The German Youth Movement
Britain and Germany: - a Frank Discussion Instigated by Members of the Younger Generation. Edited by Rolf Gardiner and Heinz Rocholl. (Williams and Norgate. 7s. 6d.) Tim Editors of this book have made a much-needed attempt to analyse the minds of post-war youth. They have chosen what is probably the best possible method, and have let a number of young Englishmen and Germans express their own feelings on the War. Much of their material is on the heavy side and the tone is rather didactic, with overpoweringly long Germanic sentences, but some of the essays, on the other hand, are full of extremely interesting thought.
, Mr. Gardiner has done perhaps more than anyone to help Englishmen and Germans to understand one another. The abortive journeys of some of our statesmen to southern climes have been to some extent offset=or their effects repaired—by the brilliantly sticcessfiil visit of many -young Germans to England. In 1927 Mr. Gardiner brought over a contingent of forty-six young Germans' and arranged a really remarkable tour for them in England. " The real test of the company was put by the last week of festivals in the towns. This began with Matins in the mighty Cathedral of Durham, at the end of which we gave a short recital of sacred music from the chancel steps. In the afternoon we took part in a joint festival with three teams of miners ; - at the end of the pro- gramme we had the entire company singing in a merry polonaise to supper in the University (Armstrong) Union, the evening being concluded with a torchlight procession. The following day the vicar of Newcastle made our visit an integral part of the (Cathedral) service at Evensong. The Church was filled to the last seat. We have seldom felt so deeply at one with the English as we did in this church." (Extract from the report of the German leaders of the ex- pedition.) Another passage refers to a longish march over the wild dark moorlands from Rothbury." Romanticism, you may say, and indeed the coating of sentiment is laid on too thickly for many an Englishman ; but he must take it or leave it, for the German Youth 'Movement will have no com- promiSe with materiali4m.
The ostensible object of this book is to start a " frank dire. cussion by members of the younger generation." It is an admirable object, but essays on the origin of the War and the common destinies of the Anglo-Saxon peoples are subjects of which the treatment can scarcely be anything but trite. What is of really first-rate interest is the light that it throws on the German Youth Movement. " To be in the middle of it is to feel oneself in the presence of something very " big "—an attitude of mind different to any you are used to—exhausting, but strangely impressive." The Youth Movement, we are told, has no concrete " end." " One Bund stresses world unity, another Catholicism, while still another revives the old German gods. The unity lies in attitude rather than end, and is strengthened by countless romantic associations."
In one article a German gives his first impressions-of England —and they are not cheering. He went to Wembley and " it seemed like the sunset of the day of the Britons, extravagant, but rather chilly, gay, but somehow listless. Admitted that the Crystal Palace Exhibition was ugly and raw, it was nevertheless a beginning, whereas Wembley seemed more like an end." A pre-War German would not have felt like this. He might have been jealous but he would have been filled with a secret admiration: " Oh; yes, bUt how do you know this young German wasn't just as jealous ? " ,The answer to this lies in a study of the German Youth Movement.
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