1914: Then Came Armageddon
Caricature and Satire
“Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, Chapter 10 (1916)
Entertainment on the Front
In addition to art and poetry, some soldiers took to satire as method of coping. One of the more famous examples was the Wipers Times. This periodical began in February 1916 in an empty printing press in Ypres, or “Wipers,” as the British soldiers gleefully mispronounced the French name of the Belgian town. Subsequent issues reflected the advancement of the men running the press: The Somme Times, The New Church Times, and finally once the British censors clamped down on putting locations in the title, The B.E.F. Times. The fake articles and advertisements were all designed to put an ironic face on a horrific situation. One of its most famous catchphrases was, “Are We As Offensive As We Might Be?” As editor Fred Roberts said, “Remember that the hilarity was more often hysterical than natural.” This Onion of its day, despite often teasing British leaders and questioning the sanity of the war itself, was generally endorsed by military leaders as a technique to increase morale.
The Evolution of the Wipers Times
The Wipers Times was published initially from a singular printing press machine at the Cloth Hall in Ypres run by Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Jack Pearson of the 12th Battalion. The first two editions were for a small audience of about one hundred soldiers within the battalion. The Wipers Times offered a slice of humanity and humor for those struggling amid constant bloodshed and combat. After the first publication in February of 1916, The Wipers Times was published consistently until February of 1918, ending after a German offensive.
Throughout its run, the Wipers Times underwent a series of name changes, reflective of the changing circumstances on the front lines, location changes, and the publishers. In its last edition during the war, the Wipers Times was titled The BEF Times. In 1918 and 1930, the Wipers Times was published in collected editions that circulated across broader Europe. It continued republishing and reprinting in the late twentieth century, including a BBC Drama movie The Wipers Times in 2013. Its enduring popularity and recurring global print runs are a testament to the power of humor and creativity of those suffering.
The Power of the Pen
Some of the popular columns included “Letter from the Editor,” “Agony Columns,” “Love and War,” “Sporting Notes,”, and “Things We Want to Know.” One of the recurring characters in the Wipers Times was Herlock Sholmes, a trench detective who served as a First World War foil to Sherlock Holmes. Chapters were published each week with a synopsis for those who had not read previous chapters, the new chapter, and highlights previewing the forthcoming chapter. These serialized stories offered soldiers something to look forward to as well as hope and levity.
Beyond these columns, The Wipers Times featured advertisements, fake news, spoofs, poems, and fiction stories penned by soldiers. For instance, one satirical advertisement produced by The Wipers Times humorously critiqued insurance companies while simultaneously providing social commentary about death during war (Vol 1, No 2, 02/26/1916). The Wipers Times served as an outlet for soldiers to voice their concerns and critiques of politicians, military leadership, the nature of war, and create other social commentaries through witticism.
Caricaturing the Enemy
During the Great War, humor was used as a tool of mockery, coping, and debate by both Central and Allied powers. Satirical cartoons and caricatures were instrumental in shaping public opinions about the war. Cartoons and caricatures were digestible ways to provide information and insight into current affairs, while also functioning as propaganda. It became a way of disseminating important information.
An example of this is the publication Hetz-Karikaturen: zur Psychologie der Entente. Published in Berlin in 1917, the book is a collection of French cartoons and caricatures that criticize Germany, its soldiers, and German citizens. The foreword author describes how impactful and influential political cartoons can be, while noting that the success of cartoons is reliant on both the artistic quality and the intended goals of the cartoon. The author cautions the use of sensationalism that is revealed in cartoons during wartime that oftentimes overshadows the intended goals. The publication insisted that the German population reject the vulgarity and animalistic qualities portrayed in the cartoons.
The cartoons and caricatures are introduced by a foreword that explores the profound impact these images had on public perception. It discusses how the widespread circulation of not only these specific cartoons but also the pervasive stereotypes portraying all Germans as barbaric, cruel, and greedy contributed to a broader, demoralizing narrative. This narrative played a crucial role in shaping distorted opinions about Germany, influencing both political discourse and the peacemaking process preceding the war. Below is an excerpt from the foreword:
Original German Version: “Noch eins beweisen die Karikaturen. Sie zeugen von dem Ideenkreis der blutigen Phantasie, der durch und durch verderbten Vorstellungen besonders der französischen Volkes. Wie tief muß dieses Volk, das immer den Anspruch auf seine hohe Kultur und Ritterlichkeit gemacht hat, gesunken sein, daß es mit den Begriffen der Schändung, der Marterung, des Händeabhackens derart vertraut ist, um sie in dieser Vielfältigkeit hervorzubringen und anderen zuzutrauen.”
Translated English Version: “The cartoons prove one more thing. They bear witness to the circle of ideas of the bloody imagination, the thoroughly corrupt ideas of the French people in particular. How deeply must these people, who have always claimed their high culture and chivalry, have sunk that they are so familiar with the concepts of desecration, torture, and cutting off of hands that they can produce them in this diversity and trust others to use them.”
The Hetz-Karikaturen collection includes around 40 different cartoons, accompanied by French captions, depicting violence and war crimes allegedly committed by the Germans against French civilians. The cartoons are graphic and include depictions of German soldiers and officers committing assault, torture, and rape against seemingly French civilians. These portrayals, and those similar, promote popular stereotypes about the German population and reveal the complexities of wartime propaganda and its enduring impact on national and global perceptions.
A Tale of Two Narratives
In a concerted effort to confront the portrayals of Germans in the media, the French War Office published a monograph around 1914 titled German Barbarians: What They Say, What They Do. The publication included an “extract from the manifest of the German intellectuals”, where the “German intellectuals” contended that, “IT IS NOT TRUE that we are waging war contrary to the law of nations. Our soldiers are guilty neither of indiscipline nor of cruelty… Believe us! Believe that, in this struggle we will go to the end as civilized people, as a people to whom the inheritance of a Goethe, a Beethoven and a Kant, is as sacred as its own land and home. We answer for it on our names and OUR HONOUR.” (pg. 2) The defense emerged in response to an attempt to counter negative portrayals asserted especially by France.
Following the extract from the German manifesto were documented confessions by German soldiers, revealing their involvement in crimes against both enemy forces and civilians. The French needed no further elaboration regarding the confessions; merely presenting these texts exposed the hypocrisy of German claims to fight honorably. The defense by the “German intellectuals” who believed in German nationalism were quick to retaliate against any bad press in a bid to preserve their nation’s reputation. Their attempts to save face ironically only further drew attention to the atrocities.
After quoting the confessions of the German soldiers and the laws that were outlined in the Hague Convention, the French War office stated at the end of the monograph: “They spoke, They acted, Judge them”. The assertion of moral high ground that all countries contrasted with graphic, dehumanizing caricatures, played a role in shaping Allied perceptions of the German military and the German people alike.
