Flucht als politisch-nationales Deutungskonstrukt?

Kriegslebensweltliche Fluchtmotive Trentiner Deserteure im Ersten Weltkrieg zwischen politisch-militärischer Deutungszuschreibung und retrospektiver Politisierung

Abstract

The article deals with the patterns of motives and horizons of interpretation of deserted Trent soldiers of the Habsburg army during World War I. The central question is the importance of political-irredentist interpretations that have always been stressed both from Austrian and Italian points of view after the war for the individual decision to desert. To make it more concrete: How important was the political-national discourse on war in a regional context for the decision of members of a national minority to desert? The article arrives at the conclusion that the public discourse after the war lead to a constructive widening towards political interpretations of the reasons for military desertion and – in a broader context – of the experience of war itself. There was a politicisation of a widely unpolitical sphere. This process of reinterpretation was part of an exploiting politicisation as a result of well directed propagandistic misappropriation and forced strategies of justification as is shown in the text in detail.