Spaces of war: The interpretation of landscapes on the western front by first world war German soldiers, 1914 – 1918

Although there has been much historical research on the environmental culture of Germany during the pre- and post-World War I periods, there is a substantial gap as far as the war itself is concerned. This paper takes a small step towards addressing that issue by examining middle-class German soldiers’ interpretations of the landscape. It explores the relationship between the utopic vision of the home front and the dystopic vision of the frontline, but it also demonstrates that a complex heterotopic vision of the battlefront’s landscape emerged as an inspiration for post-war cultural regeneration.