Page - 728 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

728 Summer 1917 tant to the war effort. All workers who were liable for military service were enrolled in these detachments and made to swear the military oath. With the exception of women, workers over fifty, foreigners and prisoners of war, almost no-one was exempt from this militarisation. From now on, all workers who were enlisted into the Landsturm detachments carried out their duties in the industrial companies as active military per- sonnel, and were subject to military discipline. They were also no longer permitted to participate in political activities. Thus, precisely at a time when there was talk of the end of the military dictatorship and a wave of democratisation, a movement in the opposite direction had been initiated, which began with an intervention that had particularly long-term effects. Whoever might have thought that the radical dismantling of the military dictator- ship, democratisation and parliamentarianism would perhaps have contributed towards raising the level of the commitment to the state among the broad section of the public, and to increasing interest in the events of the war, was to be surprised and even dis- appointed. It could be ascertained through censorship of letters that the population away from the front and its direct hinterland was hardly any more interested in de- velopments there. In this regard, something of a very unusual nature had to occur in order to arouse emotions and interest once more. Most people had become apathetic. The fact that East Galicia had been regained through the fighting and cleared of the Russians, that the Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was raging and that Trieste (Triest) was at stake, may have been felt here and there as something that was of some significance, and that had its direct consequences. Still, this was conveyed to almost no-one who was further away from these events. In general, it was also hardly surprising that they now attracted amost no attention. From the moment at which positional warfare began, the excitement that had been generated by mobilisation and then on repeated occasions by the emergence of new theatres of war, by particular successes or failures, ebbed away and dwindled, and the level of interest waned. This apathy or oversaturation with the unchanging news, and at the same time, the peoples’ own concerns, are a feature of any longer war, and lead to a situation in which the population turns its attention away from the military events and towards civilian needs and the everyday hardships. Already during the First World War, this led in turn to a widening chasm between the front and the homeland, which had the potential to grow into boundless incomprehen- sion. There was hardly anyone who understood what it was like to live in lice-infested accommodation, in dugouts, with the screams of the wounded and the constant pres- ence of death. And for their part, many soldiers could not understand how life in the hinterland could deteriorate and how the privations suffered on a daily basis, and which every individual had to overcome in their own way, could be so dominant that finally, all that was of interest was whether there was still a small amount of coffee substitute available, or bread that consisted of 70 per cent maize flour and had to be carried home