New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-29
GERM4N ART AND THE LEY Hell

GERMAN ART AND THE LEY HEINZE"
Germany is in the throes of an agitation over
the question of public morals affected by art.
and an effort to secure rigorous legal super
vision of pictures, sculpture and theatrical rep
reservations of all sorts has aroused what seems
TO be widespread excitement in the Fatherand.
The lex Henze' and amendment thereto
just passed are the immediate occasion of
all the discussion. This law. curiously enough,
takes its name from peculiarly offensive and
disreputable criminal whose misdeeds first
brought about its passage by the Reichstag.
The amendment in question was introduced
into the Rechstag a few weeks ago by the Cath
Ollie party. and obtained strong backing there,
although the Government refused to support
it and the opposition to 1t outside in
tense. 1t intiicts fine years Imprisonment
on anybody who writes or produces any play
offensive to public morality calculated to
cause public annoyance by its words and
comitants.
The duty of passing upon these things will
belong TO the police officials. Already the ordi-
nary policeman in Berlin is clothed with a
power that enables him to go into a shop and
order the removal Of any work of art that he
may see in a show window and may decide
against as he patrols his beat. If a similar kind
Of snap judgment is to be passed on all theat-
r1cal productions n great DOut OF art loving
Germans think the very existence of the theatre
in Germany is threatened. Some queer things
are done too. in Austria In the name of the
Government censorship which does not cOnfine
itself to questions of morality, and in England
the Lord Chamberlain occasionally, though not
often breaks out in an unexpected direction
but Germany has for many years boosted of her
freedom in matters of art. This will account
for the widespread feeling against the new
paragraph in the LEX HeinZe," which has en-
listed i'll active cooperation against 1T not only
the men most nearly affected, the playwrights
and the actors, but also others like Theodor
Mommsen. Felix Dahn, Paulsen, Kuno Fischer
artists and sculptors, musicians publishers and
a number of prominent officials Mass meetings
have been held in many of the large cities; the
newspapers publish impassioned articles; the
caricaturist are busy in hitting off the posi-
Dilites of the amended Lex HeinZe' in the
most amusing fashion; in a word, the matter
seems to be the burning question of the hour in
Germany
American sympathy will doubtless be on the
side of the protestants We have had some
rather strong experiences in this country, but
most Americans will agree that healthy pub
lie opinion can be trusted to regulate matters of
this kind without the necessity of continual
meddling by the police or the beStowal of arbi-
trary powers upon autocratic officials in Ques-
tons where art is really concerned. There is a
line of course. beyond which there can be no
question of liberation, but there will generally
be little debate as TO about where that line is
to be drawn and this side of it the appeal is to
the good sense and saving integrity of the pub
lie itself. Special machinery TO operate in place
of the public conscience cannot in the long run
be valuable addition to the government of any
community. In all probability the educated and
enlightened Germans who are protesting against
a narrow and autocratc statute have a truer
estimate of the moral health of their country
/ than the prudish members of the Reichstag who
are working for this Lex HeinZe"