It affected and shaped the lives of millions of injured soldiers in all belligerent armies. In this way, the temporary hospitalisation of soldiers became a mass phenomenon of World War I.

In often provisional field hospitals close to the front and even more so in well-equipped reserve hospitals back home, patients spent weeks, months and, in some cases, up to several years, recovering – depending on their injury or illness. This rehabilitation programme was to take place in military hospitals. Therefore, officials made every effort to create effective medical treatment schemes in order to send patients back to the front as soon as possible – ideally “cured” and “fit for duty.”

From the authorities’ perspective, this came down to each and every soldier, as no potential fighting capacity could be wasted or allowed to lie fallow. As a soldier’s health was increasingly considered to be a crucial factor in combat, physical and psychological health were viewed as powerful additional weapons on the battlefield, capable of becoming the decisive factor to either eventually defeat, or, at the very least, hold out for longer than the enemy. From the viewpoint of the military, these innumerable casualties created a highly precarious situation. From the very first weeks of combat onwards, the First World War unleashed a formerly unknown dimension of mass killing and produced unprecedented forms of physical injuries, illnesses and nervous disorders in all belligerent armies.

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