Representations of Violence in the Spanish Civil War

The German Example

Abstract

The article explores the historical roots of the connection between sexualised violence and war propaganda, so vigourously debated lately with regard to the war in Iraq. As an early example for this kind of propaganda it analyses the huge amount of material produced on the German side, i.e. memoirs of combatants, accounts of war reporters, newspaper articles etc.: How is violence being presented in those texts, what forms of violence form the core of that presentation, and what are its functions? I will argue that, at least with regard to the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War marks the historical turning point at which the representation of extreme war violence turns into pornography of violence, and hate, fear and horror are firmly placed in gender images.