TY  - THES
A1  - Seyferth, Alexander
T1  - Die Heimatfront 1870/71 : Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im deutsch-französischen Krieg
T2  - Krieg in der Geschichte
Y1  - 2007
SN  - 978-3-506-75663-3
VL  - 35
PB  - Schöningh
CY  - Paderborn
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Seyferth, Alexander
T1  - Money offerings for the war : beneficiary associations in the German-French war 1870/71
N2  - The analysis of the German support associations provides new insights into the changing nature of the Franco- Prussian war of 1870/71, stylised into a national war, over the course of the campaign. Although the German states under the leadership of Prussia had prepared themselves for the operational requirements of a war against France in the years following 1866, they had underestimated the need for a mobilisation of their home country in order to achieve a successful outcome. Therefore private help had to be activated to fulfil important tasks at home coordinated by the states. A central requirement German governments faced at home was the care for the Wounded, the family members of drafted soldiers and French POWs. Since the states were able to provide neither money nor personnel for these tasks, they endeavoured systematically to acquire and exploit the necessary support of the population through the foundation and centralisation of patriotic relief associations. In the process, the authorities tried to gain maximum control over the associations through the state; to achieve this, they even accepted a partly reduced efficiency of the relief actions. The costs explosion and the declining support for the relief associations at home clearly indicate that in the course of the campaign, the war against France was seen more and more critically, and an initial war euphoria - if it had existed on a large scale at all - wore off quickly. Voluntary activities in medical orderly detachments, which had been stylised as a selfless patriotic sacrifice were often based on social pressure and sensation-seeking and thus can hardly be used as evidence for an alleged war euphoria. This, is illustrated by the work of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem which in general was rather counterproductive. The practice of collecting donations for support associations, increasingly enforced in the course of the war, and the growing involvement of women in the war effort on the home front demonstrate that the Franco-Prussian war had a much greater effect on Germany's social structures than had been recognised by research until now
Y1  - 2005
ER  -