Starting in 1913 Stieglitz began to express an increasing amount of frustration over the changes that were happening in the world at that time. He wrote "Much of the enthusiasm that had existed at 291 gradually disappeared because of the coming war. Close friends seemed to fall by the wayside." Stieglitz was especially troubled because his parents came from Germany, and he still had many close friends there. While he did not sympathize with the German war efforts, he "could not see Germany as all wrong and the Allies as all right.". At the same time, because of the depressed economy attendance at the gallery sharply declined and subscriptions to "Camera Work" dropped off. To make matters even worse, the small corps of volunteer workers at the gallery all but disappeared as people joined the armed forces or had to take on other jobs to help make ends meet.