GERMANY TODAY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a German who happened to spend a few days in England and to read Mr. Wilson Harris? " German Impres- sions " I wish to congratulate you on the author'd able survey of his impressions of the present-day state of affairs in Ger- many, for he has obviously made the most cora week's -stay. If I attempt to supplement these impressions, it is merely because I agree with 'him- that stranger; however well- informed, can see less of the real Germany today than ever. Even if I agreed with the view ascribed to " sober, middle-class Germans " that " on the whole things in Germany are better than they were," I think he fails to take account of that strong body, not merely of discontent to which he refers, but of disgust —forcedly unvocal for the timebeingforobvious reasons—with the actions of so-called " leaders " who have established them- selves as " bosses " all over the country and exert a party dictatorship, often arbitrary and bullying and not efficiently held in cheek by the party leaders at the top.
That, however, is probabirinevitahle with any party dic- tatorship not- controlled by an unmuzzled opposition ; but what is more essential in order to -obtain a true picture of Geimany as. she is today are-other features not evident to the visitor : the despair of-the academic classes and-of-the intelli- gentsia at the ravages of "Babbitt running amok," the disas- trous effects of the Nazi creed and policy on Schools and Universities and the utter despondency of the most valuable. section of Germany in face of the apotheosis Of mediocrity and of the official cult of a small bourgeois and *resent eiviliza, tion, to the detriment of thoSe qualities-of the mindwhichhave made 'Gel-Many- in the past 'what: she • was. No picture of Gerinany can be complete that does not reflect that strong and 'ever-growing opposition of the thinking German to a regime that has also disappointed many of its older adherents of the more scholastic type by playing down to the instincts of the" masses and -forcing iipon a " nation of thinkers. and poets " a creed that is abhorrent to all its best minds and-to its most valuable moral forces. To underestimate the volume- of this " spiritual opposition " to the existing regime would give an entirely one-Sided isicture of 'Germany of today.---,- I am, Sir, &c., A NON-NAZI GERMAN PATRIOT.
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