The Germans

HERE is a colorful running survey of German history, beginning as far back as the time of Ariovistus, the Teutonic chieftain whom Caesar defeated, and largely devoted to proving the pessimistic thesis which the French, before the days of Vichy and collaboration, often summed up in two words: L’Allemagne eternelle. Mr. Ludwig will have none of the consoling theory that the Nazi régime is something abnormal, forced on the German people against their will. He finds Ariovistus himself practising a Hitler technique, ‘protestations of innocence, threats, tactlessness and treachery.’ Luther is a ‘tragic prototype of the German,’ because he ‘betrayed the spirit to the State, ethics to power.’ The Germans, the author is convinced, are a nation of soldiers, and German industrial success has been largely attributable to the application in industry of the German virtues of obedience and order. He emphasizes the slight resistance which Hitler experienced in his seizure of power. In view of his discouraging interpretation of German character as inherently warlike and predatory his formula for future peace seems almost too facile and simple to be workable. He would like to see a United States of Europe, with all-round disarmament, where Germany could no more start a war than the State of California could initiate hostilities on this continent. He does not explain how peace on such a basis could be expected to endure, given his own theory of incurable German aggressiveness.

W.H.C.