Because Kiefer combines vigorous brushstrokes with emotion-laden imagery, his pictures have been labeled Neoexpressionist, or a revival of Expressionism. However, unlike the emotionally direct German Expressionists of the early twentieth century (Chapter 18), Kiefer combines references to many eras of his country’s history at once. At the time of its painting in 1974, the area known as March Heath was one of the lands that had been lost in the split of Germany into East and West. It was meant to remind viewers of the price of militarism. German viewers would also associate the title with a song of the same name that Hitler’s armies had marched to.