Forum > WWII
The changing face of reenacting
Nachtjager:
:) I'm really late to the dance here, but I just found this site, sorry. I've been reenacting for fifteen years, or thereabouts, and I have seen the hobby's numbers decline quite a bit down here in the deep south. For the most part, I can lay blame on one element - reenactors taking this hobby far too seriously.
I am a history fanatic and do both American and German impressions as well as both sides of the Civil War (that's kinda manditory down here). As the previous post states, I NEVER try to pass myself off as the actual real deal, and in speaking with the public about what impression I'm doing, I've always been careful to say "they did this" or "they accomplished that" - not that "I" did it, because I didn't. I am portraying historical figures, I am NOT a historical figure in and of myself. I enjoy reenacting and have learned much from it. I especially enjoy interacting with WWII veterans, American, British, and German - they're awesome and I've never met one who had anything ill to say about any impression I was doing. I even had an elderly rabbi thank me once when I was in the 17th SS for doing my impression and explaining things so well, because he thought it was marvelous for young people to see in person so they wouldn't forget or think all of this was just made up for television stuff.
Having said all that, I think the hobby has become too fanatical in its strive for authenticity, and that's led a lot of reenactors away. The brutally primitive camping of many units, the insistance on not eating anything but "period" food, not having the correctly dyed leather laces on your boots... that sort of rubbish. This is a hobby, it's NOT REAL! This is a particularly extreme problem with many German units now and it's very annoying. Most of the Wehrmacht had dysentery and terrible lice problems by 1943, so I suppose that's the next logical step, we're all going to be required to have a fever of at least 101 degrees and be covered with lice before we'll be allowed on the field and declared "authentic."
I'm all for having an authentic presentation, knowing your history, and portraying those we represent accurately, but screw it, I've got little cans of apple juice in my gas mask cannister and peanut butter crackers in my bread bag. When nobody's looking, I'm gonna' keep my blood sugar up and if that's not good enough, too bad, I'll be one more guy who used to reenact. I've spent thousands of dollars through the years getting the weapons and uniforms right, I watch my diet to stay slim, I keep my hair cut properly, and my look is quite authentic. I have no desire to sleep on top of an ant pile under a tree and eat rotten sausages then have an explosive stomach all weekend just so I can be "legit" in the eyes of some guys. Sorry to rant, but I know of at least six guys who don't reenact anymore precisely because they got tired of being called farby because they liked to sleep in a tent and eat real food at night. >:(
Take care all! ;)
prgeyer:
--- Quote from: Nachtjager on October 03, 2008, 10:24:52 AM --- Most of the Wehrmacht had dysentery and terrible lice problems by 1943, so I suppose that's the next logical step, we're all going to be required to have a fever of at least 101 degrees and be covered with lice before we'll be allowed on the field and declared "authentic."
--- End quote ---
Nachtjager, while I generally agree with what you've said, this particular statement above always makes me tense up in my southern regions. It's not that I think people should get dysentery and lice. But I do think that it is incumbent upon us to improve our impressions where we can without jeopardizing our own or other people's health and well being. All too often, I have seen people use that exact excuse and in the same breath say, by that same reasoning, that it's therefore okay to do or wear things that fall even below the going standard. I'm not saying that you are guilty of this, but all too often people say that it's impossible to achieve 100%, therefore 20% is perfectly adequate. It's a false all-or-nothing premise. Frankly, I'm getting too old to sleep out in the rain any more. But that doesn't mean that I don't admire people who are willing to. They're pushing the boundaries (both their own as well as the Hobby's), and as far as I'm concerned, more power to them. It doesn't affect me, just as what I do doesn't affect them. I'm reasonably trim, very healthy, and my kit is unimpeachable, so I'm happy with where I am and where I'm going.
Lord knows, I've never asked anybody to achieve 100%. But I do hope, out of a sense of desire for constant improvement, that people try to improve everywhere that they can. I'd rather reenact with somebody who starts out at 50%, then a year later gets to 55%, then 60%, and so on, than with somebody who starts at 80% and doesn't ever improve from there.
Welcome to the list!
Michael Dorosh:
Great question. I'm a bit surprised that this forum is as little used as it is - I've been aware of the site for several years and have been in and out of re-enactment since the mid 1990s. (Our re-enactment unit even self-published a history of our group in hardcover - available here http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-book/gallant-calgarians/698156 )
Affordability
I have to agree that 2008 would have seemed to be the time to get involved (2009 is more understandable, with the economic downturn) - uniforms are dirt cheap - I know, I was selling panzer wraps on ebay. They were my favourite of the German uniforms and so I found a supplier to do up replicas out of Pakistan. Made good money until rip off artists in Hong Kong started undercutting me with inferior material, but superior cut - guess what shows up in an ebay listing? Even offering a complete range of choice of insignia didn't help, and I was only doing it as a hobby a half dozen at a time - they were selling in bulk out of Hong Kong. I switched to assault gun wrappers in field grey, but soon they were making those too, and so I took my money and found another hobby.
But the point is, all that competitive drive overseas means you can get not just uniforms but field equipment dirt cheap. Any Pakistan company that does business with you reports to the chamber of commerce there, and you're suddenly on the mailing list for all his competitors, and EVERYONE seems to be making MP40 pouches out of canvas, mountain troop caps, peaked caps, BEVO sleeve eagles, leather belts with Wehrmacht buckles, probably more stuff now coming out of south Asia than the Germans produced during the war. And of acceptable quality - anyone paying too much from third parties in the States or the U.K. should contact the suppliers directly in Pakistan - for the cost of sending a sample, they'll make anything you want.
But I digress
Public Battles
Public battles for World War II are largely, from what I've seen, a joke. I've participated in a couple, and while the guys who do them are well-meaning, and the ones I've been in have been well-received and went off more or less successfully, they don't do what the Civil War public displays do. You could never convince anyone to drive across town or a state to attend one, like you could a Gettysburg re-enactment, because it will never be an "event" unless you happened to be at Arnhem or the Normandy Beaches. You can't recreate a World War II battlefield very convincingly either because most battles were decided by artillery and the combatants made a practice of not being able to be seen. The battles took up a lot of space and were fought over hours and days. They didn't lend themselves to mass spectacle.
Public displays of living history encampments are far more successful, but apparently less popular among the guys who own the jeeps, tanks, and machine guns. Not a surprise.
New generation
There probably is something to the point that World War II is becoming a distant memory, as far as collective public consciousness goes, but if the American Civil War can retain its significance I have to believe the Second World War will also. The problem will be in convincing a 20 year old college student that he wants to spend 500 dollars on buying a gun and a uniform and cutting his hair short and staying physically fit, particularly in post-war, post-recession America.
Rugged Individualists
The biggest problem we faced in our unit, and bear in mind there were only three of us at the very core of the unit, was that we each had our own ideas of how we wanted to do things. I've seen stories of this in every organization I have come in contact with, or read about (if you haven't read Jenny Thompson's book WARGAMES yet, you should do so - http://www.amazon.com/War-Games-Inside-Twentieth-Century-Reenactors/dp/1588341283 ). There is a basic lack of willingness to compromise among re-enactors, and I'm not sure where it comes from. Perhaps it is lack of leadership, perhaps it is the fact that as a quasi-military organization, everyone wants to be a leader. But everyone wants to do things their own way. I'm as guilty as anyone. And there is a very real feeling that goes something like "hey, I paid 1,000 dollars for all this 'stuff' and if you don't like the way I'm doing things, I'm going to take it all and go home."
The attitude is both pervasive and permissive. For example, a 500 pound Fallschirmj?ger can parade around because he's the guy who owns the automatic weapons.
"Hey, isn't that guy kind of fat - how would he even fit in the door of a Junkers?"
"Oh, he owns the machine guns, so we let him dress up - don't worry, he won't be coming to the field with us."
"Oh, so he's just staying here in the public display area where the public can see him."
"Yeah, so no harm done."
Why object, right? Because everyone is in charge, rules get bent, changed, modified, and people get fed up with it all the time. Hop from one organization to another, make their own unit when they get tired of another, start a new federation, quit, sell their stuff, rejoin two years later.
At the end of the day, though, the fact that it is still just a hobby is probably it's saving grace. There is money changing hands, but only in relatively small amounts, for kit and registration and event fees. Were reenactment to "turn pro" that's when your real headaches would start. And for heaven's sake, don't let the government start running things...
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