Buried Alive (January 1916, Champagne) [Verschüttete (Januar 1916, Champagne)], from the series Der Krieg (The War)

Originally part of the first portfolio in the four-part series Krieg (War) of 1924, Buried Alive presents a haunting image that sums up the utter violence and horror Dix experienced as a machine gunner in the war. When taken into account with the other images included in the four portfolios, Buried Alive is both documentation and reminder of Champagne, where Dix was sent to the frontline in September 1915. In January, after taking a brief leave of absence, he was back in the trenches there, where his squad experienced heavy losses. For the Krieg series, Dix consulted photographs and drew from corpses at a local hospital in order to convey his memories with immediacy and truth.