Editing Carl Orff (section)

===World War I===
Orff was forced into the German Army in August 1917, which was a great crisis for him.{{sfn|Liess|1966|p=15|postscript=. "This was a period of emotional crisis which involved a complete change in his work."}} In a letter to his father dated 3 August 1917, he wrote:
{{Blockquote|My future lies now more than ever completely in the dark. That I [shall] go into the battlefield is absolutely certain. Here the decision should, and will, fall (you know that I am free from sentimentality): either I find an end of everything that has pushed and almost crushed me, or I become a wholly new person and begin in a certain sense entirely new. What must come, should come entirely better as the time that was.<ref>{{harvnb|Rösch|2009|p=26}} (English translation from {{harvnb|Kohler|2015|p=53}}) Original language: "Meine Zukunft liegt mehr denn je ganz im Dunkeln. Daß ich ins Feld geh ist unbedingt sicher. Hier soll und wird die Entscheidung fallen, (Du weißt daß ich frei von jeder Sentimentalität bin) entweder ich finde ein Ende von Allem was mich gedrückt und fast zerdrückt hat, oder ich werde ein ganz neuer Mensch und fange in gewissem Sinne ganz neu an. Was kommen muß, soll kommen alles besser, als die Zeit die war."</ref>}}

The coming fall, he was severely injured and nearly killed when a trench caved in, suffering [[amnesia]], [[aphasia]], and [[paralysis]] of his left-side.{{sfn|Orff|1975–1983 |pages=61–62, Vol. 1}} During his difficult recovery, he wrote to his father: {{Blockquote |I certainly never think of something that looks like the future. ... Since I am in the battlefield, all threads and connections from earlier are torn to shreds. ... For him who has been out here once, it is better (especially in my profession) that he remains out here. When I hear music I get palpitations & fever and it makes me sick; I can't think at all about when I might be able to hear a concert again, let alone make music myself.{{sfn|Rösch|2009|pp=26–27 (letter dated 20 December 1917; English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 54)|postscript=. Original language: "An so was, das wie Zukunft ausschaut, denke ich ja nimmer. ... Seit ich im Felde bin, sind alle Fäden und Verbindungen von früher zerrissen. ... Wer einmal heraußen ist für den ists (besonders in meinem Beruf) besser, er bleibt draußen. Wenn ich musizieren höre kriege ich Herzklopfen & Fieber und Kotzen, gar nicht zu denken wann ich wieder ein Konzert hören könnte, geschweige selber musizieren."}}}} After Orff's death in 1982, his daughter wrote that she believed this experience "made him think and rebel yet more revolutionarily."{{sfn|Orff|1995|p=128 (English translation from Kohler 2015, p. 55)|postscript=. Original language: "ließ ihn noch revolutionärer denken und aufbegehren."}}