The nailing movement (Nagelungsbewegung) of World War I represents a remarkable phenomenon of German war propaganda and war financing. Between 1915 and 1918, hundreds of nail figures emerged throughout the German Reich and Austria-Hungary – monumental wooden sculptures into which nails could be hammered in exchange for a donation. The nailing statue of Count von der Mark in Hamm, Westphalia, documented here, belonged to this extensive movement of patriotic donation campaigns.
The inauguration of the Hamm monument took place on January 2, 1916, at a time when World War I had already been raging for a year and a half, and the initial war enthusiasm was increasingly giving way to disillusionment about a prolonged war of attrition. The preserved documents – a sheet music for the consecration choir, a program for a charity concert, an access card, and a commemorative publication – provide insight into the elaborate staging of these events.
The choice of Count von der Mark as the motif held special regional significance for Hamm. The Counts of the Mark were medieval rulers of the county of the same name, which included the area around Hamm. By choosing a historical figure from regional history, a bridge was to be built between the glorious past and the present of the war.
The concept of nailing originated in Austria, where the first “Wehrmann in Eisen” (Iron Warrior) was erected in Vienna in March 1915. This idea spread rapidly throughout the German-speaking world. For a donation, the amount of which varied depending on the material of the nail – iron nails for smaller amounts, silver or golden nails for larger sums – one was allowed to hammer a nail into the figure. The donations benefited various war purposes, particularly the support of war widows and war orphans, as evidenced by the concert program from July 9, 1916.
The inauguration ceremonies were staged as quasi-religious events. The consecration choir, for which special sheet music was created, underscores the solemn-sacred character of the event. Such choirs typically sang patriotic songs and hymns that invoked the willingness to sacrifice on the home front and emphasized the unity between the front and homeland.
The access card to the monument site shows that access was controlled, which had both organizational and symbolic reasons. Participation in such events was portrayed as both a privilege and a patriotic duty. The commemorative publication for the annual celebration documents that the monument was not only inaugurated once but served as a focus for patriotic events over an extended period.
The nailing movement fulfilled several functions: it generated financial resources for war purposes, it emotionally involved the civilian population in the war, it created a common experience and object of identification for the local community, and it served war propaganda. Each hammered nail was a visible sign of support for the war and solidarity with the soldiers at the front.
After the war, many of these nail figures disappeared. Some were destroyed, others stored away or forgotten. The wooden monuments no longer fit into the era of the Weimar Republic, when war enthusiasm gave way to a more critical examination of the war. Today, only a few of these objects remain, making the documented materials from Hamm valuable historical testimonies.
The preserved documents from Hamm offer a rare insight into the organization and execution of such nailing campaigns. They demonstrate the professionalization of war propaganda and the mobilization of the home front. The fact that half a year elapsed between the inauguration on January 2 and the concert on July 9, 1916, suggests that the monument was actively used for donation campaigns over an extended period.
From today's perspective, the nailing figures appear as ambivalent objects: on the one hand, testimonies to a devastating chapter of German history, on the other hand, important documents of the mental and cultural history of World War I. They show how war was fought not only at the front but also at home – through propaganda, symbolism, and the mobilization of all social forces for the “final victory.”
