Military elite of German Empire about the enemy in World War I (based on the memories)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the image of the enemy, shown on pages of the German Empire military elite memoirs. The research of the Entente image is based on the memoirs of Erich Ludendorff, Paul von Hindenburgand Alfred von Tirpitz. They are used for studying German military command’s vision of the Entente and its members. Particular attention is paid to the intellectual background of the era, emotional, social andpersonal perception of the enemy, particularity of the images by each of memoirists, as well as methods of their construction. The article discusses the similarities and the differences in the enemy images of Ludendorff, Hindenburg and Tirpitz, and the subjective factors by which they were caused. It also reveals the dependence of the images from the social affiliation of the authors to a particular caste and branch of troops.