War had not changed society, but it had changed individuals, among them the artist himself. In retrospect, he longer saw the primal force of humanity set free in war but individual men's weakness, presumption, their wild grotesque greed for life, and the grisliness of their lifeless bodies in decay. From a distance of several years Dix seemes to have considered this one of the main results of the war. I asked to be shown prints of theirs in Basel. A Dead Sapper Meal Time in the Trenches soldier eats rations oblivious to worms eating dead companions around him A Skull piece of scalp with hair clinging to bone, alive with maggots and insects.
Life continues but independently of human life.
In war drawings war was creative force like fertiltiy of women. Often placed his own name or likeness somewhere in drawing to suggest OD was both victim and perpetrator. Lived at Lake Constance. OD's connection with war did not stop with WW1.