War toys

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Tin soldiers today are primarily a collector's item
NVA toy soldier

A war toy is a toy that can be assigned to the themes of war , military or weapons .

These include, for example, miniatures of military equipment such as tanks , airplanes or ships , figures of soldiers ( tin soldiers ), replicas of pistols and rifles ( toy weapons ). Also, water pistols and rifles with plastic balls are among them.

Social evaluation

In the face of a world whose intelligence services report daily about the destruction of human life and cultural assets, about fear and displacement, war toys do not have a good reputation among the Western public. Almost every rampage with weapons brings the war toy again under suspicion of preparing for real killing. It is feared that war toys and games lead to learning of the craft of war and promote martial thinking and aggression. However, this assumption cannot be scientifically confirmed and is - statistically speaking - absurd. The game experts Siegbert A. Warwitz and Anita Rudolf point out that on the one hand almost every child as an Indian , knight , robber, police officer or in virtual games with fantasy characters uses warlike toys, but that on the other hand, playing war millions of times a day does not lead to border crossings and the probability that a war-playing child later develops into a militarist is statistically negligible compared to that of becoming a peaceful craftsman or office worker . According to her empirical surveys, the social character of the parental home and the socio-cultural environment, not the children's play needs, are of decisive importance for this development.

War toys are difficult to assess in terms of their psychological and educational effects. It is already controversial whether an aggressive attitude leads to the desire for war toys or whether dealing with war toys creates this attitude in the first place. The evaluations in society and in education are correspondingly contradictory. The widespread rejection of war toys from a global perspective is essentially limited to the European continent , especially Germany after the Second World War . In the German-speaking countries, however, the spread of physical war toys has been relatively low since the peace movement of the 1970s. In Switzerland, for example, the share of war toys in sales of the entire toy market in 2011 was less than one percent. In contrast, computer games with a warlike content are very common.

War toys are hardly available in Switzerland after Franz Carl Weber, the last major toy retailer to still sell war toys, removed them from the range after the attacks of September 11, 2001 .

Historical classification

According to the cultural-historical studies by Warwitz / Rudolf, war toys are verifiable and popular in all regions of the world and with almost all peoples. According to the surveys by Wegener-Spöhring, the majority of elementary school children already own war toys and would like more of them.

In Germany, people dealt with the phenomenon in a very impartial manner until the middle of the twentieth century. Generations of families sang the song written by Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1835 with their children and grandchildren under the Christmas tree without hesitation :

"Tomorrow Santa Claus is Coming,
comes with his gifts.
Drum, pipe and gun,
Flag and saber and more,
yes a whole war army
I would like to have it. "

It was only with the advent of the peace movement in the 1970s that war toys and games of war became problematical after the experiences of the World War. The public discussion turned out to be more emotional than rational, with sensitivity to the word war and the idea of real war playing the main role.

Scientific analysis

According to Warwitz / Rudolf, a scientifically sound examination of the problem complex is made more difficult by the fact that a definition of war toys that can be used in everyday reality is not affordable: toy weapons and symbol games are changing in line with the times. For example, it is not clear whether the bow and arrow of the Indian game, a water pistol or a rifle with colored or blank cartridge ammunition should count as war toys. After all, every stick or stone in children's play can become a weapon and a 'war toy'. There is also a character of aggression in sports games . Figures of identification such as Indian hordes or armies of knights appear harmless to some, threatening to others. The virtual game on the computer and by means of the game console forms another category of war toys that is only effective in the media and, according to Wegener-Spöhring, remains without any demonstrable reference to real violence.

The game researcher Gisela Wegener-Spöhring came to the conclusion on the basis of her surveys of Westphalian primary school children that children growing up normally can differentiate between war and war games. The children strictly reject real war, but the vast majority of them love exciting war games and would like more war toys. For experts, this is by no means a contradiction in terms, but is explained by the different meanings and levels of reality of play and reality.

In this context, Warwitz / Rudolf point out the complexity of the phenomenon, which often prevents those who are unfamiliar with games from having an argumentative access to the psychologically and pedagogically difficult subject. In the parlance of the soccer game , a sports game with a comparable potential for aggression, the ball becomes a “bomb” and the kick becomes a “shot”, which is used for “attack” and “defense” without the toys and games being made in the minds of many a reprehensible war game. Every stick on the way can become a “weapon” and every gesture like “Peng, you are dead” can become a ritual murder if you fail to recognize the symbolic character of the game and misinterpret the meaning of the toy. Confusing a water pistol with a real rapid-fire rifle leads to false conclusions.

The reflex-like demonizing of war toys, according to Warwitz / Rudolf, usually arises from an emotional defense and unreflective equation of serious situation and game, reality and symbolic action.

Legal influence

Toy tanks in front of a shop in Tunisia (2015)

Toy weapons are not subject to a general ban, if only because the category cannot be clearly delimited in reality. After all, every object can become a toy and a weapon. There are, however, restrictions: in addition to the basic requirement that toys with a risk of injury must not be used against people and injuries to others must be avoided, Swiss legislation, for example, stipulates that toy weapons must be clearly distinguishable from real weapons. After the German Weapons Act (§ 42a, no. 1) the wearing of so-called is the appearance of weapons is in the public with a fine of up to 10.000 €. The educators are also responsible for ensuring that the children entrusted to them learn to clearly differentiate between play and serious situations.

Pedagogical consequences

The complicated problem of “war toys” demands an intensive intellectual debate from the educators. It allows a considerable margin of discretion for the assessment, but this must be based on knowledge about the phenomenon of play. Warwitz / Rudolf ask a series of critical questions and allow supporters and opponents of war toys and war games to exchange their arguments in a confrontation.

See also

literature

  • Siegbert A. Warwitz , Anita Rudolf: War and peace games . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 , pp. 126–151.
  • Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: The meaning of "war toys" in the world of elementary school children . In: Journal for Pedagogy . No. 6/1986, pp. 797-810.
  • Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: War toys and computer games in the world of elementary school children: a crisis of “balanced aggressiveness”? In: Titus Guldimann: Education 4- to 8-year-old children , Waxmann, Münster 2005, pp. 169–188, ISBN 3-8309-1533-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: War games . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 128–131
  2. ↑ a b Matthias Daum: "Presents that do not make the world a better place: The classic war toys have not been given away for a long time, today they are upgraded virtually" (PDF; 127 kB) in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 19, 2011, p 42
  3. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: War and Peace Games . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 126–151
  4. ↑ Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: The meaning of "war toys" in the world of elementary school children . In: Journal for Pedagogy. No. 6/1986, pp. 797-810
  5. ↑ Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: War Toys and Computer Games in the World of Elementary School Children: A Crisis of “Balanced Aggression”? In: Titus Guldimann: Education of 4- to 8-year-old children . Waxmann Verlag, 2005. pp. 169-188
  6. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: War and Peace Games . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 3. Edition. Hohengehren 2014, pp. 126–127
  7. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: War games . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 3. Edition. Hohengehren 2014, pp. 131–134
  8. ↑ Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: War Toys and Computer Games in the World of Elementary School Children: A Crisis of “Balanced Aggression”? In: Titus Guldimann: Education of 4- to 8-year-old children. Waxmann Verlag 2005. pp. 169-188
  9. ↑ Gisela Wegener-Spöhring: The meaning of "war toys" in the world of elementary school children. In: Journal for Pedagogy. No. 6/1986, page 243.
  10. ↑ Toy guns are less bad than their reputation - in "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" February 23, 2015
  11. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The assessment of the war game . In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 131–135

Web links

Wiktionary: war toys  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations