- from 'Velhagen und Klasings Monatsheften'
- 'German Cemetaries
- in the Carpathian Mountains'
War Seen Through the Eyes of Artists
'Velhagen und Klasings Monatshefte' was an art publication of outstanding quality. Each month, there were reviews, retrospectives and representative reproductions of works by a multitude of old and new German artists. Most of the works were illustrative, that is either drawings, paintings, etchings, prints or similar imagery, with sculptures and other art-forms shown as well.
As with virtually all publications during the Great War years, on both sides, the 'Monatshefte' also provided patriotically inspired articles, in most cases this consisted of war-time work by a variety of talented and well-known artists either accompanying German armies in the field or serving under the colors. Virtually all of the works published in the 'Monatshefte' was of excellent quality and inclined more towards the academically accepted schools, rather than towards commercially influenced art. Quite often, war landscapes were a favorite topic, or scenes behind the lines, though front-line views were not unknown either. These works show a different world as perceived through the eyes of the more artistically inclined individual. There are no grandiose charges or massive bombardments so beloved of the newsmagazines, no scenes of mass death and destruction. Oddly, many works are peaceful and intimate, often bucolic or exotic, especially those of rural areas in the occupied French territories.
The paintings shown below are of an unusual subject. They show several German war cemetaries that were built in the Carpathian mountains on the Eastern front. The settings are rustic and isolated, apparently set in forests or deep woods and the monuments, grave markers and attendant buildings or chapels are quite distinctive in style, most likely deliberately invoking Teutonic motifs or incorporating Germanic elements of decoration or design.
bridge leading to an entrance to a cemetary : painting by Otto Bauriedl
