Postcards from the Trenches: A German Soldier's Testimony of the Great War

Description

German art student Otto Schubert was 22 years old when he was drafted into the Great War. As the conflict unfolded, he painted a series of postcards that he sent to his sweetheart, Irma. During the battles of Ypres and Verdun, Schubert filled dozens of military-issued 4" x 6" cards with vivid images depicting the daily realities and tragedies of war. Beautifully illustrated with full-color reproductions of his exquisite postcards, as well as his wartime sketches, woodcuts, and two lithograph portfolios, Postcards from the Trenches is Schubert's war diary, love journal, and life story. His powerful artworks illuminate and document in a visual language the truths of war. Postcards from the Trenches offers the first full account of Otto Schubert, soldier-artist of the Great War, rising art star in the 1920s, prolific graphic artist and book illustrator, one of the "degenerate" artists defamed by the Nazis, and a man shattered by the Second World War and the Cold War. Created in the midst of enormous devastation, Schubert's haunting visual missives are as powerful and relevant today as they were a century ago. His postcards are both a young man's token of love and longing and a soldier's testimony of the Great War.

Irene Guenther is Instructional Professor of 20th-century European and American History at The Honors College, University of Houston, USA and recipient of the University of Houston's Provost Teaching Excellence Award and The Honors College Student Board's Distinguished Teaching Award. She is also the author of Nazi "Chic"? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich.

[Guenther] pursues the larger project of rescuing a German expressionist painter from oblivion ... The book recounts [Schubert's] life and reproduces artwork from its many phases (at considerable cost and to great effect). * Times Literary Supplement * Postcards from the Trenches comprises Guenther's exhaustive research and Schubert's extraordinary art ... A hundred years on from the Armistice, these intimate and exquisite mementoes stand as a testament to what Schubert saw and heard, experienced and endured. They showcase his talent, demonstrate his love and enlarge our understanding of a war that was supposed to end all wars. * The Herald * This beautifully produced book is a unique addition to research on the art of the Great War. While there is much to dwell upon here for both the general and specialist reader, the book's restoration of Schubert's art among discussions of the war's visual legacy makes it a valuable resource on the history and history of art of the Great War. * Los Angeles Review of Books * Irene Guenther's moving and beautifully illustrated book is superb in every way. It will excite the interest of historians of the First World War. It should be read by anyone interested in twentieth-century Germany. Schubert suffered immense misfortune. Irene Guenther has now done him justice and secured his place in the history of modern German art. * Journal of European Studies * Without doubt, Irene Guenther enjoys the ability to impart detailed research readably and informatively. This is a very special memorial; one which I can do no other than highly recommend to all with an interest in the art of the Great War. * Stand To!: The Journal of the Western Front Association * [An] accomplished author ... using powerfully descriptive and illustrative language ..., Guenther provides an interesting analytical perspective on the individual and psychological expression conveyed through the use of postcards during World War I. She persuasively presents a survey of historical artwork and evaluates the primary sources while humbly acknowledging the limited scope of this work in the context of World War I. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in a World War I individual perspective, military history, or early twentieth-century art. * H-German * Guenther provides an interesting analytical perspective on the individual and psychological expression conveyed through the use of postcards during World War I. She persuasively presents a survey of historical artwork and evaluates the primary sources while humbly acknowledging the limited scope of this work in the context of World War I. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in a World War I individual perspective, military history, or early twentieth-century art. * H-Net * A universal story of young lovers separated by war ... The postcards are strikingly beautiful and intimate, and describe sentiments which existed in every combatant army on every single front of the war. -- Jay M. Winter, author of 'War Beyond Words,' and Charles J. Stille Professor of History, Yale University, US Irene Guenther has brought good luck and careful research to lay bare the artistic achievement of an ordinary man in extraordinary times. -- Hew Strachan, author of 'The First World War', and Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK These works speak to the universal issues of war and remembrance. A critical art historical and cultural intervention into 20th century German art - and a superb tour de force! -- Marion F. Deshmukh, author of 'Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany' and Robert T. Hawkes Professor of History, emerita, George Mason University, US This book - on the wartime postcards of a German artist who served on the battlefield - deals with a compelling but under-researched subject in art-historical scholarship ... [An] intimate, personal account of the Great War frontline experience. The postcards themselves are poignantly beautiful objects, and this work will finally bring to a wider readership the work of a key German war artist. -- Ann Murray, University College Cork, Ireland