The Riddle of Germany's Future
IN the closing pages of this book Herr Diesel, who is the son of the inventor of the Diesel engine, discusses the riddle of Germany's future in a rapidly changing world. He offers no confident forecast, for reasons which will appear adequate to the reader who has followed with the care warranted by the subject what the author has to say in earlier chapters. Every person with a sense of international values will admit that the shaping of a new Germany in the crucible of the present economic and political crisis is an event of profound importance. " The position of Germany in 'Europe and its political implications ; the size and energy of her population ; the scope of her industrial, technical, and scientific activities, and the place she has assumed in world trade, all combine to evoke conjectural interest in her present situation and what may emerge from it. Herr Diesel's main theme is the cause, or rather coin- bination of causes, of the failure of Germa4 to ev-orve national unity and consciousness comparable to that attained by other nations, notably England and France, and the relation of this failure to the efforts to semerge from the
confusion and chaos resulting from defeat in the Great War. His treatment of it will surprise most English readers by its candour, and its penetrating critical spirit. This book, indeed, is the antithesis of almost everything that is regarded as typically German by those who have had little direct contact with Germans and German affairs since the War. Herr Diesel himself, with his flexible mind broadened by travel and keen observation, his humour, and his clear, direct style (if this excellent translation is reasonably faithful to the original), may be regarded as a conspicuous product of the new Germany in which he seeks with almost pathetic eagerness for signs of future greatness and European leadership.
He leads up to his analysis of the present situation by a skilful and racy examination of the factora—geographical, climatic, racial, social, religious, and political—which have contributed to the evolution of modern Germany. Every- where he discovers reasons for the lack of that unity which gives stability and- coherehee td the life of nations whose developMent has been less Complex and-not so continuously turbulent. His comparisons of the various races—Prussians, Saxons, Franks, Swabians—and of the famous cities, capitals of their own States, aloof from the capital of the Reich, and cherishing their strongly individual cultures through the centuries, are subtly illuminating. In the same objective mood he discusses German mentality, art and education, and religious and political antagonisms. In the period of militarism which opened after 1870, and ended with the crash of the Great War; and in its secondary manifestations, he finds only the illusion of unity.
The lack of true national consciousness, and the instability which arises from it, were, he suggests, revealed in a new and significant form when the War, Germany's " first all- embracing national experience," ended in disaster. During the War " the full force of the age of technical science had broken over mankind," but in Germany, in the ensuing chaos and crisis, the free expression of the effects of mechanization was hindered by the political and economic consequences of the War. Moreover, this plunge back into a confusion of conflicting sections coincided with the emergence of what Herr Diesel, probably for want of a more precise term, calls the idea of a super-State of the future, associated with the rapid development of international affiliations, especially in the sphere of finance and industry.
Therefore, Herr Diesel concludes, the new Germany is faced with the triple task of discovering a basis of national unity along lines dictated by an imperious call to develop industrially ; of preserving a national soul against the inechaniling influences- which continually gather strength ; and at the same time of fitting in the national unity and con- sciousness - With the development of this " super-State " idea. He see; both the danger of another failure, and the dazzling prospect of a new leadership.
He considers an ever deeper plunge along the path of mechanization to be a necessity for Germany. " Everything unites to exhort us Germans to surrender to the machine," but the possibility is plain that, having regard to German characteristics, this will be carried to the logical extreme, and that " the delicate moderation which is the hallmark of a true culture " will be missed. There is the danger that the mechanistic style will be imposed " on every department of life with the same fervour that we once imposed the professional or militaristic or bureaucratic."
On the other hand, he suggests, there is the possibility that other nations, having accomplished their formative process, may find the task of adaptation to the new inter- national relationships very difficult, by reason of the tenacity of fixed ideas and traditional modes of thought ; whereas Germany may out of the present chaos simultaneously achieve national unity, adapt herself to the laws of the new world, and so assume leadership as the most modem nation in the world.
When so much is in the melting pot neither this possibility nor the contrary one that Germany may become the victim of a colossal uncontrolled mechanization can be dismissed as merely fantaStic by anyone who has observed the breaking doWn of many ancient barriers and dividing lines in the later march of German industrialism.
Everywhere, in looking to the future, the author of this book, like all who seek to discover any clear line of advance out of the present confusion, finds only uncertainty. He is nevertheless conscious of vast opportunities, and the book ends on a note of hope, derived from evidence that " the caste system and narrow specialization are losing ground," and that " a more humane spirit is beginning to stir on every side, and not least in Berlin."
WALTER Mz- KLN.
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