New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-28
INTELLECTUAL LIBERTY
How the Notable Thinkers OF the
Fatherland Were Treated.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir; The very interesting letter which
p. T. has written to The Tribune, where i
is published under the heading knowledge
Without Sense is unquestionably one o.
the most substantial contributions given IN
your or any great paper q veTed question
For while it cannot be denied that Germany
has contributed an unfathomabie share TO a.
the fields of human knowledge and enter
prise. we-who have lived and studied '''
many wears in her universities cannot ret
oncle our past experiences there win ae
present political and military activities.
II must be. as the eminent and never-to'
be-forgotten Ministerial Director Friedrich
Althoff October. 1909 expressed 10 Witty
vet perhaps somewhat too sweepingly-ths'
the Germans have not what The French call
the bump Of practical politics" Il loos'
like it. if we are to believe everything iasi
is said in the remarkable book Just pup
hshed by Professor Hermann FemaO' en-
titled, "Gerade we'll ch Dedtscher bin CJuN
Because Am a German. a book that dupI'
Gates with rare force and convincing proofs
to task the more renowned Of lbs eriiles
Speaking Of German professional poliieiah'
i'm general. Fornau remarks: III is lament
able though probably d.spensaton o.
Providence, that in our German aeademe''
class. with all its learning and serioIsns"
there is always something ridiculous he
was abiding, very likely. 20 Professor H.
Schicmann. and quite probably slso' 70 ITO
fessor Adolf Lasson, whose lIcubr-uons are
well known in America. \ pa age OF fe''
rau's book which will assuredIy corrooo'S'
Althof's judgment is the following may ,
shall quote, because 1t deserves 70 be, at ~"
length:
Il could scarcely believe my eyes. Does
this moralist Judge Weber. q pro-Iefm'n
Swiss member Of the Federal Court. Sn0"
nothing. then, Of the sad history o. ln"'
lectual freedom in Germany? Has TINS s"'o
never learned that almost every man "h0"
VIC have been accustomed 20 reverence as
spiritual hero and mpassioned Ge'm',
patriot was in his lifetime denounced A.'
prosecuted as a degenerate son OF his ray.
crland? Ernst Moritz Arndt for eNamV',;,
whom even our blood-and-iron ianau'' =
to-day regard as model Of true r'".s
patriotism, was for years branded heio'
German public as an insurrec'oHi't $40
calumniator. Gutzkow, an ornament OF w
man literature. lay IN prison for nus opln''D
Jahn the father Of the German atheNS
cieties one Of the boldest Of the patr'o"
1873. was imprisoned for years as On ~.
goguc and placed under a hlmiHaiing pV..,
supervision. Fritz Reuter-, one or me s'.
est German poets OF the last century !,
condemned 10 death for the part he 'VON
the foundation Of the university nu's'' -
schaften, was let of with sentence ,,r
thirty years Imprisonment ana S''1S.
served seven of them. And all tc -.
champions and pioneers OF German -
the Bornes. Laubes. Herwoghs, Nienos,,
Freiligraths, Prutzes, Pfdus and the
Long and unspeakably sad is the h.' o. ,, "a -,
man poets, thinkers and patriots - VI" IA
even reckon llcine among them WIN
TO endure obloquy and shame, imprS ,L.ir
and exile, only because they afo"e' ~,
republican ami democratic faith. is a.,
Weber not aware Of the shameful la0
the author Of our national hymn psD'I 49,.
land uber allies suffered for years the vi ri
terest persecution and had no pea's
he had taken refuge in Mecklenburg =,
II is certainly not with that rare CIV. Eel
German thinkers and poets that We -
ready 10 range Gerhart Hauptmahh' Of.
by condoning the crimes committed 10 IA.
GUM by the modern Huns has brHndeu M -.
ern German literature and poetry WIN ." .s,.
efraceablc stain. have met and Known "A
sonally in Switzerland, IN Hungary al" Al
Turkey German patriots who, beeause ,,y
their disgust at the way their native go. nd
was ruled would not consent 20 go oa'A
never did return thither. ,,.,rp
Quebec, T. @, Canada, March 10, i'A0'