LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PATRIOTIC PARALYSIS IN GERMANY.
[To THE EDIT= Or THE "SPECTATOR...1
SIR,—I find this very excellent phrase in the letter of "Au Englishman," writing from Shanghai, in tlie Spectator of November 15th. He illustrates from Haeckel "the extent to which patriotic paralysis has permeated intellectual Germany." Germans have become so used to a flattering mirror for themselves, and an unflattering mirror for other people, that they have altogether ceased to see them- selves as they really are. Perhaps they were too diffident at first (Englishmen who knew Germany well fifty years ago have been heard to • declare that at the bottom of his heart no German then really thought himself the equal of an Englishman), and their writers consequently thought it necessary to flatter their self-esteem. But whatever the cause, the result has been unfortunate ; Germans.
are perpetually laying claim to virtues and achievements which they have not made and do not possess. It would be easy to quote scores of German writers, some of them eminent, who have the hardihood to claim Gothic architecture for Germany. "Gothic, in other words, German, architecture," says Geiger, the biographer of Goethe, and an excellent scholar in his line. Now, is it conceivable that he should not know that Gothic architecture originated in the Ile de France, and that the greatest Gothic churches are in that district or near it ? Plenty of German writers on architecture have stated the truth quite frankly, though even they often try to wriggle out of the conclusion. Thus Kraus, the great historian of Christian art, quite admits what I have been saying, but seeks to neutralise its effect by the contention that the Re de France was not French, but Frankish, and therefore Teutonic, and therefore German, as the usual thimblerigging process goes on. As if the whole point were not that a Teutonic germ, coming in contact with a Romano-Celtic seed-bed, set up the intellectual ferment which made a great art possible. It is just the same with Shakespeare, who is Teuton on one side of him no doubt, but who would never have been Shakespeare if the "Teutonic paste in his composition" had not been raised to a higher power by something more fiery and volatile. The way the patriotic paralysis lets itself loose on Shakespeare would be nauseating if it were not a little touching :— " Milton dencht rah der Briten Poet, der gewaltige Shakespeare 1st der germanischen Welt eigen wohin sie sick dehnt."
So writes Geibel, a well-known poet. He is good enough to allow us the exclusive possession of Milton, but Shakespeare belongs to the Germanic world wherever it extends. As if Shakespeare were not the most English of all conceivable Englishmen! Of course, in a sense Shakespeare is for all mankind, and perhaps rather for the Teutonic portion of it than for the Latin. But that is not the way the Germans take it. It is easy to substitute "German" for " Germanic " (Deutsche for Germane), and hey presto ! Shakespeare becomes not merely a Germanic but a German glory. Thus we are told of the late Hermann Grimm, perhaps the best-known among modern German critics, that he picked out, "not without a feeling of national pride," the five greatest poets of the world—David, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe—and congratulated himself that two of them were Teutons (Germanen). The writer (R. Steig) goes on :—" Grimm believed in the world-mission of the German people." Now there may be room for ethnic Indo-European pride in a German for Shakespeare, but for "national" pride surely none whatever. And yet that little game of transmutation is constantly going on.
The subject of Shakespeare is an alluring one, and one could go on ad infinitum; but there are other striking instances of the patriotic paralysis which should not be passed over. Thus Hermann Grimm tells us in all gravity and good faith that Cornelius—Cornelius !—was the greatest painter of the century. As for Goethe, merely to name him is the letting out of waters. Richard Meyer tells us that Faust is "the grandest drama of the world's literature"; Heinemann that the Roman Elegies are "unequalled" (for comic, though humourless, impropriety, no doubt; but that is not what he intends). As a lyric poet he is "perhaps the greatest of all time" in Strauss's opinion; "the greatest of lyric poets," without the "perhaps," says Lavater. One bold worshipper at the Goethe shrine has even called him the "greatest," not of poets, but "of men." When a fine critic like Vischer or Otto Ludwig ventures to hint that Shakespeare was a greater dramatist than Goethe or Schiller, he is blamed for his lack of "patriotism"; and Bulthaupt, a critic not quite of Vischer or Ludivig's rank, is commended for his "patriotism" in writing a big book to prove the contrary. Then we have the Germans "quite falsely giving themselves the credit of originating what is called the ' romantic ' sentiment about women" (Matthew Arnold), and of course declaring that they are "the people with the greatest aptitude for the uplifting of barbarians [are Poles and Czechs included ?] to civilisation" (Ernst Hasse). It has even become necessary for a serious German philological review (the Philologische Wochen- schrift) to congratulate the author of a new history of the .Vandals on his having "abstained from all phrases aiming at Pan-Germanic patriotism "; and a scholar like Domu- zewski, one of the best living authorities on the Roman Empire, cannot write a learned article in a learned
periodical (Neue Heiclelberger Jahrbiicher for 1900) on the "Pay of the Roman Troops under the Empire" without a virtuous raising of the hands over that " mercenary " Tommy Atkins, who gets a shilling a day and is a volunteer, whereas German Michael gets threepence and is a conscript. And of course the poor Tommies solitudinem fatiunt, pacem appellant, and all the rest of the foolish learned apparatus. What is all this but patriotic paralysis, from which even German Wissen- schaft is not secure ? And what is patriotic paralysis but a grievous confounder of the judgment P—I am, Sir, &C.,
WILLIAM T. ARNOLD.
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