Representing the Facially-Wounded:
The French and German Approaches
The approach to the facially-wounded in Britain was vastly different to those taken in France and Germany. As both countries suffered significantly more losses than Britain and were engaged in combat for a longer period of time, greater emphasis was put on confronting the horrors of the conflict directly to ensure that something similar did not occur again. The facially-wounded were a much more visible presence within these two societies than in Britain because of this.
An overview of war-damaged Lens, France, 11 Apr 1919
(Lewis Wickes Hine/Library of Congress)
While in Britain, facially-injured servicemen were hidden from public view, in France they were given centre stage at one of the most symbolic events of the conflict. Five facially-wounded French soldiers were invited by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau to participate in the Paris Peace Conference (where the peace treaty that officially marked the end of the First World War would be signed on 28 June 1919). In order to sign the treaty, signatories from each country were required to walk past and come face to face with the Délégation des Mutilés.
The five men of the Délégation de Mutilés at the Paris Peace Conference. ('FRAD048-015 Guerre mondiale, guerre totale’, Europeana 1914–1918 Digital Archive)
Facially-injured servicemen were also more visible within wider French culture and society thanks to the emergence of the journal La Greffe Générale. Written and self-published by facially-wounded veterans, these men shared humorous stories and insights into their ​lives with the French public. Indeed, intended to be read by the public,
this journal created a more open culture towards facial injury and allowed these servicemen to represent themselves and frame public understandings of facial injury in the way they wanted to. Historian Marjorie Gehrhardt has said that the journal shaped the image of facially-wounded servicemen in France as men who had been profoundly affected by the war but whose humour, admiration for their country and perseverance had nevertheless still enabled them to reintegrate into French society (Gehrhardt, 2018). This open approach was significantly different to Britain where there was an almost unofficial censorship of facially-wounded servicemen.
La Greffe Générale, 1 Feb 1918 (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
A similar distinction can be found between Britain and Germany, but is more evident through the countries’ different use of visual art. In Germany, artworks of the facially-wounded were often created to carry political messages. They were highlighted to the public as physical embodiments of the negative consequences of conflict and a broken German society. While artistic pieces depicting British facially-injured servicemen did exist and are now famous (such as those by Henry Tonks), they were originally created to be medical drawings and have only recently been started to shown to a wide audience. Art by the German Otto Dix and George Grosz were intended to be looked at.
'The Skat Players (War Cripples Playing Cards)', Otto Dix, 1920 (Freunde Der Nationalgalerie)
Pastel medical drawing of patient at the Queen's Hospital, Henry Tonks, c.1916-1918 (© RCS)
​​​The culture of 'looking away' from the facially-wounded was largely unique to Britain. ​​​
​Explore Further
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Level 2: 'Gueules Cassées', Dictionnaire Politique d'Histoire de la Santé,
https://dicopolhis.univ-lemans.fr/en/dictionary/g/gueules-cassees.html
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Level 2: 'Otto Dix', Museum of Metropolitan Art, https://www.moma.org/artists/1559-otto-dix
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Level 3: Marjorie Gehrhardt, 'The Destiny and Representations of Facially Disfigured Soldiers during the First World War and the Interwar Period in France, Germany and Great Britain', University of Exeter (2013).​​