Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor (Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas)

http://www.art-ww1.com/gb/texte/021text.html

This piece of artwork is a print by Otto Dix called Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor (Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas). There is something about the artwork that Otto Dix does that absolutely frightens me but I can't help but love it. He paints what he saw during the war, and the images seem so unreal. I can't imagine going out into No Man's Land and seeing nothing but death. The gas masks make it seem as though he wasn't at war with another human being, but at war with a monster. Something that really interested me about this print is something that I didn't notice on my own. I was reading a summary about the painting and it said that, "Dix chose to depict not enemy, but German soldiers." On further research I found that Otto Dix was a member of the German Army and that he was an enthusiastic volunteer to join. Dix made a print that represented war as an evil thing and he chose to portray the "gas monsters", as I like to call them, as German soldiers. Instead of making his comrades seem like these big war heroes he decided to depict the truth and the horrors that come with war. I admire him for his work, he is a brave man to recreate all of his darkest memories and on top of that not glorify his homeland.