What Can We Do with Germany?

Abstract

D URING phoney stage of present war those who guide our public opinion assured world at large that we were not fighting German people but only Nazi gangsters. When it became evident that conflict would not be brought to a speedy conclusion by a revolt from below in Germany, and when German armies began to practice their horrors in belligerent and neutral countries alike, these molders of opinion changed their tune and proclaimed that this is a German, not a Nazi war, implying that when day of reckoning comes every German will be called to account. The distinction between Nazis and Germans is vanishing; belief is growing that all Germans are Nazis and that all Germans have always been Nazis. If these views were confined to street corner and barber shop, there would be no real cause for alarm. But educated, and even makers of opinion, are falling victims to this product of war hysteria. Anthologies and histories of Nazi have been released by British and American publishers, proving that Nazi state of mind goes back to Luther and even Arminius. A distinguished member of British Foreign Office, an eminent British historian, prominent publicists and scholars are lending support to thesis that Hitler is a creature of Nazism rather than its creator. Phrases like the ancient Prussian tradition, centuries of Prussian domination are gaining currency. A recent contribution to this school of thought is Peter Viereck's Metapolitics, which has been widely publicized by Dorothy Thompson in her syndicated column. His thesis is that barbarities of Hitler's henchmen are natural fruit of German romanticism. Shades of Professor Babbitt! If it be objected that romanticism is a general European phenomenon, of English (or Italian) origin, Mr. Viereck has his answer ready: German romanticism is different-it is pure essence, of which English and French brands are but watery dilutions. Throughout his book Mr. Viereck charges with dismaying insouciance through china shop of German history and thought. Here a fact is trampled