Thematic Paper
World War I
For this thematic paper we talked to: Nel de Mûelenaere, PhD student Military History, University of Antwerp
Philip Vanhaelemeersch, Director at the Confucius Institute at the Howest University College West Flanders
Edith Drieskens, Professor International and European Studies, KU Leuven
Antoon Vrints, Professor of Social History, Ghent university
Leen Engelen, Film Historian, Zap track KU Leuven & LUCA School of Arts
Jan Wouters, Professor International Law, KU Leuven & Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies
Harlind Libbrecht, Landscape Architect, University College Ghent
Thematic papers Pierre Schoentjes, Professor French Literature, Ghent University
The goal of the thematic papers is to present Flemish scientific research internationally. They focus on fundamental and applied research.
Birger Stichelbaut, Post-doc Archeology, Ghent University
The thematic papers are published by Research in Flanders, a project run by Flanders Knowledge Area. The project Research in Flanders is funded by the Flemish Government, Department of Foreign
Joost Vaesen, Professor Military History, Free University Brussel (VUB)
Affairs. Flanders Knowledge Area supports, through different projects, the internationalization of higher education in Flanders, Belgium.
Marc Van Meirvenne, Professor Soil Management, Ghent University www.researchinflanders.be www.flandersknowledgearea.be -2-
World War I Understanding the Past, Safeguarding the Future
A hundred years ago, the First World War turned Europe into turmoil. Four years later, the Treaty of Versailles brought an end to the horrendous war that extinguished millions of lives. Due to its impact on a wide range of areas, the Great War has since been the object of various research projects. Historians look at how the war influenced people’s daily lives; International Relations specialists ask themselves how to set up a system of global governance that could prevent a future world war; archaeologists and geologists study the objects and physical traces the wreckage left behind; literary scientists study pieces of writing about the war. The list goes on. ‘In Flanders Fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row.’ These words by Canadian poet John McCrae are carved into the world’s history. It was indeed in ‘Flanders Fields’, the region that stretches from East to West Flanders and into the upper part of France, where crucial battles were fought. Many students, researchers and tourists feel compelled to go to Flanders to learn more about the First World War and to visit the many cemeteries, trenches and museums. Unsurprisingly, Flanders’ higher education institutions have specialized in several aspects of the war. This thematic paper will focus on five domains of this research: 1. Society in Motion. How did the war affect people’s daily lives? 2. The Battlefield. Which military choices did the different countries make? How did militarization affect society? 3. Imagining the War. How has the war been portrayed in popular culture? 4. Remembrance. How should we deal with war heritage? 5. Global Governance. Which were the causes of the war? How did the war influence our system of global governance?
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Society in Motion -4-
How did the war affect the lives of the population? In which way did people respond to the occupation? How did they try to change the situation that was imposed upon them? These are the general questions the research unit of Antoon Vrints, Professor of Social History at Ghent University, deals with. Food politics, for instance, is one of the topics the unit looks into. ‘Hunger in occupied Belgium reveals a remarkable story’, Vrints explains. ‘Before the war, 75% of available grain in Belgium was imported. After the war started, this was not possible anymore due to the British blockade. In addition, the German occupiers tried to use the Belgian food industry for their own economic gain. They tried to withdraw as much food as possible, but they also didn’t want to cause too many protests. Thus, the Germans approved the actions of the National Relief and Food Committee, a private mechanism with the allure of an unofficial government formed and managed by Belgium’s economic elite and tried to find a solution to the famine. Import overseas became possible again because the committee guaranteed that food aid would only be distributed to the Belgian population’, Vrints explains.
‘Our research shows that the occupied population was not just a passive recipient of food aid. People took to the streets and took a variety of actions to demand greater access to food.’ Resultant food imports accounted for about half of the necessary food consumption. ‘This sounds little’, Vrints admits, ‘but it made the difference between survival and large-scale starvation’. Yet, hunger did have a huge demographic impact: Belgian population growth slowed drastically due to the famine. People decided to postpone having more children, for instance. The theme of hunger is just one among many subjects the unit researches. Belgian nationalism is another. ‘The War is often associated with the spread of Flemish nationalism, but amongst the larger part of the population, Belgian nationalism roused. Confronted with the misery of the German occupation, the population associated Belgian independence with prosperity and welfare.’ A third research project focuses on local governance. With the weakening of central government, a lot of mayors received responsibilities that used to be handled on the national level. ‘The -5-
question is how exactly they went about it’, Vrints says. How did society deal with informants? Who was considered an informant? Did the population target a particular group? What was the relationship between the informants and the informed like? These are also research questions Vrints’ unit deals with. ‘On the one hand, you had “professional informants”, those who were paid by the Germans. On the other hand, there were informants who voluntarily approached the Germans to report breaches of regulations, often about people who were hiding wool or copper, or farmers who had hidden harvests.’ A last research topic Vrints talks about, deals with the emotions of soldiers and veterans. ‘More specifically, the feelings of selfworth, honour and shame. The military leaders tried to boost soldiers’ morale by introducing medals and honorary mentions. We look into the effect of such measures by investigating the military court dossiers and by reading soldier’s personal writings, like letters and diaries.’
The Chinese Guest Workers Philip Vanhaelemeersch, Director at the Confucius Institute at the Howest University College West Flanders, translated the memoir of Gu Xingqing, an interpreter for the Chinese guest workers and the allied powers that employed them. Xingqing’s memoir contains a wealth of information about the situation of the Chinese guest workers during the war. ‘The Chinese received a temporary work permit and were promised a return ticket at the end of it, which they often didn’t get’, Vanhaelemeersch says. ‘They came
here for economic reasons, but had not expected to be deployed as soldiers. Yet, as the frontlines changed, many of them were.’ The memoir reveals how the Chinese felt out of place in Europe. ‘They really felt like guest workers, separate from the Europeans. For example, they tried to keep their own customs and traditions’, Vanhaelemeersch explains. Approximately 145,000 migrant workers were recruited, both by the French and the British. A significant share of those lost their lives in the war.
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Š UK Ministry of Defence
The Battlefield -7-
One would think the military aspect is the most researched part of a war. Yet in Flanders, at least with regard to the First World War, this is not the case. Nel de Mûelenaere, a young historian who is about to conclude her PhD at the University of Antwerp, thinks this might be because we regard ourselves as a small pacifist nation with no military tradition. ‘Military history is the most popular historical theme among the general public, but academia still looks at it with some disdain. Consequently, the up and coming field of new military history that encompasses social and cultural aspects of warfare has been absent in Belgian historiography. Although the recent centenary has stimulated new research on shellshock, for example, discipline or emotions in the Belgian army, military history remains very much an unexplored field. This is partly due to the fact that we like to think of ourselves as a victim of the war, not one of the participating parties.’ De Mûelenaere focuses on Belgian civil-military relations shortly before the First World War. Militarization was ubiquitous in Belgium, de Mûelenaere argues. ‘When we think about militaristic societies, countries like Imperial Germany during World War I or Japan during World War Two come to mind. The reason we like to think of these extreme cases of despotic militarism is because they imply that liberal-democracies are not susceptible to militaristic ideology. They prevent us from looking at
more subtle and less noticeable processes of militarization in nonbelligerent peacetime societies. In fact, militarization, the process through which someone becomes controlled by, derives their value from or is dependent on military institutions or military criteria, was a social process that permeated Belgian society.’ ‘It’s not just about the number of soldiers or war budgets’, de Mûelenaere explains, ‘the military determined society’s perception of the perfect man or woman or notions on citizenship. Militarization could be found in music and architecture, or even in extracurricular activities like scouting and gymnastics, which - by 1914 - basically ended up as a prep school for military duty.’ In addition, militarization processes were goaded by different, often contradictory elements. People did not necessarily join or support the army out of patriotism, they could equally have economic, social or very personal, opportunistic motives. Of course, once part of the army, young men were very much exposed to military values and codes of conduct.’ When she is asked about the biggest lesson she has learnt, de Mûelenaere doesn’t hesitate: ‘The underlying message in many World War I-commemorations is “never again”. We like to comfort ourselves with the thought that Western nations will never again be led to war by this loud jingoism, warmongering and aggressive patriotism. But -8-
that does not mean we should give ourselves a pat on the back. For one thing, the lessons of the First World War should force us to take a long hard look in the mirror. Nationalist and militarist ideologies are seldom loud and straightforward, but subtle and sly processes that shape our worldview and are omnipresent in everyday life. In that sense, militarization and nationalism are very much alive and kicking today, albeit in different forms.’ Forts versus Military Morale Joost Vaesen, Professor at the Free University Brussel (VUB), specialises in the political system in Brussels, as well as in military history. More specifically, he has looked into the evolution of Belgian military policy between the two World Wars. The myths surrounding the forts in Belgium is among his favourite topics. Forts are military constructions to defend a certain territory during warfare. Already in Ancient times, populations deemed it necessary to build forts around cities for reasons of defence. Due to the increasing destructiveness of modern weaponry, forts have now become obsolete. Yet, during and shortly after the Great War, Belgian military commanders still thought forts were a vital part of their defence strategy. ‘The idea had emerged that forts had played a crucial role in the defence of the country. To demonstrate
this, army command spoke of Fort Loncin, a fort that withstood German shelling for some time. However, when the Germans started using “Big Berthas”, types of cannon that were extremely destructive, this success story came to an end. In the Interbellum, the 1914 events were used in political and military discourses to legitimise investment in the army in general and forts in particular.’
The topic of the Liège forts during the Great War also illustrates how military history is approached. ‘To put it succinctly, there are two lines of thought in military history,’ elaborates Vaesen. ‘Those who think military technology and weapons are the most important in accomplishing a victory, and those who believe other elements count as well, like soldier morale and elements of training, psychology
and living conditions. In August 1914, the vast majority of the Liège forts didn’t surrender due to German shelling, but (probably) due to the inapt living conditions in the forts under siege.’ The branch that deems military technology the most important is still the dominant one today.
Flanders Fields Though the First World War might have ended hundred years ago, it still creates victims today. Hundreds of grenades remain buried on the old battlefields, ten per cent of which are still live and dangerous. ‘Belgium has yet to tackle this problem’, asserts Marc Van Meirvenne, Professor Soil Management at Ghent University, as he shares a story about a farmer who recently drove into a gas grenade while working on his field. ‘The farmer had to go to hospital, but he was lucky; his injuries weren’t very serious. Afterwards, he tried to get help to excavate his field, but the bomb disposal unit of the Belgian military only takes away grenades after they have been physically dug up. The farmer could have hired a company to dig them up, but as this is very expensive, he decided to
do it himself ’. Coincidentally, Van Meirvenne’s Research Group for Soil Spatial Inventory Techniques (ORBit), happened to have selected the farmer’s field for a project about the First World War. Using their specialized sensors to identify underground remnants of war, the researchers could tell him where to dig. ORBit collaborates with the Archaeology and Geography departments. ‘The archaeologists find out – for instance, through aerial photographs – which objects and constructions used to be there, like trenches or bunkers. Our department registers what is still left underground. And the Geography department focuses on the evolution of the landscape.’ Although ORBit’s main focus has been Western part of Belgium, the -9-
© ORBit
team has also been commissioned by Britain to investigate the area around Stonehenge. ‘The archaeologists who started looking for remnants of World War I used magnetometers to map the field, but their sensors were very sensitive. This proved problematic because in the eighties, the Stonehenge Free Festival, which took place each year, left behind quite a lot of rubbish, like cans. Their sensors were triggered by all this metal. Our sensors are not as sensitive, so they asked us to map the field.’
Imagining the War Š Julie Putseys
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It’s not surprising that a war with such a huge impact on people’s lives like the Great War became the topic of many works of art, films, books and other forms of human expression. Pierre Schoentjes, Professor of Literature at Ghent University, has studied the novels during and about the Great War, French fiction novels in particular. ‘The image we have of the First World War is influenced by literature in the same way as our image of the Vietnam War has been influenced by film,’ says Schoentjes. ‘Some nationalist books appeared shortly after the war, but they soon became obsolete. Pacifist literature, which portrayed soldiers as victims, became the prevailing genre.’ ‘The Great War is the ideal war for spreading a message of peace,’ he adds. ‘Pacifist war novels often were naturalistic,’ Schoentjes continues. ‘Writers wanted to emphasize the cruelty of the war – for example by exaggerating the threat of gas attacks – because they hoped a war like this would never happen again. Of course, their pacifist goal evaporated when the Second World War came about.’
Yet writers kept publishing about the Great War after the Second World War had come to an end. In the 1980s there was even a revival of First World War literature. ‘I think the revival was due to the gradual disappearance of the War’s last witnesses. Moreover, I believe people were getting tired of their grandfathers didactic jabbing about the Second World War. They started thinking, “What was my grandfather like when he was young?” Often, writers started out by researching an old photo or letter they found in their grandparents’ cellar. The novels that have been published since the 1980’s also have become increasingly critical of the war. And they have touched upon different topics, like sexuality and the perspective of women.’ Nationalism in Film Whereas pacifism was prolific in the domain of World War I literature, the nationalist discourse was more common in film, especially in post-war Belgian film. Leen Engelen, Film Historian at the KU Leuven and the LUCA School of Arts, thinks this is because the predominant popular sentiment at the time was nationalism. Film makers were mimicking this, while - 11 -
novels, written by intellectuals, generally showed a more nuanced picture. Engelen has written her PhD on the portrayal of the First World War in the Belgian films of the 1920s and 1930s and has been doing research on various other aspects related to film and World War I ever since. ‘In my PhD research I found very strong sentiments against the Germans in Belgian films, especially in the early 1920s. Germans were portrayed as cruel beasts. They were depicted as aggressive, drunk and rude, and they stereotypically wore monocles and pin helmets.’ Interestingly, Germany was increasingly worried about these portrayals of its countrymen. ‘In the late 1930s they sent a few diplomatic démarches, asking producers to cut certain scenes.’ During the occupation of Belgium, people could not freely speak their minds. Engelen hypothesizes that when people were finally allowed to vent the feelings they had so long suppressed, they came out rather strong and unfiltered. ‘I see these films as a source of Zeitgeist, a peep into popular sentiment,’ Engelen says.
While Germans were portrayed as beasts, Belgian characters in the films were highly patriotic. ‘All male characters bravely fought in the army while the women kept the hearths burning or acted as spies or messengers. Everyone doing their duty for their country. Only in the late 1920s were the first critical films made.’ Engelen currently researches film culture during the occupation. ‘For this research, I look at how film distribution was managed during the occupation and how it was affected by the occupying forces’ film and entertainment policy,’ she says. Film was a popular pastime, especially during the cold winters, as there was a coal shortage, and cinema theatres were well-heated.
Engelen explains that the occupiers rarely admitted films from allied countries due to their potential propagandist content. As of 1917, when German control over the film industry was in place, mostly German films were shown. Danish films were admitted as well, because Denmark was a neutral country.’ The Germans had their own propaganda films, which they showed in selected cinema theatres in occupied Belgium. ‘They also tried to buy themselves into the Danish film industry, so they could control its films. It is clear that they took pains to engross the Belgian film market. Not just for reasons of propaganda, but also for economic gain.’
‘Film was a popular pastime, especially during the cold winters, as there was a coal shortage, and cinema theatres were well-heated.’
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Remembrance - 13 -
The Great War should be remembered. Not only out of respect for the many victims that fell, but also for the lessons we could draw from the very fact that it occurred. ‘We should not forget that war can happen where we are. And it has. Twice,’ asserts Harlind Libbrecht, Landscape Architect at University College Ghent. Libbrecht is currently comparing heritage management in Flanders and Britain. ‘The British give a characterization of all of their landscapes. Flanders chooses a few sites it deems most important, based on parameters like historic context, preservation and density of structures,’ Libbrecht explains. He believes the symbolic meaning of a place of heritage should prevail in this decision-making process. ‘The historical event that took place on a certain site is more important than the traces themselves.’ Before turning to his comparative research between Britain and Flanders, Libbrecht has looked into the history of the castle grounds in the West of Belgium. ‘During the First World War, war officials occupied the castles, which made them into command posts. First
there was an agreement between the allied and axis forces that they wouldn’t target each other’s command posts. However, this agreement didn’t last very long. The castles were ideal targets, highly visible in the landscape. Many of them were completely destroyed. Others were used as hospitals during the war. Sometimes, as the front line moved, the castles were alternately occupied by the allied and axis powers. This was the case in Passchendaele.’ Libbrecht’s team was instrumental in the formation of digitally guided walks. They developed such a walk through the castle grounds of West Belgium. This is not their only contribution to increasing the visitor experience. For the Passchendaele Museum in Zonnebeke, Libbrecht’s team contributed to a 3D model that shows the evolution of the front in Passchendaele. ‘You can see they really used the landscape as a weapon of war,’ says Libbrecht. ‘Only rarely did people become so creative as in times of war.’ Aerial Photographs Birger Stichelbaut from the Archaeology department at Ghent - 14 -
University is among the first archaeologists in the world to use First World War aerial photography as a source of information. Moreover, his team is the only one in Western and Northern Europe that investigates the aerial photographs of the First World War. ‘Our research only became possible recently, due to digitalization processes,’ he explains. So far, Stichelbaut has studied around 22,000 aerial photographs of the First World War by means of a geographic information system. ‘The photographs allow us to learn more about how the landscape was structured, how it evolved, how the frontlines changed, and so on. We’ve discovered 4,000 to 6,000 kilometres of trenches in the western part of Belgium alone.’ Stichelbaut and his team developed a multimedia app together with the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres. Visitors can access the application on a large computer screen in the museum. ‘They just have to enter the name of a village they’re interested in. The app allows them to discover how its landscape evolved by looking at the different aerial photographs,’ Stichelbaut
explains. The average visitor nowadays does not have direct personal connections with someone who fought in the war, as was the case with the past generation of visitors. ‘We wanted to make the visitor experience as impressive as before, so we had to rethink our approach,’ he continues. A second (mobile) app that was developed with this technology and data is called ‘Ypres Salient 19141918’ and can be downloaded free from the app store. ‘Ypres Salient 1914-1918’ is a digitally guided walk, leading you from mark to mark. On each of these marks, historic information and annotated aerial photographs can be accessed and app users can walk virtually on top of the former frontlines.
‘The historical event that took place on a certain site is more important than the traces themselves.’ - 15 -
Š TPCOM
Global Governance - 16 -
Flanders has been the scene of two World Wars in the last century, wars that occurred because of political, territorial and economic conflicts among the European powers. In part to prevent a third one, the European countries came together to found the European Union. Since its inception, however, its scope has drastically broadened. To sum up two striking changes: the EU currently brings together 28 member states, in comparison to the initial 6. Yet still more importantly, the Union now tries to present itself as an influential global actor with a distinct foreign policy. The Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 had to facilitate that goal. ‘The treaty was intended to strengthen the EU’s international profile and visibility’, says Edith Drieskens, Professor International and European Studies at the KU Leuven. ‘However, looking at the implementation in international settings like the UN, the EU has focused on the messenger – by creating the function of High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, for instance – and lesser so on the message or its audience.’ Perhaps inevitably so,
as the message is still subject to the consensus decision-making process. The treaty has also made the Union less popular with some of its external partners. ‘In various international settings, the other countries have started to perceive the EU as arrogant, as a power that always wants to take, but rarely gives. In the increasingly multipolar international context, this is no longer accepted,’ Drieskens explains. The EU is often seen as a normative power, working towards the global good. ‘Our work on the EU’s relation with sport governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA shows that, to actually make this happen, the EU should use its market power more often. Its internal market could be seen as a huge advantage for the Union’s foreign policy, yet it is rarely put to use. I find this highly fascinating. Learning when and why the EU uses its market power, or when and why it doesn’t, requires thorough research and process tracing. Currently, we just know the tip of the iceberg.’ - 17 -
The Birth of a Discipline The First World War certainly left its mark on our system of global governance, particularly on the creation of the League of Nations. But the idea of ‘never again war’ also resulted in a search for knowledge, with contemporaries seeing improved knowledge on war and peace as some kind of facilitator of stability,’ Drieskens says. ‘Thus, after the war, specialized research centres on international relations were established, like in Aberystwyth, resulting in the discipline of international relations theory. The first major tradition of Idealism/Liberalism stressed that international cooperation was crucial to peace. Following the Second World War, Realist thinkers like Hans Morgenthau started stressing the reality of power politics.’ Jan Wouters, Professor of International Law at the KU Leuven and Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, points to a second consequence. ‘The First World War certainly left its mark on international law,’ he states. ‘For instance, due to the
military excesses of the war, various techniques, like the use of chemical weapons, were forbidden after 1918. Another direct consequence of the war was the creation of the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations.’ The League of Nations did not prove successful. This became painfully obvious when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. ‘It was highly problematic that the United States, one of the major powers in the international system, never became a member of the League of Nations,’ says Wouters. Woodrow Wilson was the ‘spiritual father’ of the League, but could not convince the American Senate of its importance. When fascism and
Japan’s aggression surfaced, the league wasn’t able to act. There was too little political commitment by the great powers: some important countries were never a member, like the US, whereas others were only temporarily a member but had left before the Second World War, like the USSR or Germany. In the end, the League was not able to prevent the Second World War. This is why the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations worked hard on the blueprint for a United Nations, with at its core a Security Council that would have five permanent members, consisting of the most powerful nations in the world, who had – and still have – a veto. This way they made sure
these nations would stay on board, Wouters elaborates. Has the UN made a Third World War inconceivable? ‘The UN is an important forum in which countries can negotiate their disputes, so as to prevent an armed conflict,’ Wouters says. ‘Yet, there is no absolute guarantee that it won’t happen again. A combination of the retreat of great powers, armament races, recriminations and frustrations of upcoming powers, and possibly a number of extremely populist or nationalist leaders who successfully incite hatred toward foreign nations would form a deadly combination.’
‘Due to the military excesses of the war, various techniques, like the use of chemical weapons, were forbidden after 1918’
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Author: Julie Putseys
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The thematic papers are published by Research in Flanders, a project run by Flanders Knowledge Area.
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Editions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. - 19 -
Materials Science Urban Planning Industrial Design Research in Times of Crisis World War I
Š Anne Worner