Beyond the Great Silence

Shell shock was the great leveler of post-war experience. Beyond the Great Silence traces the stories of shell-shocked soldiers and civilians through hospital notes and other contemporary records from Britain and Germany. Medical authorities were reluctant to accept the link between illness and war and thus deprived shell shock victims not only of their pensions but also of a much-needed explanation for their suffering.

The rise of shell shock exemplifies the traumatic experience of the Great War. It has transcended its original meaning as a medical concept in historical and cultural discourse. Beyond the Great Silence documents the long journeys of traumatized servicemen through the hospitals of London and Berlin in the post-war years, based on unique source material. It tells the stories of shell shock behind the lines, of the women and children terrified by the German air raids of Britain, the civilians on both sides who buckled under the pressure of the war years, and the prisoners of war who suffered under constant uncertainty.

During the war itself, military medicine of all combatant nations faced very similar challenges. All countries had to ensure the fighting strength of their forces in the face of increasing numbers of traumatized soldiers. After the war, the Allied and Axis Powers were in very different situations. Whereas London returned to a period of relative stability, Berlin became the chaotic center of a failed state. For the traumatized soldiers treated at the Charité in Berlin or the National Hospital in London, this did not make much of a difference - hospitals continued to operate on both sides with surprising efficiency, and the trauma of war only knows victims, no victors. Beyond the suffering caused by shell shock, many veterans suffered further humiliation by being denied a pension because they had been relabeled with a neurological diagnosis that was unrelated to the war or by being branded as 'psychopaths' with an inherited mental weakness. The medical system was thus quick to cut the link between the illness of the veterans and the war experience, which cut off many veterans not only from their war pension but also from an explanation for their suffering.

Beyond the Great Silence combines the personal experience of the traumatized patients with the medical literature and press reports of the time to provide the cultural background for the varying presentations of shell shock and responses of the medical professionals and wider society. Shell shock was a deeply political concept, and its history can only be understood against the backdrop of the revolutionary changes in European societies in the aftermath of the war.