GERMANS AT OXFORD SIR, --Dt:"C.- K. Allen's article on German Rhodes
Scholars and Dr. J. A. Kronstert's letter raise a very important question which one hopes has been in,the minds of those responsible for the " re-education of Germany." Have the Allied authorities gathered particulars of the pre-war and war- time political activities of. German University professors and teachers? If they have, is it not extremely . important for the future of Germany and Europe that those who have been actively associated with Nazi party propaganda and the perversion of youth, should be weeded out from University staffs and forbidden to teach for at least a period of years to come? Dr. Kronsten mentions Professor C. Brinkmann of Heidelberg. This gentleman's record should indeed be scrutinised. It was he who, not long after Hitler's seizure of power in 0933, called together the foreign students at Heidelberg and proceeded to explain to us " the true nature and significance of the German Revolution."
The gist of his remarks was that in the world of those days it was an anachronism for Germany to pursue the outworn liberal-humanitarian- international tradition. The time was past for harping on " Menschheit " and Internationalism. There had been too much talk of such things. What was required was too per cent. patriotism. Germany must be consolidated and strong, so that other nations might respect her. Foreigners living in Germany should seek to understand and appreciate the changed conditions. In writing home, we should be " zuruckhaltend, avoid criticism, and confine ourselves to explaining to relatives and friends the peaceful and orderly nature of the Revolution and its necessity for German " reconstruction." We were, apparently, to shut our eyes to all that was going on in German University life at that law and act, instead, as good Nazi propagandists to the " Ausland." Brinkmann, like many other professors of his kind, should have a black mark against him
in the Allied dossiers.—Yours faithfully, H. JOHN MCLACHLAN. Manchester College, Oxford.
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