An Artist as Soldier

An Artist as Soldier

Seeking Refuge in Love and Art

EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY

Barbara Schmitter Heisler

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Frankfurt • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Epple, Bernhard, 1912– author. | Heisler, Barbara Schmitter.

Title: An artist as soldier: seeking refuge in love and art / [edited and translated by] Barbara Schmitter Heisler.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2017.

Series: American University Studies I: Germanic Languages and Literature; vol. 114 | ISSN 0721-1392

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016023381 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3511-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4539-1907-1 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-3972-7 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4331-3973-4 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Epple, Bernhard, 1912– —Correspondence. | World War, 1939–1945— Personal narratives, German. | World War, 1939–1945—Art and the war.
Soldiers—Germany—Correspondence. | Artists—Germany—Correspondence. Art teachers—Germany—Correspondence. | Young men—Germany—Correspondence. Husbands—Germany—Correspondence. | German letters—History and criticism.

Classification: LCC D811 .E684 2017 | DDC 940.54/1343092—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023381

DOI 10.3726/978-1-4539-1907-1

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2017 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

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www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the editor

Barbara Schmitter Heisler is Professor Emerita at Gettysburg College. She received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1979. Dr. Heisler has published numerous articles and book chapters on immigration, citizenship, poverty and housing in Europe and America. Her book, From German Prisoner of War to American Citizen: A Social History with 35 Interviews, was published in 2013. Her research has been supported by several fellowships and grants. In 1999 she was among the first class of residential fellows at the American Academy in Berlin. She lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with her husband, Martin O. Heisler.

About the book

At the center of this book are the World War II letters (Feldpostbriefe) of a German artist and art teacher to his wife. While Bernhard Epple’s letters to his wife, Gudrun, address many of the topics usually found in war letters (food, lodging conditions, the weather, problems with the mail service, requests for favors from home), they are unusual in two respects. Each letter is lovingly decorated with a drawing and the letters make few references to the war itself. In addition to many personal communications and expressions of love for his wife and children, Epple writes about landscapes he saw as well as churches, museums and bookstores he visited. Epple’s letters give testimony to how a particular German soldier who was drafted and survived the war did his best to remain a civilian in uniform; distancing himself from a reality that was not of his choosing, seeking comfort and refuge in his love for art and his ability to share this love with his wife, herself an artist. While Epple’s letters are deeply personal, this book is about the human experience of war and the separation from civilian life and from family and friends.

The introduction provides a short discussion of the importance and uses of war letters as historical documents, followed by a biography of the letter writer. The letters make up the two central chapters. The drawings form an integral part of the letters; each is reproduced and accompanied by an English translation of the letter. In addition to the drawings, the text includes several photographs of the letter writer and his family.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

table of contents

Introduction: War Letters

Chapter I. The Feldpost letters of Bernhard Epple to his wife Gudrun, 1940–1945

Chapter II. 1940–1942: The Early War Years

Chapter III. 1943–1945

Postscript: Author’s Note

Appendix

References←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Figure 1.1 Bernhard and Gudrun Epple, circa 1939

Chapter II:

Figure 2.1 Undated (1939/1940) photograph of Epple in uniform leaving his home.

Figure 2.2 Photograph “December 1940 near Elbing.”

Figure 2.3 Letter January 9, 1940

Figure 2.4 Letter January 11, 1940