Au fond de la guerre, l´immonde

« C’est un simple débat avec la mort. Il n’y en a pas d’autre. Vu de haut, nous pourrons en tirer toutes les images que nous voudrons. On peut faire de ça une chanson de Roland avec la plus grande facilité. La vérité est ailleurs. La vérité est dans les très petits sentiments. Au milieu de ce glorieux tumulte, la vérité est dans de petites choses sales et basses. Vous ne tarderez pas à comprendre que ces petites choses matérielles sales et basses ont beaucoup plus d’importance pour vous que tout l’esprit supérieur du combat. Brusquement au milieu d’une bataille qui semblait se dérouler pour des besoins spirituels légitimes, vous sentez qu’en réalité on vous a illégalement imposé un simple débat entre vous-même et la douleur, vous-même et la nécessité de vivre, vous-même et le désir de vivre, que tout est là ; que si, simplement vous mourez, il n’y a plus ni bataille, ni patrie, ni droit, ni raison, ni victoire, ni défaite et qu’ainsi on vous fait tout simplement vous efforcer douloureusement vers le néant. Il n’y a pas d’épopée si glorieuse soit-elle qui puisse faire passer le respect de sa gloire avant les nécessités d’un tube digestif. Celui qui a construit l’épopée avec la souffrance de son corps sait que dans ces moments dits de gloire, en vérité, la bassesse occupe le ciel.

Sous le fer de Verdun les soldats tiennent. Pour un endroit que je connais nous tenons parce que les gendarmes nous empêchent de partir. On en a placé des postes jusqu’en pleine bataille, dans les tranchées de soutien, au-dessus du tunnel de Tavannes. Si on veut sortir de là il faut un ticket de sortie. Idiot mais exact ; non pas idiot, terrible. Au début de la bataille, quand quelques corvées de soupe réussissent encore à passer entre le barrage d’artillerie, arrivées là, elles doivent se fouiller les cartouchières et montrer aux gendarmes le ticket signé du capitaine. L’héroïsme du communiqué officiel, il faut ici qu’on le contrôle soigneusement. Nous pouvons bien dire que si nous restons sur ce champ de bataille, c’est qu’on nous empêche soigneusement de nous en échapper. Enfin, nous y sommes, nous y restons ; alors nous nous battons ? Nous donnons l’impression de farouches attaquants ; en réalité nous fuyons de tous les côtés. Nous sommes entre la batterie de l’hôpital, petit fortin, et le fort de Vaux, qu’il nous faut reconquérir. Cela dure depuis dix jours. Tous les jours, à la batterie de l’hôpital, entre deux rangées de sacs à terre, on exécute sans jugement au revolver ceux qu’on appelle les déserteurs sur place. On ne peut pas sortir du champ de bataille, alors maintenant on s’y cache. On creuse un trou, on s’enterre, on reste là. Si on vous trouve on vous traîne à la batterie et, entre deux rangées de sacs à terre, on vous fait sauter la cervelle. Bientôt il va falloir faire accompagner chaque homme par un gendarme. Le général dit « ils tiennent ». A Paris est un historien qui s’apprête à conjuguer à tous les temps et à toutes les personnes (compris la sienne) le verbe « tenir à Verdun ». Ils tiennent, mais, moi général, je ne me hasarderais pas à supprimer les gendarmes ni à conseiller l’indulgence à ce colonel du 52ème d’infanterie qui est à la batterie de l’hôpital. Cela dure depuis quinze jours.

Depuis huit jours les corvées de soupe ne reviennent plus. Elles partent le soir à la nuit noire et c’est fini, elles se fondent comme du sucre dans du café. Pas un homme n’est retourné. Ils ont tous été tués, absolument tous, chaque fois, tous les jours sans aucune exception. On n’y va plus. On a faim. On a soif. On voit là-bas un mort couché par terre, pourri et plein de mouches mais encore ceinturé de bidons et des boules de pain passées dans un fil de fer. On attend. que le bombardement se calme. On rampe jusqu’à lui. On détache de son corps les boules de pain. On prend les bidons pleins. D’autres bidons ont été troués par les balles. Le pain est mou. Il faut seulement couper le morceau qui touchait le corps. Voilà ce qu’on fait tout le jour. Cela dure depuis vingt-cinq jours. Depuis longtemps il n’y a plus de ces cadavres garde-manger. On mange n’importe quoi. Je mâche une courroie de bidon. Vers le soir, un copain est arrivé avec un rat. Une fois écorché, la chair est blanche comme du papier. Mais, avec mon morceau à la main j’attends malgré tout la nuit noire avant de manger. On a une occasion pour demain : une mitrailleuse qui arrivait tout à l’heure en renfort a été écrabouillée avec ses quatre servants à vingt mètres en arrière de nous. Tout à l’heure on ira chercher les musettes de ces quatre hommes. Ils arrivaient de la batterie. Ils doivent avoir emporté à manger pour eux. Mais il ne faudrait pas que ceux qui sont à notre droite n’y aillent avant nous. Ils doivent guetter aussi de dedans leur trou. Nous guettons. L’important c’est que les quatre soient morts. Ils le sont. Tant mieux. Cela dure depuis trente jours.

C’est la grande bataille de Verdun. Le monde entier a les yeux fixés sur nous. Nous avons de terribles soucis. Vaincre? résister? tenir? faire notre devoir? Non. Faire nos besoins. Dehors, c’est un déluge de fer. C’est très simple : il tombe un obus de chaque calibre par minute et par mètre carré. Nous sommes neuf survivants dans un trou. Ce n’est pas un abri, mais les quarante centimètres de terre et de rondins sur notre tête sont devant nos yeux une sorte de visière contre l’horreur. Plus rien au monde ne nous fera sortir de là. Mais ce que nous avons mangé, ce que nous mangeons se réveille plusieurs fois par jour dans notre ventre. Il faut que nous fassions nos besoins. Le premier de nous que ça a pris est sorti ; depuis deux jours il est là, à trois mètres devant nous, mort déculotté. Nous faisons dans du papier et nous le jetons là devant. Nous avons fait dans de vieilles lettres que nous gardions. Nous sommes neuf dans un espace où normalement on pourrait tenir à peine trois serrés. Nous sommes un peu plus serrés. Nos jambes et nos bras sont emmêlés. Quand on veut seulement plier son genou, nous sommes tous obligés de faire les gestes qui le lui permettront. La terre de notre abri tremble autour de nous sans cesse. Sans cesse les graviers, la poussière et les éclats soufflent dans ce côté qui est ouvert vers le dehors. Celui qui est près de cette sorte de porte a le visage et les mains écorchés de mille petites égratignures. Nous n’entendons plus à la longue les éclatements des obus ; nous n’entendons que le coup de masse d’arrivée. C’est un martèlement ininterrompu. Il y a cinq jours que nous sommes là-dedans sans bouger. Nous n’avons plus de papier ni les uns ni les autres. Nous faisons dans nos musettes et nous les jetons dehors. Il faut démêler ses bras des autres bras, et se déculotter, et faire dans une musette qui est appuyée sur le ventre d’un copain. Quand on a fini on passe la saleté à celui de devant, qui la passe à l’autre qui la jette dehors. Septième jour. La bataille de Verdun continue. De plus en plus héros. Nous ne sortons toujours pas de notre trou. Nous ne sommes plus que huit. Celui qui était devant la porte a été tué par un gros éclat qui est arrivé en plein dedans, lui a coupé la gorge et l’a saigné. Nous avons essayé de boucher la porte avec son corps. Nous avons bien fait. Une sorte de tir rasant qui s’est spécialisé depuis quelques heures sur ce morceau de secteur fait pleuvoir sur nous des éclats de recul. Nous les entendons frapper dans le corps qui bouche la porte. Malgré qu’il ait été saigné comme un porc avec la carotide ouverte, il saigne encore-à chacune des ces blessures qu’il reçoit après sa mort. J’ai oublié de dire que depuis plus de dix jours aucun de nous n’a de fusil, ni de cartouches, ni de couteau, ni de baïonnette. Mais nous avons de plus en plus ce terrible besoin qui ne cesse pas, qui nous déchire. Surtout depuis que nous avons essayé d’avaler de petites boulettes de terre pour calmer la faim, et aussi parce que cette nuit il a plu et, et comme nous n’avions pas bu depuis quatre jours, nous avons léché l’eau de la pluie qui ruisselait à travers les rondins et aussi celle qui venait de dehors et qui coulait chez nous par-dessous le cadavre qui bouche la porte. Nous faisons dans notre main. C’est une dysenterie qui coule entre nos doigts. On ne peut même pas arriver à jeter ça dehors. Ceux qui sont au fond essuient leurs mains dans la terre à côté d’eux. Les trois qui sont près de la porte s’essuient dans les vêtements du mort. C’est de cette façon que nous nous apercevons que nous faisons du sang. Du sang épais mais absolument vermeil. Beau. Celui-là a cru que c’était le mort sur lequel il s’essuyait qui saignait. Mais la beauté du sang l’a fait réfléchir.

Il y a maintenant quatre jours que ce cadavre bouche la porte et nous sommes le 9 août, et nous voyons bien qu’il se pourrit. Celui-là avait fait dans sa main droite ; il a passé sa main gauche à son derrière ; il l’a tirée pleine de ce sang frais. Dans le courant de ce jour-là nous nous apercevons tous à tour de rôle que nous faisons du sang. Alors, nous faisons carrément sur place, là, sous nous. J’ai dit que nous n’avons plus d’armes depuis longtemps ; mais, nous avons tous notre quart passé dans une courroie de notre équipement car nous sommes à tous moments dévorés par une soif de feu,et de temps en temps nous buvons notre urine. C’est l’admirable bataille de Verdun.

Deux ans plus tard, au Chemin des Dames, nous nous révolterons (à ce moment-là je survivais seul de ces huit derniers) pour de semblables ignominies. Pas du tout pour de grands motifs, pas du tout contre la guerre, pas du tout pour donner la paix à la terre, pas du tout pour de grands mots d’ordre, simplement parce que nous en avons assez de faire dans notre main et de boire notre urine. Simplement parce qu’au fond de l’armée, l’individu a touché l’immonde."

Jean Giono, « Recherche de la pureté », Ecrits pacifistes,1939.

Polychésie de la race allemande

LA POLYCHÉSIE DE LA RACE ALLEMANDE.
La polychésie est la manifestation d une suractivité anormale de Ia fonction intestinale.
Elle est la conséquence de la polyphagie et est en rapport, non seulement avec la quantité, mais avec la qualité des aliments absorbés. Elle se traduit par une excrétion exagéré des matières fécales. Le besoin fréquent de défécation qui en est la conséquence est la source, dans le domaine mental, d´aberrations se rapportant à la satisfaction de ce besoin.
La polychésie, par sa fréquence et sa constance, peut être considérée comme une des particularités les plus marquées de la race alelmande.
Dans le passé, l´ironie des peuples avait trouvé ample matière à s´exercer aux dépens de nos ennemis. Déjà, du temps de Louis XIV, on disait que, par le seul aspect de l´énormité des excréments, le voyageur pouvait savoir s´il avait franchi les limites du Bas-Rhin et si son pied foulait le sol du Palatinat.
Le grave Leibnitz, faisant le récit des festins pantagruéliques donnés à l´occasion du carnaval de 1702 à la Cour de Hanovre, mentionne ce détail qui se rpaporte aux habitudes d´un personnage du plus haut rang: "D´ailleurs un pot de chambre de grandeur énorme, où il aurait pu se noyer la nuit, le suivait partout".
Depuis lors la polychésie des Allemands n´a pas varié. Une vieille plaisanterie alsacienne consiste à poser la question suivante. "Savez-vous pourquoi, lorsque trois Allemands sont réunis, il n´y en a jamais que deux de présents?" Les initiés répondent: "c´est parce que sur les trois il y en a toujours un aux cabinets".
C´est un fait bien connu qu´en Allemagne, par le fait de la polychésie, les water-closets, dans tous les endroits publics et privés, sont constamment assiégés.
L´hyperchésie allemande constituait un champ d´études si particulier que son étude a suscité en Allemagne les émulations les plus ardentes. Aux laboratoires de scatologie ont été annexés des musées stercoraires dans lesquels sont exposés de nombreux modèles en cire, en pâte, de la plus rigoureuse exactitude. Comme le faisait justement remarquer, dans un congrès internationl, un des maîtres les plus éminents de la scatologie allemande, un tel degré de perfection ne saurait être atteint sans l´intervention d´un nombre respectable de collaborateurs: le photographe, le desssinateur, le mouleur, qu´il ne faut pas confrondre avec le procréateur initial, le peintre-coloriste et enfin le clinicien qui définit, compare et interprète. Les modèles sont naturellement déposés et brevetés, afin d´éviter les contrefaçons. A la place d´honneur, dans ce musée d´un goût spécial, figure la selle allemande normale, afin que les elèves puissent se familiariser avec son apparence.
La présence des troupes allemandes sur notre territoire a eu pour effet de nous rappeler cette hypertrophie de la fonction intestinale chez les Allemands. Dans leurs multiples invasions antérieures, les hordes germaniques s etaient signalées par le débordement des évacuations intestinales dont elles jalonnaient leur marche.
Actuellement encore, dans la poursuite des Allemands battant en retraite, la marche de nos soldats n´est pas seulement retardée par des dévastations systématiques, elle est encore COntrariée par les émanations des immondices stercoraires accumulées par des ennemis dépourvus de toute dignité et de toute pudeur.
En ce qui concerne les constatations positives relatives à l'hyperchésie, un premier fait est hors de doute. Comme je l´ai exposé dans une précédente communication sur l'odeur des Allemands, dans des conditions identiques de nombre et de séjour, la proportion des matières fécales de Allemands s´eleve à plus du double de celle des Français
Dans les usines de papeteries de Chenevières, en Meurthe-et-Moselle cinq cents cavaliers allemands out résidé pendant trois semaines. Ils y ont absorbé des quantités énormes de victuailles de toute sorte. La conséquence en a été qu´ils ont encombré de leurs déjections toutes les salles de l´usine. Une equipe d´ouvriers a mis une semaine pour retirer de l'usine trente mille kilos de matières fécales. Les dépenses de cet enlevement se sont élévées à une somme considérable. L'amaS de ces déjections a été photographié, il s´eleve a une hauteur a peine croyable.
A Liége, après un séjour de cent quatre-vingts Allemands pendant six jours dans l´immeuble n. 112, boulevard de la Sanvenière les water-closets debordants ont nécessité une démolition compléle pour les évacuer.
La maison tout entière était encombrée de matières fécales. Les lits en étaient remplis. Des ordures avaient été déposées dans les tapis, ensuite enroulées avec soin. Les robes de soirée avaient été salies puis rangées dans les armoires. Six personnes furent occupées pendant Une semaine à cet épouvantable nettoyage.
La ville tout entière fut submergées, selon l´expression dún témoin, sous une marée d´excréments.
Dans un grand nombre de localités serbes, on a été surpris de lenormité des déjections intestinales laissées par les troupes autrichiennes. En certains endroits, les couloirs des maisons, les cours, les ruelles les maisons elles-mêmes en étaient remplis jusqu´à un mètre de hauteur. Il a fallu une main- d´oeuvre considérable et des dépenses très élevées pour en assurer l´evacuation.
Les mèmes constatations ont été faites en Serbie, partout où des localités Iurent occupées par des Antrichiens de race allemande.
 (...) Des exemples analogues pourraient être multipliés à l´infini (..) Mais je m´en tiendrai aux principales conclusions suivantes:
1. La polychésie de la race allemande, par sa constance, par sa répétition et par sa fixité, constitue un caractère de race.
2. Au point de vue hygiénique, elle résulte de l´inobservance habituelle des règles de la tempérance et de l´hygiène alimentaire. Elle est en rapport avec le degré de gloutonnerie et de polyphagie, tout polyphage étant, nécessairement, doublé d´un polychésique.
3 Au point de vue clinique, elle est caractérisée par une activité hypertrophique de la fonction digestive ayant des repercussions inévitables sur toutes les autres fonctions.
4 Au point de vue anatomique, la mesure de l´intestin rev+ele, chez les Allemands, une augmentation de longueur d´environ trois mètres. Cet accroissement porte particulièrement sur le gros intestin dont la capacité est développée dans les mêmes proportions.
L´ampoule rectale des Allemands atteint des dimensions considérables, en rapport avec le surmenage fonctionnel dont elle est l´objet. Leur sphincter anal, comme cela a été fréquemment constaté au cours de l´anesthésie chirurgicale, n´offre qu´une résistance extrêmement faibel et il se dilate avec la plus grande facilité.
La polychésie apporte le témoignage de l´infériorité biologique de la race allemande.

Dr. Edgar Bérillon, La psychologie de la race allemande (1917)

Sex Life in the Trenches of the First World War (2)

"One of the most frequent consequences of sexual starvation during the war is the retreat to infantile forms of satisfying the libido.
We have already shown that among these masturbation occupied
the first place but, in general, we might say that the life in the
trenches was calculated in itself to favor the recrudescence of in-
fantilism. Stekel has given the following explanation of this phe-
nomena which, be it remembered, also serves to explain why so
many soldiers who returned from the war have become unfit for
work and find no pleasure at all in it.

"I have frequently emphasized that all infantilists are lazy. They
revolt at work because it disturbs their fantasy life and dreams.
The retreat from work and the avoidance of it is a dangerous social
phenomenon. Owing to the war it has become a psychic epidemic
which has infected whole nations. The reasons are quite obvious.
In the trenches and in the playfulness of the war stations during
periods of idleness and enforced inactivity, there were numerous,
totally empty hours in which the soldier was driven back to his
infantile fantasies in order to kill time and to escape from the pain-
ful present into a pleasurable dream world. The war drove numer-
ous men and women into the comforting arms of infantilism.
Numerous marriages were destroyed by it and innumerable men
lost all joy in work and in reality. It will take decades until these
noxious consequences will be remedied."

Among the phenomena under the general rubric of erotic mani-
festations in the trenches, we desire to mention anal eroticism
among soldiers. As is well known, the purely animal and physical
needs stood at the center of the soldiers' interest for, placed in the
primitive conditions at the front, they lost practically all the
achievements of civilization and were sexually unsatisfied.

In the war novel by Remarque we can see how much of the
soldiers' attention was directed to defecation— its technique and
pleasures. The new recruits used the large mass latrine but those
who had been in the service for a while had little boxes of their
own. These boxes were equipped with comfortable seats, and
handles whereby they could be transposed. Remarque describes
for us how soldiers sat down on their seats for a good long session,
with no intention whatever of getting up before two hours had
elapsed. When they first came to the garrison as rookies they suf-
fered considerable embarrassment at having to use the communal
latrine. There was no door and twenty men sat in line next to each
other as in a train, for the soldier had continually to be under
supervision. But very soon they overcame this modesty. After a while everything became indifferent to them. At the front this bodily function actually became a pleasure and men were unable
to understand why they had formerly been squeamish about a
matter which was as natural as eating and drinking.

To the soldier his stomach and digestion are much more familiar
things than they are to other people. Three-quarters of his vo-
cabulary is derived from this realm and the expressions of his
highest joy as well as of his deepest sorrow derive their picturesque
imagery from this. It is impossible to express oneself as succinctly
and clearly in any other way. The families and teachers of the
soldiers may be surprised at this when the latter return home, but
at the front it is the universal language. For soldiers these processes
once again achieved the character of complete innocence or nat-
uralness as a result of the compulsory publicness. They became so
obvious that their pleasurable performance was regarded with great
satisfaction. It is significant that the word that came to be applied
to gossip of all kinds is latrine parole for the privies were the
places for conversation for the soldiers much as a restaurant table
is to others.

It is impossible to overlook the libidinous coloring in Remarque's
depiction of these matters. But the connection between defecation
and sex is represented much more clearly in the war novel, Schipper
at the Front. In this book of Beradt's we see how every soldier was
as happy as a schoolboy when the body demanded its needs. Al-
though it was only a large bird cage in which the happily busy
one could hang for a little while, this little stay between heaven
and earth was so pleasant for the idler that he gladly seized this
opportunity to recuperate from his labors, no matter what the
weather — rain, snow or storm. Soon the shyness that had been
present in the beginning disappeared completely and one did not
scruple at all to undress before strangers. In this place of leisurely
activity arose those stories which were best designated as latrine
stories, a term befitting them as well because of their nature as of
their place of origin. It was remarkable how childish the reactions
of the men were in respect to the satisfaction of this excremental
function. The latter was not regarded as anything repulsive, or as
something to be merely tolerated, but as an object for jest. The
German soldiers were not nearly as much concerned with their
front sides as with their rear. As people with a comparatively
moderate sensuality they were much more concerned with the dis-
cussion of the influence of eating and drinking than of erotic pleasures, a manner of reaction entirely different from that common
to other nations where, contrariwise, it was the pleasures of sex
that occupied the first rank. Withal, this delight of the Germans
in the movements of their bowels was difficult to reconcile with the
cleanliness they are noted for. And with regard to external cleanli-
ness, they did live up to their reputation; but while they main-
tained their external standards they filled their mouths with filth.
This contradiction is to be explained by the fact that the outer man
has not become accustomed to the progress of the inner man and
retains his old pleasure in acts or processes which the external form
of life has already transcended. Knowledge and habit simply had
not kept pace. Some people have attributed this delight in coprol-
ogy to another circumstance. It can be regarded as a self-limitation
—a sort of regression to escape a greater danger— the consequences
of traffic with women who were very difficult of access here; and
since there had to be something to occupy the imagination of the
men during the fearsome weeks, the vegetative domain of life was
exploited. However, Beradt disagrees with this hypothesis inas-
much as he had found that the joy in the excremental pleasures
exceeded that taken in the erotic domain. There were soldiers who
loved the one and didn't hate the other. Once he had to dine with
four other officers and was fairly submerged under a volley of the
nastiest sort of excremental jokes combined with a steady stream of
bawdy ones. It was virtually impossible for a person of any sensi-
tivity at all to swallow a mouthful under such conditions. He
pounded on the table madly and called for a bit of decency but
this only served to increase the current of filth, and he was finally
forced to leave the table and finish his supper alone. However, in
the ensuing days at lunch, at least, a certain amount of considera-
tion was extended to those whose stomachs were somewhat squeam-
ish. But now Beradt was annoyed by another pest. It happened
that at night he had to sleep near a worker for whom every move-
ment and word contained a hint or suggestion that was scatologic
or pornographic. Men are quickly infected by this type as education
and self-control are only a thin veil concealing but lightly the
primitive impulse; and so this soldier's comrades, not to be out-
done, went beyond him in foulness. To sustain his reputation he
made additional and incessant efforts to cover everything with stool.
Life was unbearable and Beradt saw himself compelled to thrash
the chap and only after the flogging was there a return to a some-
what higher level of decency.


Now Beradt's account is correct and quite in line with Tiejen-
psychologie (the name suggested by Bleuler for psychoanalysis).
He points here to the double root of anal eroticism among soldiers.
On the one hand it is a regression to infantile anal acts and activi-
ties to the child's libidinous play with excrement, and on the other
side it is a substitute for sexual intercourse. For this reason anal
eroticism must not be omitted in any discussion of the sexual hun-
ger of soldiers even if its importance seems to have been overlooked
by the Fachwissenschajt. Another thing that we may regard as a
substitute activity is the social game played with flatus so popular
among soldiers and officers as well.

It has been reported that on and off pseudo-homosexual inter-
course, or homoerotic love between men who heretofore had been
of normal sexuality, also played a role as a substitute form of sex
satisfaction. We shall return to this matter in the chapter on homo-
sexuality during the war. In the case of another perversion —
sodomy or bestiality, the connection with sex hunger created by
war conditions is much clearer. This sort of sexual activity is even
in normal times to be attributed to insufficient opportunity for the
exercise of coitus, since a pathological sexual impulse which is
directed only towards animals is rather rare (Forel). Of course in
some few cases we must assume another factor in order to under-
stand this type of aberration — satiety with the normal response and
a desire for novelty and change. In regard to sodomy, we have the
testimony of one of the leading military physicians of the Austro-
Hungarian army that on the Italian front at least (he was stationed
near Doberdo) such cases could be observed very frequently. The
usual offenders in this respect were Hungarian hussars who used
for sexual purposes the mares entrusted to their care. Even officers
occasionally indulged this perversion and that is why men who
were caught at this act were never brought before a military court
but were flogged right then and there. The authority referred to
above, estimates that on a conservative judgment at least ten per
cent of the men in his division participated in such perverted sex
activities. Such an enormous spread of sodomy and all experiences
that have been gathered on this subject (Forel has observed this
condition only among idiots and morons who, despised and mocked
by every girl, retire to the quiet of the stable to seek and find
consolation with a cow) put it beyond question that we are dealing
here with one of the sequela? of abstention from normal sex activ-
ity enforced by the conditions of war.


Of course in all previous wars and indeed in peace times there is
clearly discernible a certain comradeship between the soldier and
his steed. A good expression of the affection felt by a cavalryman
for his horse is to be read in Edward Kachmann's novel called
Four Years — Front Reports of a Cavalryman. In many cases, there-
fore, it is difficult to say whether the more intimate relationship
with the animal that we are here discussing is to be regarded as
zoophily, or animal fetishism, or as the adoption of certain reac-
tions as substitutes for normal sex intercourse. This is true of the
case reported by Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the few instances of
sodomy observed and reported during the war. During the war he
had to give an opinion on a Bavarian corporal who had cohabited
with a sow. This man's colleague had observed on numerous oc-
casions he had slipped into the swine pens and locked himself in.
The soldiers, suspicious of their comrade, bored little holes through
the door and, when they next saw him slink into the barn, they
watched him through the little openings and saw, to their amaze-
ment, that the corporal had complete coitus with the sow. On the
information supplied by them he was arrested. It is most interesting
to note what his defense was: the light colored skin of the swine
had always reminded him of his fair-skinned wife whom he loved
dearly (she had presented him with seven splendid children) but
from whom he had been separated for two years; it was in order
to remain faithful to her that he had expended his lust upon the
sow. Despite his honest defense, which proceeded from a consider-
able degree of mental weakness, his admirable war record and
numerous distinctions, the man was sentenced to a rather severe
punishment. The naive fashion in which the accused defended his
derilection is frequently found in such cases, and is typical of the
low mentality of the malefactors.

There was much discussion among physicians about the possible
or probable consequences of enforced continence. This was espe-
cially true in Germany where in 191 5 the "Society for the Com-
bating of Venereal Diseases" sent a questionnaire on this subject to
all physicians serving in the field. There were some twenty-seven
questions referring to the results of abstinence, the frequency of
pollutions and masturbation, neurasthenic phenomena, homosexual
activities, etc. The opinion was generally current that for such an
investigation the war offered a magnificent opportunity inasmuch
as hundreds of thousands of men had to live away from their wives;
yet quite a number of the medical men disapproved of this question-
naire very strongly. Thus Dr. Schaffer wrote that it was dangerous
to the common cause and insulting, especially in its influence upon
the wives who had remained at home. In addition he thought that a
number of the questions were out and out suggestive. In the course
of the conversations, Felix Theilhaber expressed the opinion that
the whole discussion seemed to be a waste of time for the facts had
been well known even before — that men at the front do not find it
hard to overcome sexual abstinence just as sportsmen can easily
bear the lack of sex intercourse. The real fighters, especially in the
East, he thought, who were going through such a strong physical
strain were definitely in a position to overcome any evil effect
resulting from their enforced continence, seeing that they were
diverted from this by strong psychic effects, that their living con-
ditions were extremely simple and, especially, that there was com-
pletely lacking any object that could tempt them; the old desires
would immediately return, of course, when these men left the
firing line.

This opinion was true but only in the light of the knowledge
available at that time — which, as we have indicated, was very
scanty. All the evil effects of sex hunger first became manifest
when the soldiers had been at their positions for a long time, where
the danger to life, although still considerable, was none the less
much decreased, and to the soldier whom habit had dulled must
have appeared almost negligible. To be sure, when the battle was
raging for a long time and life was in imminent danger, the worry
about the mere preservation of life was so great as to annihilate all
other impulses. In these cases the lack of sexual intercourse had
consequences which were quite different but none the less noxious.
We are referring here to the extinction of sexuality — a condition
which was observed in all armies and complained of by many
soldiers. This extinction of sexuality constituted a lasting impair-
ment of health. The medical protagonists of the theory that absti-
nence was innocuous and who, at the beginning pointed to the
consequences with triumph, soon had to reveal the facts.

This fact cannot be denied. All that is possible is a difference of
interpretation; and if we regard the impotence which resulted
from continence as an undesirable and sad consequence, one can
certainly not render a verdict in favor of abstinence. Early in 1916,
H. Fehlinger stated clearly that as far as his experiences went with
men who were engaged in military service, their sexuality had been
completely swamped. Among the men who were facing the enemy's
fire directly, sexuality was almost completely obliterated. Fehlinger
even asserted that not even in conversation did sex appear to be a
factor. Young and old reacted alike in this regard. Only one ex-
pression could be heard more or less frequently — that the men
themselves noticed and complained about the lack of sex needs.

We have every reason to assume that the abstinence enforced by
the war resulted in all forms of sexual neurosis. This is particularly
true of the most important of these neuroses, ejaculatio prcecox.
The war, with all the hardships and dislocations it imposed upon
sex life, seems to have increased tremendously the number of these
cases. Magnus Hirschfeld has reported that scarcely a week passed
in which female patients did not come to the "Institut fur Sexual-
wissenschaft" (an institution with which he was intimately con-
nected) with the complaint that their husbands, who had formerly
been healthy, had returned from the war suffering from this
complaint.

Even Vorberg, who otherwise was a protagonist of abstinence,
reported that in the front line trenches, where death reaped an
hourly harvest, sexual desire became extinguished, as no one thought
of woman as something to satisfy sex lust. There's no denying that
for men not in the firing line who were able to get under the
influence of alcohol and were exposed to the allurements of venal
women, the old Adam would rise again.

Lissmann has stated, in the brochure we have already referred
to, that the impotence caused by abstinence during the war lasted
for a considerable period after the war. To quote his own words:
"Even in the field not a few officers and soldiers with thoroughly
normal nervous systems told me that at the beginning of their
furloughs their erections were either completely absent or extremely
imperfect. It is true that in the second week of the furlough these
abnormal phenomena receded considerably in most cases; but even
now I frequently have occasion to see among the soldiers all phases
of impotence, from weakness of erections to that of complete
absence of tumescence. Not infrequently there is also to be noticed
a great uncertainty with regard to potency. By chance, these
observations that I had made in that field received confirmation
by the police physician resident in a little town behind our lines.
I requested him to make inquiries of the prostitutes plying their
trade in that town, concerning the potency of their clients. The
replies showed that the men who had just come in from the front
lacked the customary sexual power and very frequently showed in-
complete or imperfect erections. During the war it was possible to
attribute this functional weakness as psychic impotence due to the
time limit set for coitus during the furlough or to the dishabituation
of the senses from chemical eroticization. But now, after the war,
when the sexes are already reunited, the causal relation is lacking.
F. Pick has also established the perdurance of high grade disturb-
ances of the sexual function among former soldiers. In more than
half of the cases observed by him, libido, erection and ejaculation
were completely lacking."

On the other side of the picture there is to be noted an opposite,
but equally morbid consequence: the most erotomaniacal increase
of the sexual impulse as soon as there was any opportunity to
gratify it. A large number of the venereal diseases gotten in the
field-brothels were due to this oppressive and totally irrational sex
hunger.

Especially during the first or mobile part of the war, abstinence
was more frequently accompanied by this consequence than the
later or stationary portion by the de-eroticizing influence. On this
question Major Franz Carl Endres has said the following:

"Fresh and merry warfare is nothing but propaganda. Yes, it is
possible to be merry during the war- — in the pauses between battles
— even merrier than one normally is. This results from the fact that
the nerves are taut and man's natural desire for life cries out for
fulfillment. One wishes to be merry at least once more, for to-
morrow, likely as not, one will be dead. That is why the eroticism
of the undisciplined soldiers is so atrociously wild. In war times
the great fatigue caused by the maneuvers is not enough to lull
to sleep the erotic desires of the men but seems rather to excite
them. When there is added the feeling of having escaped from a
great danger (or being about to be exposed to one) there are
operative not only the physical disposition, but also an increased
sexual drive, and psychic moments of excitation which in men, who
have anything of the perverse in their constitution, leads to
erotomania and perversion of the sex impulse."

The war ideology believed that it was possible to dispose of this
whole complex question with cheap jokes concerning the immeasur-
ably increased sexual potency of the soldier (generalized quite
without foundation) home on furlough. But little good came of that.
Sex hunger was and remained throughout the war a serious and
even tragic problem, insoluble like all the others which war visited
upon man."

Magnus Herschfeld, The Sexual History of the Great War

Sex Life in the Trenches of the First World War (1)

SENSUALITY IN THE TRENCHES

Normal Sex Life Impossible in Trenches — German Physicians Extol Abstinence—" Steel Bath of the Nerves"— Origin of Sex Sublimation Theory —French Institution of "Marraines" — Sexual Abnormalities Due to War — Masturbation a Necessary Evil — Case Histories of Onanism — Profanity and Lewdness of Speech — Obscene Songs— Pornographic Photographs- Indecent Literature— Plaster Phalli Found in Trenches— Erotic Dreams- Excerpts from War Diaries— Tattooing and its Sexual Origin— Pleasure in Excremental Functions — Latrine Stories — Unnatural Sex Satisfactions — Anal Eroticism of Soldiers— Sodomy— Instances of Bestiality—Impotence
Resulting from Enforced Continence — Ejaculatio Praecox — Serious Problem of Sex Hunger

THAT the war, at the begnining, could appear to many as a way to erotic liberation and unlimited expression of sensuality points to one of the numerous errors that springs from complete ignorance
of modern warfare. Had people been able to realize what war actually signified, humanity would at least have been spared the illusion, and the disappointment which inevitably followed. Instead
we find in this connection, as in almost every other, an almost terrifying ignorance with which human beings met the greatest catastrophe in their history. It was necessary for the war, with all its frightful reality, to show up, in tragic-comic fashion, the slight possibility of release for the erotic impulse as compared to the extremely farflung expectations on that subject.

For the majority of those who participated in the war and did not have the opportunity of spending the years of the world conflagration in the amorous paradises provided at various military war-stations, the same thing happened to the much touted business of erotic freedom as happened to the Italian futurists with their much eulogized freedom of action in whose name their prophet, Marinetti, had demanded the entrance of Italy into the war. It turned out that in this war there could be no question of freedom of action or freedom in any sense; that modern war was inhuman discipline completely devaluating and deflating all notions of human dignity, and that it signified nothing so much as the restraint of all free expression in all matters, including the sexual life. In the trenches the common soldier ceased to be a human being; but what is much worse, is that through the altered circumstances of life he was compelled to stop being a man. In the trenches there
was no place for sexual life, at least not for a normal one. Here one became an animal, only without the right of the animal to enjoy the free satisfaction of its instincts.

It is as significant as it is sad that in this case also science willingly placed itself in the service of war. German physicians especially were extremely concerned in singing hymns of praise to abstinence with an enthusiasm that was more than a little suspicious. In France, on the other hand, a systematic treatment of this question was avoided and in England the old tradition of publicly avoiding, as much as possible, all discussion of sexual problems was maintained. In German medicine there had even before been savants who had espoused the theory that sexual abstinence was not only innocuous but even salubrious. At the beginning of the war German public opinion frequently cited the belief of German physicians that abstinence would actually produce very beneficial results as continence would be tantamount to treasuring up the best powers of the body. Now this might have been true had
the war lasted, as was expected at the beginning, for a few months or, at the most, a year. But when the duration of the war was protracted far beyond the original expectations, quite a different con-
dition became apparent; and so we must reckon among the most evil and deplorable consequences of the war such as war prostitution and the spread of veneral diseases, also the enforced abstinence. No one will be surprised that literature gave considerable assistance to the scientific apostles of abstinence whose patriotism far exceeded their scientific truth. Everyone knows that, especially
in the early period of the war, literature and journalism stood right under the banner of the ideology of the war in that it suffered itself to be entirely influenced by it and then returned this influence strengthened by its own professional contribution. Medical science espoused the cause of hygienic abstinence. Literature and the press assumed the view that from the war there would result a tremendous sublimation of the sexual impulse. This went so far that even such a reputable investigator of the erotic realm as Eulenburg, who died during the war, coined the frequently
quoted expression of the steel bath of the nerves. Let us quote one example of the literary expression of this point of view. In an article called War and Eroticism, Hans Natonek gave expression to
the following viewpoint which was characteristic of the sentiments espoused and propagated by the literature of that period.

"If one regards the eroticism of man as something to which the subject spirit is more relevant and important than the object woman, then the war, with its completely non-erotic atmosphere,
with its hard, sweet necessity of being womanless, seems to have been peculiarly created to restore the dreamy, mild, yearning hunger of true eroticism. Where formerly sex had been an ugly, soulless,
rather brutish and almost mechanically sober indulgence, the situation as a result of enforced abstinence became quite different. For months there was no woman to be seen and this alone would have to make the most gross of men somewhat finer, and the most matter-of-fact ones a bit deeper. Formerly the en j oyer would have to do nothing more than to stretch out his hand for that which
he desired, and so his pleasure and indulgence became for him something habitual, dull or almost superfluous. Life was lived in an erotic atmosphere and one had continually to talk in order to
believe in it. Renunciation and the tension induced by want were unknown. Erotic culture in which people had come to believe that they were living, had, as a matter of fact, been destroyed through
the continuous presence and possession of woman. But during the war many millions of men were torn out of their erotic mechani- zation and placed into a form of life in which woman became so
distant and so wonderfully strange as to be reached only in the dream of yearning. In this way every erotic form of life is simplified, and becomes more honest and genuine. It almost appears as
though the relationship of man and woman in all its fineness can only become obvious when woman is lacking."

(...) The sublimation of the sexual impulse soon turned out to be nothing more than a dream and a very ugly one. The soldiers who, in rain and frost, surrounded by death, cowered in their trenches
like living corpses, instead of idealizing woman spoke of her, accord- ing to the testimony of all participants of the war, in the most filthy and profane fashion. We may anticipate and say that this
extreme nastiness of speech constituted a sort of substitute satis- faction — that when one could not actually have the love object to deal with, one could at least brutalize it with words.

...
It is a curious fact, but a true one nevertheless, that letters from home frequently had erotic effects upon their recipients. The abnormality in the sexual conditions aggravated the general feeling
of dissatisfaction almost to the point of madness and induced psycopathic mental states and depressions which were frequently erroneously attributed to fighting alone. (Lowenfeld's Sexualleben und Nervenleiden contains considerable material on this subject.) Thus a patient in the psychiatric ward of a hospital related that each time he would receive a letter from home he would have a pollution. Furthermore the same patient related that he would also have ejaculations when he was on a post awaiting an attack by the enemy, or whenever he would witness an altercation among his
own comrades. The smallest excitement would induce a painful erection — against which he had long struggled in vain and from which he finally sought release by masturbation. He assured the
authorities that before the war he had never manifested any sexual abnormalities.

That the evil of self-abuse (or self-satisfaction) was widespread in every army and not infrequently had unwholesome consequences is not to be established from statistics, but the judgments of all
military surgeons lend great probability to our assertion. Let us quote from Dr. P. Lissmann who has devoted a monograph to the influences of the war upon the sex life of men. "During the war a
great role was played from the sexo-neurological point of view, by masturbation (ipsalind). In peace times this practice is exceedingly common. It is assumed that ninety-six per cent of all young people
in the second decade of their life masturbate. But during the war it became far more widespread, according to private and professional records. The biologically imperative sexual impulse of the soldiers, whether in active service or reserve regiments, could not, in many cases, be eliminated or suppressed by religious or ethical scruples, or by fear of infection. On this point I have questioned hundreds of men of all nationalities, and in general, have received the answer that was expected under the circumstances— that there was current an enforced or substitute masturbation. Indeed not a few older men, who at home were accustomed to regular sex intercourse, confessed that they had chosen this way of escape from the torture of the senses, to avoid the scruples of conscience, and the dangers consequent upon illegitimate sexual intercourse. In these masturbators it was not at all a question of abnormal, psychopathic constitution. As far as the consequences of masturbation are concerned (which, while not without their evil effects, have, nevertheless, been greatly exaggerated) changes in character and temperament, melancholic depressions, etc.— I have not had enough exact experience of them in the field. The customary self-reproach and certain neurasthenic symptom complexes were observable in a few cases which had masturbated excessively. In general I shared Hirschfeld's impression that the elastic nerves of the healthy, strong man can easily overcome this single alteration of sex satisfaction.

"Moreover, the practice of masturbation was virtually impossible for my regiment while it was in position. Whoever has been in the field with front-line divisions knows the dense concentration of
men in the wooded positions which never permits men, and especially young officers, to remain alone. The various military duties at the post, sentry duty, the public nature of the latrines, the com-
mon mess, make it next to impossible to be alone and hence extremely difficult to go through the motions of peripheral, mechanical masturbation. Of course it is impossible to guess what prohibitive
or restraining influence the public life of the military camp would have on psychic masturbation which, in its nervous sequela?, is much more grave. I want to adduce an illustrative case to render
concrete this condition which Hirschfeld has termed sexual hyperesthesia. A certain strongly sexed man of thirty gave himself up to erotic imagination so long and intensively that ejaculation would
result without any external stimulation of the genital organs. He suffered considerably from the customary masturbationists' hypochondria which drove him to believe in the well-known desiccation
of the spinal marrow. This, however, did not hinder him from surrendering again and again to his erotic fantasies."

The great number of erotic stories that were circulated during the war, both among the troops at the field and also at home, give proof of the wide dissemination of the practice. For example, one
of the best known epigrams of the war was the statement of an old Austrian Landsturm man, "Formerly my wife was my right hand, now my right hand in my wife." A former Hungarian officer has de- scribed to us the case of a Bosnian who served in his army and had to be given a furlough and sent home because he would, in keeping with his low mental state, masturbate before all his com-
rades. When this unusually strong man returned from his fortnight furlough, during which he had had normal intercourse with his wife, he had grown strong and healthy and regained all his former
power.

A former French lieutenant has told us of a similar case. One day, as he was inspecting the dugouts, he came to a dimly lit corner where a tremendous crowd of poilus and a mysterious fluid caused him to stop at the threshold to see what was going on. Unseen he observed that they were standing around a young private (from the suburbs of Paris to judge by his accent) who was reciting something with the greatest elan and the most impressive vividness. The Parisian was describing his bridal night in the gayest colors, accompanying his story with appropriate movements of hand, body and head, and the most ludicrous tones, even to the imitation of a woman's voice. The excitation into which he had gotten himself was communicated to his comrades. "As far as I could make out in the darkness, they seemed to be drawn closer and closer to him and to hang onto his words. Finally, on tiptoe, I crept nearer. After my eyes had grown accustomed to the semi-darkness, I was able to see clearly the purpose and effect of the vivid recitation of this youth from Panama (argot for Paris). The delighted and ravished poilus were standing around with unbuttoned trousers. . . ."

It is certainly no exaggeration to see in the unhygienic effects of onanism practiced in the field, a direct consequence of the abstinence induced by the war, inasmuch as most of those war mas-
turbators were people who, under normal circumstances, would not have fallen prey to self-pollution. In his Winter lager einer geschlagenen Armee Egon Erworn Kisch has related the significant
fact that, as soon as the army entered a place where normal sex intercourse was possible, those soldiers, who continued even now to indulge in the common substitute of self-satisfaction, were mocked and jeered at by their comrades who forthwith took advantage of the opportunity for heterosexual intercourse. Very frequently the masturbation practiced by soldiers must have led to those twilight states in which various military crimes, like desertion, for example,
were committed.

That under certain circumstances war itself induced masturbation is difficult to prove, but may, none the less, be assumed. We need only remember the erotic effects which certain war situations, as, for example, bombardment, exert upon the female psyche in order to conclude that, in like situations, similar reactions can be observed among men. It is an established historical fact that in the midst of the battle of Abensberg, Napoleon had a woman brought into his tent and had intercourse with her. In this connection we might mention the sadistic major concerning whom Bruno Vogel has reported as masturbating while observing a military encounter through field glasses. Even if this figure were a ficti- tious one, it is still true psychologically — just as true as the figure in de Sade's writing, a century earlier, who got an orgasm when Vesuvius erupted. Lissmann has reported the following case: "A thirty-year-old man, otherwise normal neurologically, used to get ejaculations, without erections or passion, during strong artillery fire. During continued firing he would get two or three ejaculations without showing any particular signs of lassitude or exhaustion. He had also come across another man of twenty-five who, during the bombardment of a town, had taken refuge in a cellar, and, while cowering there in terror, had repeated ejaculations without erection.

But it must not be supposed that masturbation was the only form of substitute satisfaction to which soldiers resorted in their sex hunger. Even during peace time the cursing and profanity of the soldiery is proverbial; and need we spend any time in pointing out the drastic way in which the sex impulse manifests itself in this coprolagnic activity? Hence, it is no wonder that in war, profanity, lewdness and nastiness of speech were more widespread than ever before, according to all observers. The speech of the garrison is, in general, a mixture of expressions which designate details of the digestive process or sexual intercourse. In his study of the ethical and moral effects of the war upon Germany, Baumgarten cites a letter sent him from the trenches by one of his former students: "Is there any possibility that in the slime of the trenches there is an increase in the power of the soul to keep itself pure? Few young people have so strong an inner life that they can retain the purity of their souls by their own power. It is almost a year now that we have been without the companionship of modest, noble women or girls, a factor which does much to equilibriate passion and ennoble the soul. To be sure, we have the will to remain pure and modest, even as we have the will to be victorious. But, just as without proper leadership, we are doomed to failure no matter how brave and courageous we may be, so also in the matter of morality we are doomed to defeat, despite all the exertion of our will-power if we lack spiritual and ethical guidance. I myself have had the experi- ence, despite all my efforts to the contrary, of again and again wallowing in filth, until one comes to regard it as a necessary con- sequence of the war to spice one's speech with the proper flavor of bawdiness and foulness."

A not inconsiderable part of soldiers' jokes and songs refer to sexual life. (..) Old songs, opera hits or popular ballads were sung with certain textual changes, practically always of an erotic sort. The novel Perhobstler, referred to above, contains examples of this type of erotic textual emendations which cannot be quoted here.

Another form of substitute satisfaction, besides lewd chatter and songs, was the pornographic products with which the soldiers were provided. Early in 191 5 the Hungarian papers expressed their intense dissatisfaction at the thriving export trade in pornographic (especially masochistic) photographs. Accordingly to the testimony of various participants in the war, these pictures were very wide- spread and contributed much to help the inhabitants of the dug- outs in their enforced continence. For the most part these pictures were of the sort well known to us even in peace times — the most shameless pornographic photographs which are still vended in the streets of Paris and advertised in many newspapers and journals all over the world.

Furthermore, the soldiers were kept supplied with erotic reading matter. We may refer here to a French advertisement captioned, Pour nos soldats, under which were advertised the most depraved
kind of pornographic literature including a work of the well-known sadistic author who bears the significant nom de plume, Aime Van Rod. And when the shipment from home stopped, there were other measures adopted in various places. The German press frequently printed accounts of women's hats, dresses and underthings being found in abandoned French trenches, which were later occupied by German troops. In addition to these mementoes of visits that women had paid to those places were found photographs of coitus scenes and phalli of plaster. At a meeting devoted to military medicine,
held at Tubingen in 19 14, a physician, Dr. Gaupp, exhibited a large phallus, 19.5 c. long and 5.5 cm. in diameter, found in the knapsack of a French officer. There were all sorts of notions con- cerning the possible uses of the instrument. Dr. Gaupp asserted that such instruments had repeatedly been found in the bags of fallen French soldiers and this had aroused the suspicion in Ger- man military circles that they were instruments for inflicting brutal injuries on German women and girls. The questioning of French wounded elicited no explanation other than that these mysterious objects were seulment pour rire. Gaupp, however, believed that this was improbable, for no object so heavy and large would be forced into a knapsack only for fun. Nor was there much to be said for the hypothesis that it was used for pederastic purposes. It seemed much more likely that the object was really a talisman, only the size and weight of the object were against this explanation. Perhaps there was a sort of exhibitionism here in which a sexually perverse person would become excited at the sight of the shame and insult that women would feel when confronted with the giant phallus. It was Iwan Bloch's hunch that the purpose of the instrument could be found in a sort of fetishistic substitute reaction.
In the professional circles of Germany, this question aroused con- siderable interest. It may be likely that this was merely an indi- vidual find which, in normal times, free from war psychosis, would
not have aroused any great interest or led to such intricate and fine-spun conclusions concerning French eroticism. In this connec- tion, it is well to remember that at the same meeting at which
the phallus question came up, Iwan Bloch read an obscene parody of the French training regulations which had also been found on the person of a French soldier. Bloch opined that no such produc-
tions could or would be found among the German soldiers. How- ever, this optimistic guess was utterly contradicted by the late hap- penings of the war. There was scarcely one trench dugout in which, during periods of inactivity and comparative rest, the devastating tedium of a comatose and stupefying vegetativeness was not re- lieved by erotic titillation. This biological thrill was purveyed to German and other soldiers frequently by erotic and even obscene reading matter. A special favorite was the erotic parody of military orders. There is extant a copy of an album, distributed at the front in innumerable copies, bearing the title Schweineriade and containing "the instructions of a corps of Amazons to be organized in 191 5." There is also extant a pamphlet of similar content en- titled: Official Orders Concerning the Organization, Practice, Mili- tary Leadership, etc., of Mobile Field- and Reserve-Houses of Joy.

Naturally the official literature was also interested in satisfying the demand for erotic reading matter which could be used to while away many a dismal, ugly hour in the trenches. One war partici- pant, Clemens Gert, has written an interesting essay on the subject of erotic literature in the dugouts, its spread, use, quality, etc. Among other things he says that natural unforced eroticism will seldom lead to hyper-irritation or excessive excitation of the senses.It was quite different, however, with regard to the erotic produc- tion of a writer like Marie Madeleine, whose characters always manifested some perverse trait or other. It was this type of read- ing which wrought great havoc upon inexperienced and youthful minds. The effect of the daily conversations of the men continually preoccupied with erotic subjects was not nearly so corrupting. Of course, they did arouse the desire for woman but the desire thus aroused proceeded in a natural way to its goal, that is, it aimed directly at the pleasure of love. But the situation was quite dif- ferent with the characters which Madeleine created. These were nearly always hysterical in one way or another and dominated by a perverse instinctual life. Hence, not infrequently, these erotic productions poisoned young minds even before they had come to
their first actual sex experience. It will be no exaggeration to designate Madeleine's activity as being downright poisonous for it aroused young and hot-blooded people to a pitch of abnormal ex-
citement and virtually created unnatural desires.

No special emphasis is necessary, of course, in regard to the fact
that the fantasy of these hungry men, erotically inflamed by this
type of reading, some of whom had never yet experienced a love
pleasure, should result in various erotic dreams. This will appear
perfectly comprehensible even to the reader who knows next to
nothing of psychoanalysis. Innumerable war diaries, drawings and
productions of war literature tell us that the dreams of the com-
batants were drenched with lust. There can be absolutely no ques-
tion of anything like sublimation of the sex impulse or idealization
of the women. In these erotic dreams, which we have just noted, in
which the inner man comes to expression, there is as little of the
ideal or refined elements of the higher stages of love as in the con-
versations carried on in the trenches, or in the soldiers' songs and
jokes which revolved entirely upon the theme of sex. In dreams, as
in the waking state, the oppressive sex starvation of the soldiers
showed itself in all the multifarious expressions that are so well
known. We shall confine ourselves to quoting just one illustration
from the war novel by Johannsen:

"A sleeping soldier whispers in his dream the name of some
woman. A student lying nearby shuts his eyes and soon is asleep.
The lousy, filthy blanket turns into a girl's dress and the curve of
the steel helmet on which his hand rests is transformed into a small
girl's breast. A sweet warmth runs through his veins. He dreams
of his sweetheart and, after her picture becomes somewhat pale, he
dreams of women in general."

The sexual hunger at the front and in the encampments of the
prisoners-of-war was everywhere strongly apparent. Many a man
thus got his first notion of the sex hunger that rages in prisons. . . .

Nor were there lacking on the front other well-known conse-
quences of sexual abstinence. Thus many soldiers had themselves
tattooed when there was an opportunity. There are many places in
literature, especially in the works of Italian psychiatrists, where the
erotic origin of this phenomenon is explained. We know that it is
to be attributed to sex hunger; most tattoos applied during the
World War had an outspoken erotic character. This phenomenon
was met with most frequently in sailors who naturally had more
opportunity for carrying out this practice than soldiers in the
trenches. In Freud's terminology, we are dealing with men who
have been away from women for a long time and without the op-
portunity for sexual satisaction, and who therefore, have turned
back their libido fixation upon themselves. During the World War
the sailors generally had themselves tattooed in the very first weeks
of service, a fact which has been frequently observed among pris-
oners. It is, of course, impossible to say what percentage, but among
the English sailors it is estimated that twenty per cent of the men
in service were tattooed, an estimate which also applies to the
German navy because here the national differences are submerged
by the fact that the manner of life is exactly the same. Furthermore,
our estimate of the number of soldiers who had their bodies
stamped with these erotic designs is rendered more difficult as many
soldiers who participated in the war had had themselves tattooed
previously or had behind them a prison record of longer or shorter
duration. It will be remembered that, according to fairly reliable
statistics, between fifty and sixty per cent of prisoners have them-
selves tattooed...

Magnus Hirchsfeld, The Sexual History of the Great War, 1930