Internal and external perception of disabled veterans

Mechanically Augmented Bodies in the Post-War Period - Internal and External Perception of Disabled Veterans

Due to weapons that injured people more effectively instead of killing them and due to an improved medical care of the wounded soldiers, the post- war society had to face a problem in an entirely new extent: Disabled Soldiers. For the first time people could see the destructive impact of war on a daily basis in form of wounded bodies. The post-war society was permeated with disabled veterans as a result of the mechanized weapons used in the war and the society had to learn to deal with it. The government was seeking the social reintegration and a industrial rehabilitation. This didn't succeed entirely and lead to great discrepancies in the internal as well as the external perception of the disabled veterans. This resulted in the paradoxical situation in which the mechanically augmented bodies of the disabled contradicted the image of war hero.

This teaching concept is going to discuss the tensions and contradictions created, when mechanically engineered bodies became part of the everyday life.

Subsumption to Curriculum

This was designed to fit into the Curriculum (Bildungsplan 2004 für Allgemein Bildende Gymnasien) of a 9th grade history class in a secondary grammar school in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The lesson plan should cover about 90 minutes.
It can be used following topics: Wold War I; Impacts of WWI

Competences: The pupils can particularise the impact of World War I on soldiers and the everyday life of civil population and trace the impact back to the mechanization of war. Furthermore the pupils can establish relation between historical sources and persons and the wider context of WWI as a complex larger-scale system. Thus they can consider the sources from various perspectives. The pupils learn to use and learn specific historical methods and analyse historical sources and secondary literature. In addition they learn to establish the contemporary relevance.

Data and terms: 1914-1918 World War I

Educational objective

Technical competence:
The pupils are able to distinguish and compare the internal and the external conception of the disabled veterans.
The pupils are able to explain the reasons of the failure of the reintegration.
The pupils are able to name the impact of WWI on the post-war society and to trace it back to the mechanization of war.

Methodical competence:
The pupils are able to work with historical sources and secondary literature and reflect them perspectively.

Social competence:
The pupils are able to work together in an aim-oriented way.

Personal Competence:
The pupils are able to lead their group and be a team member and a functional part of the group.

Order of the course

The introduction is supposed to be done with a picture of a contemporary artificial replacement. For that purpose any picture showing a prothesis can be used. In my opinion it is advisable to offer a short introduction to the topic of cyborgs. This can be accomplished by asking, which mechanical augmentation turns a human into a cyborg and which doesn't.
The next phase is about to connect the current topic to the disabled veterans. For this purpose I would recommend to use a slide showing prothesis from WWI. I would suggest to use the slides in the Appendices. The pupils should be able to compare the protheses and distinguish the differences. The WWI protheses were built to imitate tools and not necessarily a human hand.
After that the class is divided into core groups and expert groups.
Following the working phase of the groups and the small break the pupils get the chance to discuss their results with their core group, whereby they can distinguish the differences and reflect their findings perspectively. Afterwards the results are documented. This can be done at the blackboard. Another option is to let the pupils present their findings by themselves.

A more detailed teaching concept including a time schedule can be found here.

Materials

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