"Confederates on the Rhine" Topic

""On a warm spring morning about 50 miles north of Berlin, Union troops and their Confederate rivals prepare for battle." That's the attention-grabbing lede of a PRI story on the bizarre phenomenon of Germans reenacting the American Civil War. The reporter explains that many participants feel "a personal connection to the war," and that everyone with whom she spoke took care to note that 200,000 Germans had taken part in the fight:

After World War II, any talk of military glory became socially taboo here…So for those at the reenactment, it is appealing that the U.S. Civil War took place in another country, in another time. It is safer, even romantic…"
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Amicalement
Armand

The article is from 2011. ACW reenacting has decreased sharply in numbers in the US in recent years. I wonder if the same is true in Germany? (And other countries, there were plenty of ACW reenactors in England and Australia, too).

Scott:

As you pointed out, since the end of the 150th events, Civil War reenacting has taken a nosedive. The folks in my unit are worried about the impact of Corona. We have had exactly one event in 2020 and the lack of activity seems to be lessening interest in the hobby as a whole.

As for the German reenactors, I am not surprised. Over the years I have met ACW reenctors from Ireland, England, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Japan and probably other places I cannot bring to mind just now.

The reenactor hobby was/is always dominated by older men,
usually because their kids were grown, and now had extra money to spend on the equipment/uniforms. It goes a long way to making photos of them look silly. No troops in the ACW were as fat and old as the majority of reenactors. It often nullified all the efforts to "be authentic as possible". Grant was but 43 at Appomatox.

The hobby, much like historical wargaming, is aging out.
And most young people have little interest in war, even
"playing at war".

Plus, young people don't have the spare money to get into reenacting.

Glup!

Amicalement
Armand

Pan Marek,

The hobby is certainly dominated by older men NOW, but when I started in 1984 at age 29 there were plenty of younger people in the hobby. This was before the Internet and before the really sophisticated computer games and young folks were still willing to go outside and do things in real life. All of those folks who started then and are still in the hobby are pretty old now. But the hobby is dwindling because we can't get many new, young recruits.

As some one who has done the frusrating job of recruiting, computer games are not the primary barrier to getting young folks. In fact, it is a natural repose from the computer world. As the hobby took a more aged feeling, those same aged folks became the barrier. Different politics, different shall we say social tastes, personal behavior, etc. I would also say the war within the hobby over authenticity had a great and negative effect at both ends of the hobby. My guess, it will come back once us older actors and our issues are gone. Although, I suspect it will look and feel quite a bit different.

Plus, young people don't have the spare money to get into reenacting.

I started reenacting at Uni. Our unit was initially based on the University of East Angela. We had few older members, who'd graduated and kept the group going as leadership. When one of grad students got a job a Bristol we got membership there too, myself included. We got grants from the student's union.

If I reeact less in the pre-Covid days it was largely because of political differences. I found that my friends, including those I wargame with were not as outspoken as those in reeacting. The toxic atmosphere in WWII drove my wife out of the hobby entirely.