Table Of ContentSites of memory, sites of mourning
Jay Winter's powerful new study of the 'collective remembrance' of the
Great War offers a major reassessment of one of the critical episodes in
the cultural history of the twentieth century. Using a great variety of
literary, artistic, and architectural evidence, Dr Winter looks anew at
the culture of commemoration, and the ways in which communities
endeavoured to find collective solace after 1918. Taking issue with the
prevailing 'modernist' interpretation of the European reaction to the
appalling events of 1914-18, Dr Winter instead argues that what
characterized that reaction was, rather, the attempt to interpret the
Great War within traditional frames of reference. Tensions arose,
inevitably. Sites of memory, sites of mourning is a profound and moving
book of seminal importance for the attempt to understand the course of
European history during the first half of the twentieth century.
Canto is a paperback imprint
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Sites of memory,
sites of mourning
The Great War in
European cultural history
JAY WINTER
Pembroke College, Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© Jay Winter 1995
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1995
First paperback edition 1996
Canto edition 1998
Eleventh printing 20IO
A catalogue recordfo r this publication is available foom the British Library
Library o/Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Winter, Jay
Sites of memory, sites of mourning: the Great war in European
cultural history I Jay Winter.
p. cm.
ISBN 0 521 49682 9 (hardback)
I. World War, 1914-1918. 2. Europe -Civilisation -20th century.
3. Eutope -Intellectual life -20th century. 4. Memory. 1. Tide.
D523·W58 1995
940-4'2 -dC20 94-44386 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-63988-0 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel
timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at
the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee
the accuracy of such information thereafter.
Contents
List of il/ustrations page vi
Acknowledgements viii
List of abbreviations
x
Introd uction 1
I. Catastrophe and consolation 13
1 Homecomings: the return of the dead 15
2 Communities in mourning 29
3 Spiritualism and the 'Lost Generation' 54
4 War memorials and the mourning process 78
II. Cultural codes and languages of mourning 117
5 Mythologies of war: films, popular religion, and the
business of the sacred 119
6 The apocalyptic imagination in art: from anticipation
to allegory 145
7 The apocalyptic imagination in war literature 178
8 War poetry, romanticism, and the return of the sacred 204
9 Conclusion 223
Notes 230
Bibliography 273
Index 298
v
Illustrations
1. Before the Dead arise, in a scene from the film J'accuse
(1919) (Documentation Bibliotheque de l'image-Filmotheque) page 16
2. The Return of the Dead, in a scene from the film J'accuse
(1919), Cendrars is in the centre, leaning on Severin Mars
(Documentation Bibliotheque de l'image-Filmotheque) 16
3. Portrait of Apollinaire, by Picasso (1916) (Document RMN,
ADAGP) (Le Monde, 28 August 1994) 19
4. An Australian Red Cross hospital (by permission of the
Australian War Memorial, AWM negative no. H11709) 37
5. Australian women waiting for returning soldiers (by
permission of the Australian War Memorial, AWM negative
no. Hl1576) 49
6. French children tending Australian war graves at
Villers-Bretonneux, France, 1919 (AWM E05925) (by permission
of the Australian War Memorial, AWM negative no. E05925) 51
7. Captain Will Longstaff beside his picture The Immortal Shrine
depicting the spirits of soldiers who lost their lives in the war,
marching past the Cenotaph in London (Sydney Morning
Herald, 3 November 1928) 60
8. Will Longstaff, The Menin Gate at Midnight (Australian War
Memorial 9807) 60
9. Spirit photography, Woolwich, 11 November 1926 74
10. A spirit photograph taken by Mrs Deane during the
two-minute silence, Remembrance Day, Whitehall, 1922 (before
the ghosts of the dead arrive) (The British Library) 75
11. A spirit photograph taken by Mrs Deane, Remembrance
Day, Whitehall, 1922 (with the ghosts of the dead) (The British
Library) 75
12. The Iron Hindenburg (Bibliothek fUr Zeitgeschichte,
Stuttgart) 83
13. Poster advertiSing the inauguration of the war memorial,
Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, 11 December 1921
(Reproduced by kind permission of Cambridgeshire County
VI
List of Illustrations
Libraries and Information Services) page 87
14. The War Memorial at March, Cambridgeshire, after
Remembrance Day (Reproduced by kind permission of
Cambridgeshire County Libraries and Information Services) 88
15. The Trench of Bayonets at Verdun, as illustrated in the
Guide Michelin to Verdun, 1926 100
16. The Cenotaph, shortly after the unveiling ceremony, 11
November 1920 (Hulton Deutsch Picture Library, picture
number 64643024) 103
17. The Monument to the Missing at Thiepval (Somme)
(Historial de la Grande Guerre/Photo J. Tiercin) 106
18. Gedenkblatt fUr Karl Liebknecht by Kathe Kollwitz, 15 January
1919 (Kathe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin) III
19. Der Leichnam Christi im Grabe, 1521, Hans Holbein the
Younger (O£fentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel Kunstmuseum) 112
20. Die Eltern by Kathe Kollwitz, Roggevelde German war
cemetery, Vladslo, Belgium 114
21. Apotheose de Napoleon (lmagerie Perrin-EpinaD 124
22. Sketch for Der Blaue Reiter, 1911, by Wassily Kandinsky
(Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachlaus, Munich) 148
23. Allerheiligen 1, 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky (Stad tische
Galerie im Lenbachlaus, Munich) 152
24. Bombardement einer Stadt by Ludwig Meidner (Berlinische
Galerie/Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Photographie und
Architektur, Berlin) 157
25. Streichholzhandler by Otto Dix (1920) (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) 160
26. Der Krieg (War triptych, 1929/1932) by Otto Dix (Dresden:
Gemaldegalerie Neue Meister/ Sachsische Landesbibliothek) 162
27. Auferstehung by Max Beckmann (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) 166
28. The Resurrection of the Soldiers (1928-32) by Stanley
Spencer, BurghcIere Memorial Chapel 170
29. Miserere by RouauIt 173
30. Guerre by Rouault 175
31. Angelus Novus, 1920, by Paul Klee (The Israel Museum,
Jerusalem) 226
vii
Acknowledgements
The list of those without whose help this book would have been poorer
is much longer than I can acknowledge here. Special thanks are due,
though, to many people who have put aside their own concerns to read
and reread drafts of this book. Particularly helpful were comments on
the text as a whole provided by Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, Joanna
Bourke, Elisabeth Domansky, Hilary Gaskin, Diana Goodrich, Ira
Katznelson, Ken Inglis, George Mosse, Emmanuel Sivan, Barry Supple,
and Marie Wood.
For comments on specific points or areas of expertise beyond me, I
am grateful for the help of: Susanna Barrow, Annette Becker, Barbara
Bodenhorn, Jillian Davidson, Adrian Gregory, Caroline Humphrey,
Samuel Hynes, Martin Jay, Alex King, Reinhard Kosseleck, Tom
Laqueur, David Lloyd, Sarah O'Brien-Twohig, Antoine Prost, and
Maria Tippett. A special note of gratitude goes to Fritz Stern, teacher
and friend, with whom I have been fortunate enough to walk these
paths for nearly three decades.
The assistance of librarians and archivists has been both rewarding
and full of friendship. Marie Wood made the Australian War Memorial
a home away from home, and Irina Rens drew me into the riches of the
Bibliothek fur Zeitgeschichte with kindness and sympathy. Cecile
Coutin at the Bibliotheque de documentation internationale contem
poraine (now at the Bibliotheque de I' Arsenal), I1ena Danielson at the
Hoover Institution, and Nigel Steel at the Imperial War Museum went
out of their way to be helpful. If there is a war between historians and
archivists, I have been blissfully ignorant of it.
The company of the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College and
colleagues in the Faculty of History has been a great support; they have
been liberal in providing space for thought, tolerance for its expression,
and an academic home for visiting scholars working in this field. Many
of the final stages of writing this book took place in the splendid setting
of the Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio, and in Canberra at the Australian
National University. Hospitality is an art form; some of the finest
viii
