"Herz! Aufglühe dein Blut" (= Heart! May Your Blood Glow) from 1916, hardcover, 116 pages, contains war poems by Heinrich Lersch (a frontispiece photo of him is in the second book I described; see above and in my pictures); also some military book ads in the back, no illustrations inside; in very good condition.

Heinrich Lersch (* 12. September 1889 in Mönchengladbach; † 18. Juni 1936 in Remagen) war ein deutscher Arbeiterdichter und Kesselschmied. Fought in the trenches and was once buried alive during an artillery attack

Lersch described in his poems the hardness of the workers' existence, but also turned to political topics. In einigen Gedichten verherrlichte er den Nationalsozialismus . In some poems he glorified the Nazis. Er hielt Vorträge vor der Hitlerjugend und anderen Organisationen. He lectured before the Hitler Youth and other organizations. Zur Kampfparole wurde nach 1918 eine Zeile seines Gedichts "Soldatenabschied" (1914): "Deutschland muss leben, und wenn wir sterben müssen!" To fight parole after 1918 was a line of his poem "Soldiers Farewell" (1914): "Germany must live, and if we die!" Dieser Satz findet sich auf zahlreichen Kriegerdenkmälern, etwa in Hamburg, aber auch als Leitspruch des Soldatenfriedhofes in Langemarck. This sentence is found on many war memorials, such as in Hamburg, but also as the motto of the soldiers cemetery in Langemarck.


Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History
By Jay Winter
Edition: 8, reprint, illustrated
Published by Cambridge University Press, 1998
ISBN 0521639883, 9780521639880