Die stählerne Mauer: Reise zur deutschen Front, 1915, Zweiter Teil

Set in the winter of 1915, a German officer travels to the front lines and brings back a series of unforgettable visual impressions. He describes the shattered remains of Fort Boussois near Maubeuge, where a mortar blast carved a jagged, lightning‑like shaft through the earth, leaving a lingering darkness at its depth. The contrast between the bright sun that briefly pierces the crater and the oppressive gloom below underscores the brutal reality of modern artillery. His observations turn from ruined stone to the human cost of the conflict.

In a nearby French hospital, the narrator walks into a ward filled with eighty wounded soldiers, each a mosaic of missing limbs and scarred faces. The silent, motionless patients lie on beds of many colors, their eyes fixed on an uncertain future while a calm doctor explains the stalled evacuation to Geneva. The scene captures the stark waiting, the lingering hope, and the grim certainty that the journey ahead will be anything but gentle.