Review of Belinda Daviss Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin Scott

Abel Belinda Davis examined the repercussions of the food shortages and starvation in wartime Berlin that caused so much suffering to its inhabitants. Home Fires Burning argues, while the British blockade neutralized German victories on the battlefield during World War I, the German governments inadequate responses to the shortages legitimized the demands of the poorer urban dwellers for more food and political influence. Davis combined aspects of traditional social, cultural, and everyday life history into an argument that used the strengths of each topic to enhance the defense of her thesis and the entertainment value of the book. Social history allowed the author the interpretation of the larger trends in the increased cost of food throughout wartime Germany, along with its consequences. The cultural historical perspective allowed Davis to examine the shock experienced by Germans in the forced change of their lifestyle, which further alienated much of the populace from the government. The everyday life approach gives the reader a sense of how bad life became for many in wartime Germany. The combined approach allows Davis to investigate World War I Germany with both depth and breadth, making the work both persuasive and entertaining. The social history aspect included Daviss study of both the political and economic influence of the subject groups. The social history theme of Belinda Daviss work showed the strategies used by Germans of lesser means to gain concessions from the government during wartime. Social history provided the macro-perspective that gave an overall vision of German food production and importation, along with the ways in

which Germans reacted to the economic war. Davis provided excellent evidence that much of the German population suffered during World War I through charts and graphs showing the dearth of food and the desperation of ordinary Germans. Various graphs showed the general decrease in food availability and the general increase in food prices.1 Some other graphs also showed how ordinary people leveraged their power to earn higher wages and how the conviction rate for theft went up during the war, as desperate people sought alternative means to survive.2 Davis used charts as evidence to show how average Germans suffered and survived throughout the war because of the blockade and how ordinary Germans leveraged their power to gain concessions. Another important aspect of social history in Daviss thesis remained the specific political bargains Germans of lesser means received in exchange for their support of the government. The government programs did not necessarily work, but Davis showed how such programs and policies signified government acquiescence to public demands. The establishment of public kitchens and meal halls provided one example of how the government attempted to appease the populace. The meal halls failed, however, because people found them degrading and the inefficient kitchens could not predict demand, causing both shortages and waste.3 Davis also showed the unpopularity of the Imperial government in its failure to feed the general populace sufficiently or with enough equality.4 By 1918, many Germans lost all faith in the government, leading to demonstrations in Berlin, the munity of the Imperial Navy in Kiel, and eventually the abdication of the Kaiser.5 Davis implemented social and political history to display the
1

Belinda Davis, Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin, (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000), 25, 71, 193-194. 2 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 178, 223. 3 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 140, 155. 4 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 190-191. 5 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 224, 234-235.

results of public anger toward food shortages as an important catalyst for political change in Germany. Davis examined the mentalities and culture of the German government prior to and during the war. The Imperial German government culture and the culture of daily life both played significant roles in the granting of concessions to the previously lesspowerful Germans. Many German military and political leaders thought the war could only be won on the battlefield, therefore neglecting the aspects of the home front like economics.6 For example, the government drafted so many agricultural workers that there were not enough people for the harvest. German actions and British propaganda projected a negative image abroad, contributing to a loss of fodder trade with neutral nations.7 Germany knew that Great Britain would likely implement a blockade in the event of war, but the anticipation of a short war would negate this according to the mentality of German command.8 Daviss focus on mentality and culture explains why Germans suffered so severely during the war and how this eventually led to political change. Certain aspects of German culture made the loss of trade with the rest of the world even less bearable according to Davis. Davis avoided the simplistic Marxist narrative by placing culture, rather than solely economics, as an important part of the argument. An important element of German culture Davis used in explanation of the discontent of the German people was the shortage of coffee. Davis treated the German love of coffee as a cultural phenomenon, the loss of which caused a large damage to morale rather than an economic loss. The coffee replacements were inadequate in taste
6 7

Davis, Home Fires Burning, 92. Davis, Home Fires Burning, 65, 70, 95. 8 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 12.

and nutrition for the needs of the German consumer.9 Culture played an important role in the development of the anti-government dissent in Germany because of the blockade of previously available goods. The loss of certain foods, not necessarily related to international trade, played an important role in the devastation of German morale because of the prominent role they had in German pre-war culture. Before the war, fats and meat played a large role in the German diet, going beyond the role of just sustenance to a sort of cultural adaptation in that Germans ate much of the meat for the sake of taste. Davis points out how fat became a synonym for a wage and butter represented pay that the poorest Berliners received. But these items came into short supply during war, which resulted in various riots, particularly in regard to expensiveness of butter.10 Davis used the shortages of food items that in some senses were essential, but were more luxuries that many Germans refused to give up. The loss of fats and meats devastated German people because they built a culture around good-tasting food that became out of reach. The history of everyday life plays an important role throughout Daviss work because it gave the work a touch of humanity that otherwise might be lost to the trends and facts. As part of her research, Davis examined the works of the major proponents of the history of everyday life for evidence, including Alf Luedkte and Hans Medick.11 In using small instances from everyday life, the author showed what tactics people used to survive in terrible circumstances. Davis overcame the shortcomings of everyday life, such as not truly knowing how widespread certain tactics were, by combining that history with other styles. From a literary perspective, the history of everyday life gave the reader
9

Davis, Home Fires Burning, 206. Davis, Home Fires Burning, 77-80. 11 Davis, Home Fires Burning, 330, 331; Alf Luedkte, The History of Everyday Life, trans. William Templer, (Princeton: PUP, 1995).
10

an individual connection with the subjects, which increases the entertainment value of the book. From a historical perspective, everyday life gave evidence with details that would otherwise be lost in the statistics that shows how people advocated their own interests in a crumbling society. In Daviss use of everyday life history, anecdotes played an important role in the argument by giving instances where Germans protested Imperial policies and actions. The anecdotes showed the life struggles of individuals attempting to survive in a society short of food, along with the effects of those struggles on the Wilhelmine state. Police reports composed much these stories of individual survival and resistance. She used testimony from as early as December 1915, in which Officer Ludwig reported the complaints of once loyal and nationalistic Germans lacking the proper cooking fat required for preparing meals. Such dissent caused by food shortages caused people to demand a fairer distribution of food and riot in protest as a tactic to that end.12 The anecdotes showed how even patriotic Germans reconsidered their support for the government given the lack of basic food products despite previously supporting it in the past. Davis used the perspective of everyday life to demonstrate how desperate Berliners became toward the end of the war to feed themselves and their families. Acts of violence and civil disorder occurred often and in one such instance, the Lichtenberg police commissioner reported a group of women going to city hall to locate food. The women then violently took bread from a baker.13 Daviss wording shows some sympathy toward the women of Berlin because took appears to be a euphemism for

12 13

Davis, Home Fires Burning, 100. Davis, Home Fires Burning, 211.

stole. The downside to the everyday life approach was becoming emotionally attached and overly sympathetic to the subjects. The authors attachment to the subjects, which is not that severe, does not impugn upon the overall argument or excessively damage the style of everyday life history. The anecdote revealed the level of desperation felt by Berliners, who were even willing to assault a baker to get their daily bread. Such instances showed the unraveling of the German Empire given the loss of its legitimacy in the eyes of many Germans for its failure to provide basic necessities to many citizens. Overall, the use of everyday life granted access to the smaller stories of survival in a rapidly changing world that display how German urban families survived the war. Davis described the final days of the Kaiserreich because it gives the reader a convincing argument about the importance of food as a reason for its downfall. The final revolt of the era started in the urban areas with large numbers of angry women at the marketplace, joined by factory workers, various residents, and eventually sailors, who demanded an end to the war. The Kaiser abdicated with the request that the new government prevented the starvation of the German people, thus permitting the new provisional chancellor to form a new government.14 Davis successfully placed the food issue at the heart of the downfall of the government and the struggle for a fairer political system. Davis fused various styles of writing in the work to use the strengths of them in the previously mentioned segment, along with the rest of the book. Home Fires Burning relates the German governments inability to feed its population sufficiently to the development of concessions to the poorer citizens and the eventual downfall of the Imperial government. Davis navigated the more traditional aspects of social and political history without excessively discussing particular themes
14

Davis, Home Fires Burning, 234-235.

that would either oversimplify the situation or distract the reader. In other words, she avoids a purely Marxist approach to World War I Berlin, which benefitted her work by avoiding clich paradigms and oversimplification of social groups. Adding concepts such as cultural history and the history of everyday life adds greater depth to her argument while keeping the reader entertained. The fusion of everyday life history, cultural, and social history benefitted the thesis because it provided sufficient evidence while providing enough variety of sources, along with enough attention to individual Germans.