"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
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