Pastor Niem011er's Germany SIR,—Mr. Henry Colmar's article, Pastor Niemiiller's . Role,
is of great if rather ominous interest. When considering the unification of Germany is it not well to remember that a " unified Germany " is a modern and a largely artificial idea, and was brought about by Bismarck with less brutality but with almost as little scruple as that with which Hitler swallowed up Austria and Czechoslovakia—a policy which has been faithfully copied by the gang who rule in the Kremlin ? Formerly Prussia and Germany, frequently known as the Germanies, were two separate entities ; the former a warlike, not very civilised State, which had been brought to power by Carlyle's unattractive hero, Frederick the Great ; the latter a collection of smaller States, peaceable, cultured, the home of the arts and the sciences.
Nor are the divisions in " greater Germany " merely religious ; they are racial as well. The Catholic Rhinelander and the Catholic Bavarian give allegiance to the same creed, but they are different in racial type ; the former is more Celtic in his characteristics, the latter more Teutonic. Similarly the rugged Protestant Prussian is very different from his neighbour, the gentle Protestant Saxon ; even in appearance they are different.
It is perhaps worth noting that when I made a business journey in Germany in the summer of 1932, just before Hitler came to power, visiting the Rhineland, Bavaria (with a fortnight in Munich), Saxony, Silesia and Berlin, it was not till I reached Berlin that I grasped what a pressing menace Hitler and his Nazis really were. Elsewhere, including Munich, I heard them spoken of with dislike and contempt, and, while they were regarded as a danger, people did not seem to believe they
would come to power.—Yours faithfully, WICKLOW. 39-42 Kildare Street, Dublin.
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