![Symbol of industrialised war: a German railway gun during World War I.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/eisenbahngeschuetz-u-s-national-archives-300x225.jpg)
Men under heavy bombardment
In 1914, men marched off in a rush of euphoria to join the fighting in World War I. They were following an ideal of masculinity that would be torn to pieces in a blaze of automatic gunfire. The ideal of the glorious knight turned out to be a cruel mirage.
![‘Forward!’: This British propaganda poster from 1915 depicts the war as many men had imagined it: a soldier bristling with heroism, mounted on horseback like a medieval knight, brandishing a sabre.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/forward_1915_iwm-191x300.jpg)
![German soldiers leaving for the front, August 1914.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bundesarchiv_bild_146-1994-022-19a_mobilmachung_truppentransport_mit_der_bahn-300x198.jpg)
![French soldiers in August 1914. The French uniform of 1914 took no account of how modern warfare was conducted.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/mobilisation-franzoesische-truppen-1914-300x233.jpg)
The exhausted man
For centuries, ideals of masculinity have swung back and forth between invulnerable strength, and weaknesses laid bare. The fourth exhibition by the two guest curators Stefan Zweifel and Juri Steiner at the National Museum Zurich takes a stroll through the European cultural history of mankind.