Abstract

The article analyzes the German soldiers’ postcards of the 1914– 1918 World War I, epistolary practices of front-line soldiers, as well as the place and functions of postcards in the field mail of the German Empire. The war created a new situation in communication, transforming everyday verbal communication into written one. The field mail was the most important psychological resource for the soldier, asserting his identity and allowing him to withstand military trials. The German field mail service had an efficient branched structure, letters and postcards were quickly delivered free of charge. Control over the field mail was performed through two types of censorship — army and post office censorships. The use of quantitative methods has made it possible to determine such a feature of field mail correspondence as obvious predominance of postcards over letters sent from the front to the rear and circulated in the rear. A larger number of letters from the rear to the front was interpreted, inter alia, by the public requirement of giving active moral support to the soldiers. A frequent use of postcards by the soldiers themselves was due to the fact that the latter provided faster and more frequent communication than the letters, and made possible to maintain its rhythm. In addition, postcards were more practical in front-line life and required less moral, material and time costs for writing. At the same time, a soldier sometimes preferred a postcard to a letter due to the censorship requirements or the necessity to decrease pressure on postal services. Despite their widespread employment, postcards were regarded lower by the soldiers than letters that were considered more meaningful. Nevertheless, during the World War I, postcards in Germany formed the basis of the field mail. Primarily, they served as providers of the postal main function, namely, maintaining a continuous and intensive connection between the front and rear.