12. Other Fronts, Other Diseases? Comparisons of Front-specific ­Practices in Medical Treatment

This chapter investigates the real-life, routine treatment of German soldiers in day-to-day experiences during the First World War as well as the Second World War circumscribed two main issues. First, it inquires the degree to which contemporary medical research concepts were actually practiced within the context of war as a period of crisis, entailing change, over the years between 1914 and 1945. Second, the chapter uncovers ideological and military theories, if present, which presumably influenced medical treatment during the research period. Furthermore, it investigates two specific areas of research, namely, psychiatric disease on the one hand, and non-psychiatric, physiological aspects of exhaustion and fatigue on the other hand. In particular, one sought to distinguish perspectives on mental and physical ailments that generalized toward the routine treatment of German soldiers in the era of World Wars. Keywords: First World War; German soldiers; medical treatment; non-psychiatric disease; psychiatric disease; Second World War