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"Red Cross Collection in favor of voluntary nursing during the war "- painting by the history painter Adalbert von Roessler (* 1853 in Wiesbaden, died 1922 in Berlin, where he had lived).
On the right in the foreground of his picture, Rössler depicts an old man who is the "lucky" wearer of a wooden leg: hurt but not dead ...
On the nature of voluntary nursing at war
"Voluntary nursing, including voluntary war nursing, is (are) the state-supervised and supervised participation of non-military, nursing-trained persons (including women) in the wounded and medical service in war or the entirety of persons and associations entitled to such participation. Basically, in the German Reich, this authorization is granted exclusively to those associations that dedicate themselves to the purposes of nursing even in peace - these are the associations that make up the large, uniformly-governed association of the Teutsche associations of the Red Cross, and the Order of Knights: Johanniter , Malteser, St. Georg Knights A group or a person outside these two groups who, in the case of mobilization, makes themselves available for the purposes of the FK, proving their worthiness and ability, must attend one of the above-mentioned groups Under no circumstances may the F.K., according to the German War Sanctity Ordinance, be active in addition to the state nursing of the state, but it can only be admitted to the extent that it is inserted into the army organism and directed by the state authority. On the other hand, the state counts on its cooperation within certain fixed limits. It is therefore no longer just tolerated as before, but forms an integral part of the Kriegsssanitätsdienstes. The particular rights granted to it are subject to certain obligations. For the individual, therefore, only the decision to participate in the work of F. K. is voluntary. As soon as he belongs to the association of F. K., an attitude of the activity is possible only under certain conditions and in certain forms; In the mode of activity, too, the relationship between superiors and subordinates is everywhere rigorously enforced. The entire volunteer staff is under military service. Disciplin: as far as it is used in the theater of war, it is also subject to military jurisdiction, the laws of war and the disciplinary criminal code; On the other hand, it is in enemy territory as belonging to the military succession under military. Protection and state welfare with regard to accommodation, meals and the like. s. w. For identification purposes, each member of the F.K. used on the theater of war receives a uniform prescribed by the Ministry of War and carries on the left upper arm the officially stamped protection mark of the Geneva Convention (white bandage with red cross). The use of the F.K. should basically take place in the back of the fighting field army, i. H. in the field of stage inspections and their military hospitals on the battlefield "(Brockhaus 1896).
On the role of women in the catering of soldiers here an interesting contribution (Internet)
"Women have taken an active role in the two world wars, and recent work on gender relations in the war concludes that women have important functions not only on the" home front "to produce civilian and military goods, but also out of the hands of soldiers The emphasis was on actively participating in the war: as "front sisters", women were exposed to almost the same external conditions as the frontline soldiers, so that voluntary nursing in the war eventually became a female counterpart stylized to male defensiveness, with the women in part vigorously collaborated: "But you are a soldier and a soldier you have to be silent and to carry out the orders" (p.102), that was the statement of a nurse, so that the legal involvement into the military command hierarchy thos of the front sisters and the angels of peace intensified after the end of the war, when sisters like Elsa Brandström were adored by the former prisoners of war.
As motivation for the voluntary service in the military hospitals an activist need should be added. In worldly important times, one did not want to be aloof, but to pursue an activity during the war which was clearly different from that in peacetime. Disillusioned, the sisters report to their mother houses of long periods of boredom that differed from their expectations. But also contrary experiences are reflected in the letters, diaries and reports.
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