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> Remarkably, Wittgenstein was in occasional correspondence with English friends throughout the war. He records letters from Russell, John Maynard Keynes, and e
by abeppu 4y ago
> Remarkably, Wittgenstein was in occasional correspondence with English friends throughout the war. He records letters from Russell, John Maynard Keynes, and especially David Pinsent, a Cambridge contemporary whom he loved and thought of constantly.
That does seem almost shocking. How does that even work? I would have thought that if an active service military personnel tried to mail something from the front to an enemy country, it would surely be intercepted and thoroughly examined and/or stopped. Would each side send letters through some mutual acquaintance in some neutral country? Did the Austo-Hungarians not have censors on military communication? Did the already alienated author of so many numbered cryptic statements ever fear he would be investigated as a spy?
- ginko 4y agoWW1 was this weird inbetween of 19th century formation warfare and 20th century all-out total industrial war. The level of information control and propaganda was nothing like WW2, especially in the beginning.
- abeppu 4y agoOk, but if you're an Austro-Hungarian or German postmaster, and you have some number of letters going to French or British recipients, and somewhere there's a shifting front line of trenches and tanks and mustard gas, can you really roll up with mail bag to some quiet point and exchange it for incoming mail with some French or Italian counterpart? That seems like even if there wasn't a system of censors trying to make sure no military secrets are leaked, it would have required a great act of trust that no one on the other side had decided to mail a bomb or poison or at least instructions to a saboteur.
- whatshisface 4y agoMaybe they'd be transported through neutral territory or over the sea on neutrally-flagged vessels.
- mudita 4y agoYes, I found this related answer to a question on r/askhistorians about letters from prisoners of wars: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/55p22q/how_were_letters_from_pows_delivered_during_ww1/d8chimv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/55p22q/how_w... "letters from and to POWs were usually sent through non-belligerent countries and humanitarian organizations such as Switzerland or the International Red Cross"
- pomian 4y agoI would think that the sanctity of "the mail" was observed internationally. Mail was opened only secretly, and by spies, and spying was always considered a dishonourable profession. So even if opened, it would have been done secretly, and not revealed to anyone, except on a bed to know, basis.