In an age driven by technology, the face of war has changed so dramatically that wars can now be fought on digital battle fields from ships that volley missiles capable of devastating entire armies at distances measured in hundreds of miles. It is far cry from life experienced by soldiers in WWI whose only protection from the nearby enemy lines merely feet away were miles of cold and shallow trenches that zig zagged their way across Western Europe. Carl Zuckmayer, a writer and WWI veteran, describes his experiences in the trenches on the Western front of the war and the effect it had on his life and political views during post war years in his autobiography entitled, "A Part of Myself."

Born in 1896 and only seventeen at the outbreak of war in 1914, Zuckmayer was a gifted poet whose leftist political views had a major influence on his initial disapproval of the war. "I will never kill anyone. I would rather go to prison" (Zuckmayer 141) was his response when asked about whether or not he would join the army. However, upon returning home from his summer vacation, he was quickly swept up in the patriotic euphoria of the German people were. He writes "I remember precise

"We were listening to the voices of the murderers" (214).

Zuckmayer describes 1918 as being "the worst of all on the Western Front" (173). The German command, in an effort to turn the tide of the war, launched numerous offensives against the allies who in turn launched equally brutal counter-offensives that destroyed the German Army. After a brief encounter with the Kaiser, he noted that his face was "frozen, gray of complexion...his eyes were wide but sightless" (174). Even then Kaiser had known that his army had been defeated. The memory of that moment was forever burned into Zuckmayer's mind.

were glorifying Rathenau's death for being a Jew. At the end of the chapter he states

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Approximate Word count = 1559
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)