Evening star., 1925-03-08
GERMANY UPON UP GRADE
AFTER GREAT SUFFERING
Degree of Privations Underestimated by
Outsiders, Says Observer-Berlin
Found Hopeful Despite War Scars.

ferent and the suffering still very great
AS to that of course, ! cannot say but
London itself seemed to me quite re-
stored to normal, quite like New York In
appearance-and Berlin does not seem
in the least like either.
I should be very inexact If l gave the
impression that the crowds or the at
| mosphere suggest hopelessness, despair
or present acute apprehension. On the
| contrary, one has the notion of people
| who have gotten back to work, to the
ordinary routine of life who are resum-
| ing all of the traditional habits, but
whose resumption is still too recent to
seem quite a matter of course. The acute
anxiety is gone, but the memory of that
| anxiety remains.
German Suffering Widespread.
Therefore 1 have to say with very
| great frankness that it seems to me that
a great many Americans. of whom l am
| one, have totally underestimated the ex-
| tent and degree of German suffering in
| the postwar years, that they have been
too willing to believe the stories of
| quickly restored prosperity, to think of
| the German of 1924 in terms of 1914.
| The outward signs which have noted l
have submitted to the test of examina-
| ton by questions addressed to Ameri-
| cans and other foreign residents of the
city. and their testimony as to the extent
and reality Of the German privations is
| universal.
Today the Transformation Is going on
very rapidly. For example, Berlin is
now, at least as to the central sections,
becoming city of light at night but
Americans tell me that the phenomenon
| Is very recent. Automobiles are multi
plying, and Berlin is just beginning to
have traffic problem, but the expert
| Sn hot hos ,at
rived at anything like competent regu-
! lation. Moreover, riding in train from
| Holland to Berlin 1 saw along all the
miles of highway we passed exactly two
passenger automobiles and one motor
| truck-that in 800 miles alike of coun-
| try and city
But, even IL the transformation is
proceeding rapidly, there are many
| things that have not yet been reach
ed. All the old palaces on the island
| look i'll cared for. not quite dilapi-
| dated, but certainly neglected; the
public buildings have the same at
| mosphere of neglect, the same ap-
pearance of having been abandoned
| for a very long time. The royal
palace, for instance. in which the
| last kaiser lived and from the bal
! cony of which he made his famous
| speech to his people at the moment
| most battered appearance. One can
| imagine the Tuilleries having been
inhabited by monarch much more
recently.
Few Officers Apparent.
Perhaps it is the striking absence
Of anything to suggest recently ex-
tant royalty which is most impress
sive. As to soldiery, one sees vastly
more in Washington, particularly as
to officers, and they appear infinitely
more, what shall L say?-militaristic
One porter in my London hotel wore
more ribbons of war decorations than
all the Germans, civil and military
whom I have yet encountered. Once
you have assimilated the fact that
the regular police wear helmets
which suggest soldiers rather than
patrolmen, the last semblance of a
military capital disappears.
At the end of my first week I can
testify to having seen but two SOL
diers actually carrying guns and they
were the guard on the door of the
presidents palace. l saw one lot of
soldiers, perhaps 40. marching from
one point to another outside the
Brandenburger gate; they did not
have guns; they marched quite at
will; they suggested in their manner
VI tdII yIHs TatneT the
slouch of the French poilu than the
stiffness of American and British
privates, let alone the traditional
Prussian ramrod bearing.
1t may be that IL you look under
the bed, or behind the trees in the
Thiergarten, you will find thousands
of Prussian soldiers in full equip
ment. l do not know as to either
although 1 rather doubt it, but the
fact is that the military element and
the military flavor are as completely
gone from Berlin as, say, Kansas
City, Missouri-by comparison, Wash
ington is simply crowded with uni
forms. And what is more, you miss
here all the varied ribbons alike on
uniforms and on the evening dress
Of civilians, which betoken wartime
decorations.
May Wear Crosses Privately.
Berlin, the city, is not tagged, save
on one or two buildings like the
Reichstag. The f1agpoles are all
empty and the men of Berlin have
not adopted. at least in public, the
allied habit of displaying their proofs
of wartime service either by decora-
tions or by ribbons. 1t may be, as
am told and can well understand, at
private dinners and among friends
are kept for such occasions. You do
not, as mere stranger in the streets
see them.
Again, / had the suspicion before
coming here that one might encounter,
If not arrogance, at least a certain
sullen resentment; this was perhaps
a survival of the reports of all the
concentrated hatred which one re-
members from war time. In point of
Il ii
ther, not merely officially, but in the
chance encounters on the street, l
met only courtesy. consideration and
| at times downright kindness. My
wife, who has been shopping in vari-
| Gus stores and, like myself, speaks
only English brings back the same
| reports from her experiences. What
ever be the feeling toward other
| nationalities, I have not so far en-
countered any evidence of any tend
| ency to retain resentments which
the war might have produced.
The Berlin which I see about me
| Is not in any way way, there is a
! prevailing note of somberness, the
| buildings and the people look as II
| they had very recently known hard
| times-very hard times; perhaps 1
| exaggerate, but I have almost the
impression in faces in certain of the
poorer quarters OF people who come
| out suddenly from the dark into the
sunlight and are still blinking
| Flapper Styles Are Absent.
The almost total lack Of smart or
| even elegant clothes, the sense Of the
| absence in any considerable number
of the class of people who throng
many hotels in Paris and London,
who are to be seen in large numbers
on Fifth avenue; the feeling that,
sartorially speaking, the cream has
| been left off the milk, the absence
| of the flapper in all her variety of