110 | Mass Media and Historical Change
increasingly dwelt on the possibility of war, the majority militated against it.
Their incrementally consistent fatalism, however, reinforced the impression
that there was no alternative to the impending war. Politicians and the military
must have been affected by this as well, for they referred to the press in many
instances (Rosenberger 1998: 324). Furthermore, the German elite regarded
the reluctance of the British public as a sign that England would keep out of
the war, and from this they construed that the war would pose less of a risk.
For a short period, the World War caused an enormous surge in demand
for the press, which was met by dint of special editions. But in the medium
term, it retarded the otherwise flourishing print landscape. The drop in adver-
tisements, shortage of paper and staff, and a sales slump which occurred due
to the absence of soldiers resulted in a decline in scope, circulation and the
number of newspapers published in Germany of around a fifth. In regard
to contents, newspapers were initially in agreement in supporting the war.
Even at its outbreak, the middle-class media endorsed the conception of a
general pro-war sentiment. Images from Berlin and university towns signalled
an enthusiasm for war which in effect hardly existed, particularly in rural areas
and amongst labourers.
The great majority of the media in each country supported the war.
However, the degree of support varied according to political lines. In Germany,
Social Democratic media in particular differed profoundly in their agendas.
On the day the war broke out, the major Social Democratic paper Vorwärts
was still encouraging counter-demonstrations. Shortly afterwards, the SPD
papers collectively aligned with their parliamentary caucus in the Reichstag,
which had agreed to war loans and thus to war itself. Vorwärts articles express-
ing criticism of war even led to the dismissal of some editors by the party in
1916 (Danker et al. 2003: 62f., 68). Especially the left-wing Leipziger Volkszei-
tung maintained a critical stance during the course of the conflict and pub-
lished a manifesto written by opponents of war on 19 June 1915. The press
thus played its part in dividing the SPD, with twenty local SPD newspapers
going over to the USPD, particularly in Thuringia and Saxony. In the case of
the liberal press, and the renowned Berliner Tageblatt under Theodor Wolff in
particular, prohibitions were often imposed when the paper began to voice
frequent criticism of the war in 1916 (Sösemann 2000: 150f.).
The bourgeois press, however, supported the war for the most part with
patriotic fervour. It lauded the nation’s successes, or, in case of failure, evaded
the issue by engrossing itself in the technological detail surrounding the
subject of air–sea battles. In like manner, papers defamed opponents of war
and romanticised combat. A quarter of the images printed in German and
French pictorials depicted the soldiers’ everyday activities in their encamp-
ments (washing, sewing, singing) and touristy impressions, whereas combat
operations made up just a few per cent. A myriad of simple soldiers began