Beyond the Trenches

German and English speaking cultural studies on the front experience of soldiers are dominated by the point of view from the Western and sometimes the Italian Front: trench warfare, shell shock, and humans being overrun by technology are the key narratives in these studies. But they only reflect one side of the war. The war in the Balkans and on the Eastern Front was shaped in a completely different way: the fronts were very mobile, they could be moved within weeks or months over hundreds of kilometers, the war could be influenced by the tactical genius of military strategists, there were heavy fights around heavily fortified forts, and the importance of horses and artillery dominated the scene until (and even after) the end of the war. Heavy devastation of large parts of Eastern Europe, social conflicts in the shadow of the war, occupation of enemy territory, and from 1917 on an ideological war, and so close contacts between military personnel and local population, shaped this theatre of war, too. Nonetheless, the soldiers also experienced trench warfare throughout some specific periods, but this was not the dominating setting in the East. In this project, we will take a closer look at the experience of Austro-Hungarian military personnel on the Eastern Front for the first time. For this personal material and published memoirs will be analyzed and compared in their narratives of the war in the east. This will be complemented with published and unpublished contemporary photos. Military archival materials and the relevant specialist literature will round off the picture. A working group with national and international scholars will guarantee a critical reviewing of research results throughout the project. As Vejas Liulevicius has shown in his book "War Land on the Eastern Front. Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I" (2000) that the experience in "the East" shaped the political and military thinking of German society long after 1918. The open space was a military chance and danger for them. But this open space also led to fantasies of a colonial policy in the east. So far, there have not been any comparable studies on the experience of Austro-Hungarian soldiers, officers as well as political and administrative personnel in "the East" during the First World War. We cannot expect to simply transfer Liulevicius`s thesis to Austro-Hungarian military personnel without proof, even though they fought side by side on this front. The Austro-Hungarians came out of a completely different situation. So we have to raise the question of whether the experience of the Austro- Hungarian military personnel was something special or whether it corresponded to the thesis established so far. Against this background, the main questions to be raised in the project will be the following: What picture of warfare on the Eastern Front is drawn by Austro-Hungarian military personnel? Most of the soldiers not only fought in the East, but also on other fronts: Do they compare their experience with other fronts and what are their conclusions? Is there a genuine German-speaking, Austro-Hungarian point of view on "the East", or is it similar to the German war experience? Is it possible to define different stages of points of view? During the war and after it? Is there a difference in the interpretation of the war experience in the East between soldiers and officers, and between their social, ethnic/national, or religious background? What are the long-lasting narratives on the East through 1918?

In the project, the individual war experiences of simple soldiers in Eastern Europe 1914-18 were the main focus of the research efforts. The legacy of the First World War led to a loss of this specific narrative in Central and Eastern Europe. Especially in the context of the worldwide centennial of the outbreak of World War One, this project was an attempt to wrest this war theater out of oblivion. A group of 21 scholars was assembled to work on different aspects of the war and experience in Eastern Europe from 1914 until the early 1920s. The research of those scholars covers wide parts of the former Habsburg and Russian Empires. By integrating researchers who are focused on other war theaters of the First World War we tried to establish the grounds for a comparison of specific characteristics of the Eastern Front. The main results of this group were published in the widely praised volume Jenseits des Schützengrabens. Der Erste Weltkrieg im Osten: Erfahrung Wahrnehmung Kontext (Studienverlag, 2013). The war experience on the Eastern Front must be seen as different from other war theatres. The soldiers here saw the war as less industrialized and dehumanized, especially if they were coming from or going to the Isonzo Front. Because the front was much longer, it could not be fortified like the ones facing Italy or France. Also, the frequent pauses between the attacks allowed them to have some rest. Nonetheless, there were also phases of heavy fighting, which at certain sectors of the front were no less brutal than those at the Isonzo or the Western Fronts. In addition, the soldiers had another challenge to overcome: nature. The long winters with their bitter coldness and heavy snowfall were a major problem. Mud, lack of infrastructure, big rivers, impenetrable woods, huge marshes, mountains as well as vast and empty plains demanded a great deal of organizational talent from the opposing armies as well as big sacrifices on the part of individual soldiers. The research in the files has shown that we need to develop a deeper understanding of the cultural background of the soldiers as well as that of the local populations. Especially those soldiers who came from relatively homogenous societies in Western parts of the Habsburg Empire reacted very sensitively when confronted with the multilingualism and multi-religiousness of Eastern Europe. Distrust, incomprehension and even some kind of colonial/imperial desires were the result of these experiences. Not all but a substantial number of soldiers reacted to this experience with Anti-Semitism, Anti-Slavism or some other radical discursive pattern. This all happened in the specific context of war and violence. These pictures had a decisive influence on the Interwar discourses on the East. Thus, the long-lasting impact of the war experience by Habsburg soldiers in Eastern Europe on discourses, especially in Central European societies, should not be underestimated. The war experience in the East during the First World War played a decisive role in making Eastern Europe more attractive for possible territorial expansions. Contrary to most other war theatresthe Western and Italian Frontsbut similar to another underexplored onethe Balkansmilitary movement was still possible here throughout the war. Huge territories had been occupied and exploited by the opposing armies. The Central Powers were also able to pursue their desires for territorial expansion in Eastern Europe, although they had to realize that the war could not be won on this front.