Total War in a Lovely Place: A Cultural History of Freiburg i. Br., 1914-1918

FAIN: FA-50012-04

Roger P. Chickering
Georgetown University (Washington, DC 20057-0001)

I am writing a history of Freiburg im Breisgau, a mid-sized south German city, during the First World War. The project aims at a "total history" of this "total war." It is designed to capture the comprehensive impact of war on the lives of all who endured it in this city. The study treats the material dimensions of the war, the efforts to grapple with deprivation and shortage, and the social and demographic changes that accompanied them. The emphasis falls, however, on the manifold attempts of the city's inhabitants to cope with these misfortunes and to make sense of the war in word and practice.