Unbroken Heroes

: German Comics and the First World War, 1915-1925

Abstract

This thesis argues that German comics reimagined heroes during the period 1915 to 1925, and were important interventions in wider debates about the meaning and memory of the First World War. Using an idiom of action, fantasy, and humour, they developed heroic myths about combat that downplayed traumatic experience and depicted heroes that were unbroken by conflict. Each of the four chapters involves detailed close analysis of a single comic by a different cartoonist: Thomas Theodor Heine, Karl Arnold, Fritz Wolff, and Albert Schaefer-Ast. The argument immerses the case studies in wider trends that shaped German comics, supported by new evidence from the press, artists’ letters, and other contemporary testimonies. Each chapter illuminates a different type of hero: dynamic soldiers as the embodiment of German moral virtue; heroic associations with trauma in battlefield comics; the reconciliatory power of funny boxers amidst postwar fragmentation; and detectives in youth comics as subversive warrior fantasies. Heterogenous comics in Germany shared a fascination with nostalgic humour, storytelling tradition, and conventional graphic strategies, which made uncertain new realities unleashed by the First World War seem consistent with preexisting heroic myths. However, diverse comics understood the impact and legacy of WWI differently, which saw them enshrine rival archetypes as legitimate heirs to authentic German heroes. The chronology begins with stalemate on the Western Front in 1915 and ends amidst the relative stability of the mid-1920s, during which time competing comics heroes crystallised, embodying antithetical perspectives on the First World War and its relationship to German national identity.

Date of Award	2 Dec 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Sponsors	Faculty of Arts Alumni Bursary
Supervisor	Maria Vaccarella (Supervisor) & Grace Brockington (Supervisor)