Graz 1914: Der Volkskrieg auf der Strasse

Bernhard Thonhofer examines street life in Graz at the beginning of the war in 1914 and how the truce developed as a result. In this way, the transformation process from a fragmented, militarized society at peace to a society at war is traced in its non-simultaneity and inconsistency, but also in its contours. However, this unity on the street was full of ruptures and contradictions right from the start. The population of Graz did not transform itself into a monolithic community at war that would be free from political, national, confessional or gender-related conflicts. Rather, the four-year people’s war damaged coexistence in Graz.