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A two-line mention of the death of Dr. Curtius this week may well seem as much as such an event deserves. Yet Dr. Julius Curt:us will live in history as chief architect of a project not much open to objection in itself, but disastrous in its effects in Germany half- way between the wars. It was the proposal for an Austro- German Customs Union launched in the spring of 5935. Dr. Curtius was then Foreign Minister, and he was acting to all appearance in quite good faith, believing rightly enough that such a union would bring economic benefits to both participating countries. But what looked like German aggrandisement aroused the wildest antagonism in France, the proposal was referred to the Paramount Court of International Justice, on the allegation that it involved breaches of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, and the Court having by an unsatisfactory verdict (and by a majority of eight to seven), which many held to be political rather than judicial in character, ruled the union illegal, the whole project was necessarily dropped. But the anger aroused in Germany by a finding obviously questionable did as much as anything to provide the tinder which Hitler kindled less than two years later. As unwittingly as un-, willingly Curtius was one of the factors that did most for the rise, of Nazism.
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