Dreck und Drill

Johann Heinrich Hasewinkels Losungs-Kriegstagebuch aus dem Deutsch-Dänischen Krieg 1864

Abstract

The common soldier Johann Heinrich Hasewinkel left behind a war diary from the German-Danish War of 1864, which he kept in his copy of the Moravian Watchwords (Daily Texts). This extraordinary find is remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, the records of ordinary soldiers from this war are sparse, the letters left behind have largely been lost, and there is unlikely to have been anyone among these people who kept a diary. What are left to historians from this war are merely epic accounts. Christiansfeld in 1864 was a divided community, with supporters of both of the warring parties. Twelve brothers from Christiansfeld took part in the war on the Danish side, one of whom fell in the fighting. It was agreed, however, to regard each other as belonging to a single community. Thus, the church building was temporarily set up as a military hospital for soldiers from both armies. Hasewinkel’s visit in May 1864 must also be seen against this background: although he had not yet been accepted into the Moravian community, he had previously lived and worked in the house of the unmarried brothers’ choir in Zeist. The fact that he was a Prussian soldier does not seem to have been a problem for him or for the Brethren, otherwise it would have been noted either in his diary or in the Christiansfeld Diary. On the contrary, the reception was warm. Hasewinkel had been thrown into a war he had never wanted to take part in. He had been forced into military service, his sympathies for the Prussians were limited, and in his entries he depicts the monotony of everyday life as a soldier, with its exhortations, harassment and marches. Dirt, boredom and rising despair are the themes of his entries. Literature of this kind can hardly be found until Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage was published in 1895.