Public Discourse About Belgium, 1914–1918

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The Great War in Belgium and the Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter makes a connection between gender as represented in German public discourse and its role in framing war propaganda during the First World War. While Belgium was portrayed as a female trophy for Germany, sexualized and sadistic images of Belgian women were used to emphasize the role of the purportedly civilized and chivalrous German men who were fighting for the safety and honour of the female population of their homeland.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the role of the “Pocahontas”-myth in the U.S.A. in World War I see Theweleit (1999). This analyses the psyche of German pre-fascist paramilitaries after the First World War.

  2. 2.

    See for details Alan Kramer and John Horne (2001). Towards the end of 2017 and after this text had been finalized, a debate about these events took place, starting from a new publication by Ulrich Keller titled Schuldfragen. Belgischer Untergrundkrieg und deutsche Vergeltung im August 1914 (2017). In his book Keller argues that there were massive civil wars in Belgium in 1914 and insinuates this was organized by the Belgian state. This viewpoint was challenged by Alan Kramer and John Horne in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 March 2018, www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/massaker-in-belgien-im-ersten-weltkrieg-15472194.html

  3. 3.

    See Bischoff 2018. 

  4. 4.

    The Belgians were seen as “savages” (Frankfurter Zeitung, printed in Germania, 18. 8. 1914 (Evening Issue), No. 374). Fighting against them would be like fighting against “negroes” (Kölnische Zeitung, printed in Germania, 11. 8. 1914 (Evening issue), No. 362 and Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 13. 8. 1914 (Pre-Evening Issue), No. 411. See also Sobich and Bischoff (2015: 250 f).

  5. 5.

    See Scheidemann 1916. See also Konrad Haenisch in Hamburger Echo, reproduced in CVS of 8.6.1915, Nr. 129.

  6. 6.

    Vossische Zeitung, 26.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 432.

  7. 7.

    See Germania, 15.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 370 and Hannoverscher Courier, 15.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 31287.

  8. 8.

    For this “hard look” in Prussian military culture, see Hull (2005: 104 f).

  9. 9.

    For example in the penny dreadful by Robert Heymann (1914), Sturmnacht in Loewen. Der Weltkrieg 1914, No. 8, p. 16. On the construction of maleness in the Belgian army, see Benvindo (2005: 109 ff). For the relation of male self-perception and female images of the enemy, see Horne (2004: 29ff).

  10. 10.

    See for example one of the leading liberal papers, Vossische Zeitung, 11.8.1914 (Morning Issue), No. 402.

  11. 11.

    Germania, 23.8.1914 (Morning Issue), No. 383.

  12. 12.

    Vossische Zeitung, 28.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 436.

  13. 13.

    Adolf von Hildebrand in Süddeutsche Monatshefte, October 1914, p. 122.

  14. 14.

    Kölnische Zeitung, printed in Germania, 11.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 362 and Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 13.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 411.

  15. 15.

    Germania, 1.10.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 450. The paper quoted a British family paper called The Sphere. For a similar story, see Friedrich Naumann in Hilfe, 3.9.1914, No. 36, p. 574.

  16. 16.

    Printed in Neue Rundschau, November 1914, quoted in Ulrich 1997: 122.

  17. 17.

    See www.bildpostkarten.uni-osnabrueck.de/displayimage.php?pid=1262&fullsize=1 (23.5.2016).

  18. 18.

    Hamburgischer Correspondent, quoted in Kramer and Horne (2001: 167).

  19. 19.

    Deutsche Zeitung, reprinted in Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 9.8.1914 (First Issue), No. 185.

  20. 20.

    Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 8.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 402.

  21. 21.

    See Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 13.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 411; Kölnische Zeitung, reprinted in Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 19.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 422 and Allgemeine Rundschau, 22.8.1914, No. 34, p. 599.

  22. 22.

    Vorwärts, 29.7.1915, No. 207.

  23. 23.

    Allgemeine Rundschau, 22.4.1916, No. 16, p. 284. Robert I. Nelson (2011), German Soldier Newspapers of the First World War, p. 178, refers to the images of the Belgian woman.

  24. 24.

    See Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 7.2.1915, No. 6, p. 70 and Ulk, 2.6.1916, No. 22, p. 170.

  25. 25.

    See Deutsche Tageszeitung, 27.10.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 546.

  26. 26.

    See National-Zeitung, 29.8.1914, No. 202.

  27. 27.

    Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 18.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 420.

  28. 28.

    Jugend, 19.8.1914, No. 34, p. 1093.

  29. 29.

    In Frau des Ostens, special issue of Frau der Gegenwart, Marie Wegner claimed a “Burgfrieden” for women (Frau der Gegenwart, 1.7.1915, No. 19, pp. 137 ff.).

  30. 30.

    Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 18.8.1914 (Eve Issue), No. 420.

  31. 31.

    Ludwig Thoma in Simpliccisimus, 31.3.1915, No. 53, p. 37, similarly see Hermann Küchling in the Hannoverscher Courier, 14.8.1914 (Morning Issue), No. 31284.

  32. 32.

    These negative images of Belgium derived from anti-British, anti-French and anti-Russian images, therefore I call it an intentional “mosaic stereotype”. For an extended treatment of this category see Bischoff (2016b: 55–65).

  33. 33.

    Wolffsche Telegraphen Bureau, printed in Vorwärts, 4.6.1915, No. 152.

  34. 34.

    See Tammy Proctor (2003), Female Intelligence. Women and Espionage in the First World War.

  35. 35.

    See Sophie de Schaepdrijver and Gabrielle Petit (2015), The Death and Life of a Female Spy in the First World War, p. 11.

  36. 36.

    Maximilian Harden in Zukunft, 20.11.1915, No. 8, p. 230 ff.

  37. 37.

    See the advertisement in Kladderadatsch, 10.1.1915, No. 2, Second Supplement, p. 31.

  38. 38.

    See Vorwärts, 14.6.1918, No. 161.

  39. 39.

    National-Zeitung, 15.8.1914, No. 191.

  40. 40.

    Germania, 20.8.1914 (Evening Issue), No. 378.

  41. 41.

    Wehr, November 1914, No. 11/12, p. 11.

  42. 42.

    From the eulogy given by the Bruxelles military garrison’s Protestant pastor Paul le Seur at the funeral of General-Governor of Belgium Moritz von Bissing on 20.4.1917.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paderborn University, Paderborn, Germany

    Sebastian Bischoff

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  1. Sebastian Bischoff
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Correspondence to Sebastian Bischoff .

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  1. Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Felicity Rash

  2. University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Christophe Declercq

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Bischoff, S. (2018). Furies, Spies and Fallen Women: Gender in German Public Discourse About Belgium, 1914–1918. In: Rash, F., Declercq, C. (eds) The Great War in Belgium and the Netherlands. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73108-7_4

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