The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-10-30
GERMAN KULTUR
SINKING, SAYS
DIR. H|RSCH
Berlin Educator Sees Young
Turning to Sports Rather
Than Mental Education
By international News Service


BERLIN, Oct. 30.-"German Kul'
tur is in danger. The spiritual
level of the young German genera
ton is rapidly sinking. Young
boys and girls do no longer care
about education. They have taken
to sports and take their mental
food from films instead of classical
literature"
With these words Doctor Felix
Hirsch, in an article of the Acht.
Uhr-Abend1att summarizes his optn.
ion on what he believes to be the
decay of German Kultur.
''The reasons given for this de
cay are manifold. First and last,
there Is the world war. The
young generation received an In
adequate training during the war.
There was coming and going ct
teachers and the classes were often
changed owing to military neces-
sity.' In the first three years OF
the war there was q holiday almost
every week on account of German
victories at the front.
Well!To-D Do Made Poor
Initiation followed the war, and
during this period the former we'll
to do middle class, foremost ex.
ponents of Go slAn Kultur, lost
their money and could not afford
to spend much on the education
Of their children. There was
neither enough money left for good
books nor the theater tickets, quite
apart from the failure of having
the children travel around and
educate themselves by mixing with
people in other countries. There
was a general dearth Of food and
the majority OF children were UNI
dernourished and therefore unabls
to do proper work at school.
ideals gave way to a mate
riaIistic way OF thinking, concen-
trating on the one and only i'm
portant thing in the world, how to
make money. Courtyards in schools
resembled stock exchange halls
rather than recreation grounds for
innocent children. Every little bit
Of property was sold and ex-
changed against cash. with which
to buy some extra food, or to gam
BILE, or to buy goods which seemed
to yield more than what one pos
sessed. It was only natural that
school work became less efficient
and that q general dislike OF Work
gained the upper hand.
while the money crisis has sub
sided to q certain extent, the after.
nath of those days when the Ger.
mans were figuring In billions ana
trillions is still noticeable. Inter
est In literature and good shows
has slackened conside The
young generation has taken 70
films and sports, and boys as well
as girls unfortunately play q pas
sive part rather than an active ono
in sports. approximately one thou
sand fans watching sporting con-
tests fought out by ten Of their
comrades.
Politics Also Blamed
politics also play an important
part at school, each political party
trying to win the coming genera
ton for their ideas. Fortunately
the brunt of the attack OF political
parties on ignorant children Is over
by now, but still the Young Mems
Associations of the various parties
from the ultra-N Nationalist down TO
the Communists, are very strong
and are taking up much or the
youngsters time, which otherwise
might have benefited school work.
There is one ray of hope, how
ever, in the extremely great in
terest in technical matters. There
is hardly one among hundred
boys who does not do experiment.
ing with his radio set and other
electric-mechanic machinery. Yet,
this cannot compensate the lack Of
interest in admittedly good, or
classical, literature and fine arts.
And this evil will not be remedied
until the parents will be able to
spend more money on their chill
dren's education and again become
their guides on spiritual territories
on which our forefathers excelled,
spreading the fame and name Of
Germans all over the world