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LE DONNE NEL PRIMO CONFLITTO MONDIALE 184

to the front lines reveals an entirely erroneous view on the nature of modern warfare.
7
There was not much enthusiasm, however, to work in epidemiologic hospitals or
refugee camps in the rear area. This was not just because of the acute risk to become
infected with epidemics like cholera and typhus, which were especially widespread in
the first two years of the war, but because of the low prestige of this kind of nursing
assignment in bourgeois society. Another disliked branch of nursing was the treatment
of venereal diseases.
Entirely misleading and arguably naïve conceptions regarding the actual require-
ments and challenges of nursing in a military context had the consequence that many
female volunteers quitted the nursing service already after a short time or had to be
removed. Many women had reported for medical service out of personal need and did
not expect payment but food and lodging in the hospitals. Therefore, it was very im-
portant for the responsible heads of medical service and commanders to make careful
decisions with regard to the selection of suitable applicants. Although the members
of the Red Cross were considered volunteers they got some compensation by the Au-
stro-Hungarian war ministry, with two Kronen per day and person until March 1915 and
from then onwards with three Kronen. But it was not the nursing staff that received the
payment from the ministry but the Red Cross. 8
Summarizing the activities of the Austro-Hungarian medical service in the war, it
has to be stated that the regular medical facilities of the armed forces were not suf-
ficient in numbers to cope with the huge amount of casualties generated by the war.
Even the ‘Voluntary medical services’ established in times of peace already were of no
great relief in the first months of war. In this situation the recruiting of female nurses
and auxiliary nurses became an important pillar of the medical services in the course
of the war. Despite all organizational and fundamental doubts the employment of
‘army sisters’ remained uncontested and its value was generally recognized. 9

2. Other ‘Female Auxiliaries’

From the second half of 1915 onwards and the more so after the Brusilov Offen-
sive in mid-1916 the Austro-Hungarian army was faced with the challenge to replace

7 Biwald, p. 92-93.
8 Alois Veltzé, Aus der Werkstatt des Krieges. Ein Rundblick über die organisatorische und soziale
Kriegsarbeit in Österreich-Ungarn, Vienna 1915, p. 236.
9 Hugo Kerchnawe, Die Schwester. In: Burghard Breitner, Rudolf Rauch (Ed.), Ärzte und ihre Helfer
im Welt-kriege 1914-1918, Vienna 1936, p. 244-246.

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