Publications and Involvement of psychologists relating to the First World War

Abstract

The First World War meant a comparatively unknown challenge for many people up to that time. A lot of men reported for duty in war although their seniority or religion protected them towards the duty. Under these volunteers were a number of academics of various disciplines, who wanted to fight for their homeland as armed forces. Some of these rated themselves before among psychology and were esteemed as discussion partners and counselors of the German war ministry. Casual conversations with members of the war ministry lead over the four years of war to a collection of works about warpsychology, which were later classified as a kind of »situation psychology« (Dorsch 1963). This article discusses selected works towards warpsychology and gives a short outline of biographical informations about the authors. Finally a classification of these works related to the history of science is given.