Imaging Aviation: Photography and Identity Among German Aviators of the First World War

Writing in the decade following the First World War, philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin suggested that modernity was constructed by a series of “shock experiences.” In the aftermath of the conflict which decimated and disillusioned a generation of Germans, Benjamin’s assertions felt apt. The photograph represented modernity’s ruthlessly technological evolution. The camera, as employed during the First World War, occupies a unique place: it is the only technological innovation whose execution serves both as a weapon of war and as a mode of defining identity, documenting experience and constructing memory. Its images created the popular iconography of the conflict: barbed wire, muddy trenches, machine guns, and poison gas. It also fostered the identity of Germany’s aviators. Public images, often sold as postcards, cultivated the narrative of the Fliegerheld, or “flying hero,” embodied in the German fighter pilot. Private photographs, too, cultivated a less apparent, yet deeply personal identity among German aviators tasked with aerial observation and reconnaissance. Their experience in war, and their subsequent memories of the conflict intersected with the camera. The camera, in addition to its weaponization, also allowed German aviators in observation units to capture deeply personal perspectives of their war.

Examining the thousands of photographs captured by German observation crews, both on the ground and in the air over the Western Front, clearly demonstrates experiences that differ from the popular German Fliegerheld, and challenges previously held conventions of German aviators as universally stoic, “ruthlessly chauvinistic” and masculine warriors.