“And the accordion was heard from East to West and our nation rejoiced as never before, so that it has not been able to recover its breath to this day...”

The Rise of Immorality and Alcoholism during the Great War and in the Time of the Post-war Psychosis

Abstract

It seems that the First World War had an effect similar to that of massive plague outbreaks in the Middle Ages or early modern times. People became aware of their transience and started enjoying life intensely by reveling immoderately and frequently, by making “free love” and by consuming alcohol in excessive quantities. Some church dignitaries were aware at the time that this would have consequences long after the end of the war. It indeed turned out that those who thought that the end of war life would bring life back to its old routine were proved wrong. “The poisonous germ of war dizziness” struck this time in the form of a post-war psychosis. Accompanied by a general economic crisis, inflation and great poverty, it pushed people into careless debauchery and “turned the homeland into one big public house that was open day and night”.