Children experience the World War

Abstract

The article presents empirical studies of the effects of World War I on children. Without exception the investigations date back to the first months of the war and almost all of them took place in the German Reich. The ‘Federation for school reform‘ and educational issues of war related education in different types of school played an important role in the investigations. William Stern was the initiator of several studies. The now largely unknown, but methodologically innovative studies made use of observations, interviews, analysis of essays, war poems, children's games, war drawings and interpretations of the effects of war images on the emotions of children. The article is supplemented by a report on the exhibition "Schule und Krieg" (Education and War), which took place in Berlin in 1915 and attracted much attention. The results of the studies are evidence, that within a few weeks, school life had completely changed, and the school children were quite uncritically integrated into the patriotic goals of adults. Age, gender and school type differences are discernible. Apart from the enthusiasm for war, the glorification of the Emperor, the military and weapons (e.g. the Zeppelin) etc. and even the hatred of the enemy there are also clear signs of pro-social attitudes, especially among school girls.