LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR] THE ONLY GERMANY
SIR,—For anyone with an intimate knowledge of the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich there is something very disturbing in the present fashion—as revealed in the correspondence of certain newspapers and in private conversations—of speaking of two Germanies, the one as symbolised by Nazism and the other, gentler one, by " demo- cratic " Germany. Few fallacies could be more dangerous to truth. Everyone intimately acquainted with the German men- tality knows that Herr Hitler asserted himself over Germany not by accident or merely thanks to political conditions at the time. His victory was possible because he expressed, in however cynical a form, the underlying Weltanschauung of even those Germans whose traditions made them loathe his methods. The foundations upon which that Weltanschauung rests are a belief in the value of power qui/ power and in the superiority of everything German. Pangermanism, Kultur and " Unser Plots in der Sonne" are among the better-known expressions of that philosophy. The popular German proverb "Am deutschen Wesen wird die Welt genesen" has not been invented by the Nazis. More than thirty years ago a well- meaning German governess used to repeat to me that proverb every day during the few years when my, education was in her hands.
I have studied and lived in Germany both before and after the War, but never have I met a German—not even among the intellectuals—who did not subscribe whole-heartedly to the doctrine of the intrinsic German supremacy. Most of them believed with an almost religious ardour that it was Germany's sacred mission to " civilise " other nations by means of their own Kultur.
No one who knows Germany well was surprised to hear that the recent Russo-German Pact was enthusiastically acclaimed by most Germans irrespective of their political views. Why? Because they see in it a substantial increase in Germany's chances of dominating the world.
It would be dangerous if we were to wage this war on the assumption that we are fighting merely one man and one political party. What we are fighting is of a more universal, though more subtle, nature: it is the belief of a whole nation that it has the mission to " save " the world. Even in pre- Nazi days most Germans regarded the Poles as an inferior race (Sau-polacken), the British as unscrupulous intriguers (perfides Albion), and the French as decadent. Because there exists a small minority which does not share these views let us not delude ourselves that it is in any way representative of Germany. The conduct of German affairs has hardly ever rested in the hands of that minority, but in those of a majority which acclaimed the policies of a Bismarck, a Wilhelm II and a Hitler. If we persist in accepting the view that there exist two Germanies then even final victory in the present struggle must be followed twenty years later by a situation only a little different from the one in which Europe found itself in 1870, 1914 and again in 1939.—Yours faithfully,
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