An Ocean of Pain and Death

Anti-war art from Napoleon to Guernica

Should I make you look at the photographs in Ernst Friedrich’s book?

Friedrich was a socialist German pacifist artist who, in 1924, published a book called War Against War! (actually, it was called Krieg dem Kriege! = Guerre à la guerre! = War against war! = Oorlog an den oorlog! He was not a minimalist.) Friedrich had, like many of his fellow humans, been scandalized by the First World War, and he wanted to make sure that people stayed scandalized.

This meant publishing a book that forced its readers to face what he saw as the reality of war — not the maudlin remembrance days or the dignified memorials, but the destruction and suffering that lay at the center of war.

Friedrich wanted the First World War to be the last war of any kind. In his book, he implored parents to stop giving their children toys that allowed them to play soldier or pretend to shoot a gun. He encouraged the workers of Europe not to enlist and to dodge military drafts if necessary. He asked people to reject the …