Evening star., 1923-12-02
GERMAN ISSUES TODAY
THOSE OF 1000 YEARS
Will the Present TeutOnic Maneuyerine
Be Entirely Political
and Bloodless?

ifesto, issued at the end of October.
ISto' from Salzburg, which effectu-
ally ruined the legitimist cause In
France.
Economic Life Normal
The monarchial majority parties
thereupon adopted the plan OF having
power conferred upon the marshal
for fixed and long period. They
wished II to be apparent to the
country that the marshal was especi-
ally the president OF the conserva.
tive majority. and obtained his
presidential term of seven years.
Eseept hataepa, for Or the ceaseless struggles
ties In France, and Bismarck's war
scare. which subsequently became
an almost annual phenomenon. the
economic life was fairly normal
whole Of France began to look for
ward to the great world fair OF
Paris 1S7S) and the brilliant sue
cess II became.
The only parallel between the de-
feated France of 1875 and the Ger
many of 1923 would. then, seem to
be with the monarchial influences
under Marshal MacMahon and these.
agitating the present reich. But
there is one capital difference be-
tween the French situation of fifty
years ago and the German OF now.
The German monarchial claims today
tend, toward decentralization or dig
fntegration of Bismarck's empire
whilst the Orleans princes had ter
dered already In the autumn OF 1873
their allegiance to the Comte de
Chambord, which completed the long
talked of fusion OF the Bourbon
claims.
Republican Sentiments Growth.
How rapidly the republican senti-
ment, under Gambetta's inspiration.
grew in France is well known. The
different dynaStic pretenders in the
German reich today, of which the
principal two royal houses are the
HohenZollern of Prussia and the wit
telsbach Of Bavaria, are vying with
each other for best positions in case
the governments crisis would be-
come SO acute that the chances for
a monarchial restoration become
much greater than they were up till
now. Even as Napoleon III. under
the third republic. so the head OF
the German imperialists lives abroad
Mr. Theirs had complained OF Queen
Victoria's great solicitude for the ex-
emperor of the French: her majesty's
troops had been marched to Chisle-
hurst to be reviewed by the French
exile; and Napoleon, the ex-Empress
Eugene and> the prince imperial
enjoyed the constant hospitality OF
the British sovereign at Windsor,
and even In London. On that point
strictly secluded as his life has to
be. bears hardly a pleasant COM
parison. The French imperial prince
disappeared with a halo Of the tr-adi
tional flower OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in
a faraway country-whilst the for
mer German crown prince undereoes
democratic metamOrphose, began at
Wieringen and continued at Os.
The German bourbon princes" the
Bavarian Witte!sbach's. Crown Prince
Ruprecht. Prince Leopold and Prince
Alfons, have always remained In
their country. since the sporadic
the end Of the war. The former
Bavarian kingdom now under mon
archial rule hut In name. with Die
tator von Kahr and the so-called
head Of the state. has a similar flag
problem as the French monarchists
had in 1878.
Differences in Germany.
The incident of the great Reichs-
flag on the high Venitian masts in
front of the Munich Hauptbahnhof.
when last year they were constantly
changed overnight for the Bavarian
colors (whife-b'uel so that an armed
body Of reichswehr had to keep a
close watch over them. has provided
the German sati-iSts and hunlorists
with no end of material. The effective
segregation OF the administration OF
posts and telegraph. of the troops of
defense" finances, etc. has ceaseiess-
ly developed in Munich. The antipathv
between the Catholic Bavarians and
the Prussians has steadily been ac-
centuated: even in the music dramas
of Richard Wagner, and especially in
his 'Parsifal." il has been pointed
out, the antitesis between north and
south Germany were already empha-
sized. The gradual ascendancy Of
Prussia over Austria during the nine
teenth century. and all that 1t mean
for the cultural life of a hundred
million German Snra king people, has
been particularly brought into relief
these last four years.
There is a last point Of comparison
between the German situation OF to-
day and the French of fifty years ago.
II is, indeed, the spirit of the German
people. The French popular state of
mind under Marshal MacMahon might
be called fairly united. logically
developing the spirit Of republican
| ism. under the inspiration of men like
Gambetta, Jules Grevy and the grow
| ing lights of the third republic. The
psychology of the German masses.
under the stress of the reparations
problems and the absence OF any pos
sible foreign policy, has become in
tensely nationalistic. Nationalism
means here rather regionalism; the
| Saxons, Rhinelanders, Bavarians and
Prussians have each their local
| brand, and nearly fifty years of Bis
marck's process of unification is now
again in the caldron-with the dynas
tic aspirations! II will be extremely
| interesting to watch this varied
| regionaiism around its princes COM
| ing to battle with the larger issue of
nationalism and Deutschtum, as II is
called. The issue is one of thou
sand years in the old lands of the