Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-16
BRUENING FIGHTS ON TWO
FRONTS TO SAVE GERMANY
Chancellor Faces French Hostility
Abroad and Nationalist and Com
munist UpheavaI at Home.

! and London few days ago the proposal
! to lynch him on his return reused cheers
| in q crowded meeting. When he came
| home the police took him from one sta
ton while the public awaited him at
another, so great was the apprehension
| for his safety. Not to recognize that he
| has actually taken his life in his hand
is TO miss one aspect of Bruening's pres
| ent service.
Fearless in Use Of Power.
AS he has strength and determine
ton, Bruening has also complete fear
lessness in the use of power. The hand
Of Mussolini rests less heavily upon
Rome at this moment than that of
Bruening upon Berlin. The city is I'M
der something very close to martial law,
the police are armed and commissioned
to shoot to kill Machine-gun lorries are
familiar sights. Public meetings are
suppressed, newspapers forbidden to ap-
pear, the press muzzled, public opinion
silenced. The German lives under a
regime which makes the old monarchial
situation seem not merely liberty but
license
In a word. this silent, -effacing
man, who few years ago was still the
undistinguished secretary of a relatively
unknown politician, has in a few brief
months made himself one of the great
dictators of our own age-which Is ia
miliar with dictators. He lis the peer of
Mussolini. Stain, Pilsudski, but with
one essential difference-in his domino
ton the personal element does not ap-
pear His devotion is utterly selfless.
He has no following, no personal pro-
paganda, no private ambition. If he
disappeared tomorrow, there would be
left no machine, no party.
What has happened is that in time
OF unimaginable storm and stress a
simple. sincere and straightforward man,
finding himself, more by accident than
all else, called to direct national for
tunes has flung himself into the breach,
assumed all the risks, faced all the dam
gers And because this volunteer has
both clear head and a consummate
courage he has so far managed to save
Germany from herself.
Supported by Hindenburg.
Bruenings survival to the present
hour has been possible only because he
has been able to rely upon the I'M
swerying support Of Hindenburg, Presi-
dent of the republic. 1t Is against this
amazing alliance of the old Germany
and the new that the combined assaults
of the Communists and the Nationalist
have so far broken down. The Reich
is today governed by set of decree laws
formulated by Bruening and counter
signed by Hindenburg. The Reichstag
has been diSSolved-and in that Reich
stag Bruening's majority was largely
fictitious-the ordinary rules and regu-
lationS of life have been suspended.
The Germans tell you almost the
single detail that Bruening keeps a copy
Of Walter Pater" on his desk. What
an extraordinary contrast, that volume
OF Marius the Epicurean at the elbow
OF the man who is ruling a turbulent
Germany with a rod of ironl They
tell you also that Bruening knows his
France and England and loves his Lon
don. And in the manner of the man
there Is something more English than
German, as in appearance there are
lacking all the familiar German traits.
In all the world today no other public
man bears quite the burden of respon-
sibility Of Bruening. Not merely the
fate of his own country but that of
Europe may be decided by his success
or failure in beating of the attacks
alike Of Communism and Fascism. If
he lasts, German relations may
take a new and better turn. because,
while he failed Immediately in his re-
cent Paris trip, there is no mistaking
the fact that he inspired confidence and
removed many obstacles.
Struggle Unknown to World.
The acuteness Of the struggle in Ger
many is too little appreciated beyond
the frontiers of the Reich The degree
to which despair and misery have
shaken the courage and darkened the
reason OF the mass of the German people
escapes the notice of a world occupied
with its own troubles. That this new
and young German republic in barely
more than decade should have been
able to produce three men like Ebert
who bridled the revolution, Stresemsnn
who brought his country back to inter
national relations, and Bruening. who is
restraining the passions which could
lead the German people to something
approximating suicide, testifies To the
reality Of the revolution of 1918 For
not one OF these men could have PLAYED
great role in pre-war Germany.
IL Is an odd circumstance too that
at moment when Germany seems ripe
for Caesar her fortunes are directed
by man who looks like a monk. who
has the aptitudes of a mathematician
who has the manner of a recluse. but
VINO has also the experience and the
record OF machine gunner. To an
American correspondent who rode with
him on his return from London Bruen-
ing said as the train crossed a corner
Of the old front:
Il fought over there. and when I
think Of the critical situations in which
found myself at that time / acquire
new confidence to go on -
You get a glimpse of the inner man
IN this, the sole senblance of self-reve-
latlon the great hegira to Paris and
Berlin produced. The spirit of the ma
chine gunner slips forth from the dis
guise Of cleric. And although it NAV
well be that Bruening is once more en-
gagged In foriorn hope. few men have
deserved better OF their country or of
the world in the postwar period than
this man, whose literary tastes run TO
'Pater," but whose political perform
ances suggest Bismarck, who was the
Trnr Chancellor