A Description of Life in the Treches During WWll

In an age driven by technology, the face of war has changed so dramatically that wars can now be fought on digital battle fields from ships that volley missiles capable of devastating entire armies at distances measured in hundreds of miles. It is far cry from life experienced by soldiers in WWI whose only protection from the nearby enemy lines merely feet away were miles of cold and shallow trenches that zig zagged their way across Western Europe. Carl Zuckmayer, a writer and WWI veteran, describes his experiences in the trenches on the Western front of the war and the effect it had on his life and political views during post war years in his autobiography entitled, “A Part of Myself.”

Born in 1896 and only seventeen at the outbreak of war in 1914, Zuckmayer was a gifted poet whose leftist political views had a major influence on his initial disapproval of the war. “I will never kill anyone. I would rather go to prison” (Zuckmayer 141) was his response when asked about whether or not he would join the army. However, upon returning home from his summer vacation, he was quickly swept up in the patriotic euphoria of the German people were. He writes “I remember precise

. . .
Zuckmayer just looked at him and said “you can all

kiss my arse!” (175). I respect the courage of people like Carl Zuckmayer and wonder if I would ever be capable of the same if faced with a similar situation. Wanting to be alone for awhile be was trudging along one of the communications trenches when he saw two medics carrying a stretcher with a soldier who had been shot in the head on it. He states “We saw the meaning of the war in this inner liberation of the whole nation from its obsolete conventions, in this breakthrough into the unknown, into some heroic venture, no matter whom it devoured” (148). This renewed sense of national pride was fueled by the mass belief that a war with France and Russia would be a quick and victorious one. He performed his duties for

the army, but his beliefs were with the “international of all liberated peoples’ such as was preached in Aktion” (171). In the years following, he found himself engaging in more and more heated debates against groups of nationalists and racists who were against the republic. It wasn’t until

Zuckmayer fired two rounds from his pistol into the ceiling and aimed it at him that he

stopped talking. ” The majority of the books he read were the works of philosophers, reformists, and revolutionaries. While fighting by day and writing by night, he explains that “this correspondence, too, resulted in a curious double life” (171). Over the course of the war, every schoolmate who was with him on the day of his enlistment perished in battle. A lance corporal approached Zuckmayer as if he were going to throw his mess kit in Zuckmayer’s face. However, his attitude remained fairly positive.

Zuckmayer describes 1918 as being “the worst of all on the Western Front” (173).

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1559
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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