Evening star., 1933-10-22
GERMAN TEACHER POINTING INoUEs

'REATY.
ony and telegraphy. Morse alphabet,
meteorology. use of mariners compass.
astronomy. orientation and liaison serv-
ice by night and by day, signaling.
Chemistry-PoisonouS gases, protec-
ton against gases protection against
air attacks, incendiary bombs, bursting
bombs
Biology-Gereral hygiene, especially
Of feet, first aid.
Muslc-Folk songs, marching songs
Gymnastics-Obstacle races, climbing
and crawling. field practice (elemen-
tary): elementary commandments and
signals for mastering. marching.
SWlmming-Long distance and life
saving.
Possibly the authors of this program
constitutes undisguised training for
war: Possibly some of them, at least,
might protest In all good faith. But
the result would be inevitable.
1t may be that the pedagogue who
drew up this program had only one
purpose in vieW-the DEVELOPMENT of
the metaphysics of the value of mill
tary virtues, as opposed to the odd
fashioned democratic theology of the
American and French revolutions. But
one thing is certain: The adolescents-
me Germans OF tomorrow-will only re-
member the simplest and easiest watch
words OF this program-the worship of
brutal force, the pride of a so-called
superior race. the glorifcation of the
human body with its fatal conse-
quences; the contempt Of the mind.
Hitler Knows Situation.
If things should come about in this
way, they will soon prove that Hitler
was right when he recently declared
know there are generations abou,
"nlcn We are pOWerleSs; but We will
take their children from them"
Wnlch Will mean that the adolescents
whose moral training Hitler will under
take Will no longer know the pride OF
nelng Tree, nor the desire that free men
nave that the institutions of society be
mace over more just. Justice and free
@ oom VIII be blotted out of the minds OF
Lne men OF the future: they will also
oe devoid OF any ambition to think for
themselves or to act according to their
consclenceS. The state will tell them
What shall be the truth. 1t will be in
te!lectual bolslevism
VIII these children be ready to let
In order to judge the present Ger
man youth-and to Judge il fair1yN !,
must not be forgotten that the social
conditions under which it developed are
very dlferent from those which nre-
vailed elsewhere. p''
What then did the German children
witness at the end of 1918? They cow
RUE which was thought to be nm
aSsaliaple crumbled to earth like q
PACK OF cards: they saw moral distress
lne moral failure of the former rIlinp
classes, the hesitation and confusion
Vi tnose classes which, wholly unpre-
pared Tor 1t as they were, took the
pace OF the former ruling class.
Grew in Strange Era,
Those who still were children grew
up IN the welter of inflation-an &C.
centric period when life was unbal-
anced; when the baker closed his shou
at midday SO that he might double or
treble the price Of bread an hour later:
Wnen the rate of the mark was pub
iisneo, When every one, out of neces-
Slty, speculated from morning till night
When the child, looking around him
tnougnt ne understood that fortune OF
rum rested on the chance or the calcu-
!stion OF moment. The result was
tne wreck of l00,0o00OO gold marks
tne savings OF the middle classes.
Nearly ruined, the middle classes
soon constituted new proletariat, We,
tney refused to let their children fall
70 the level OF proletarians. Before the
war Germany had some 80 900 stu.
oents; In this first Hitlerian year they
are almost 10000. Many of these new
students work for their living. TODAY
Germany has on a large scale what the
Oniteo States has had for years. bu!
Wnlch was exceptional in Europe-the
student who works at night or durino
vacations SO as to earn the money
which will keep him at the university
This new German youth is not de-
void of certain ideaiism: it even sin.
cerely believes itself called to bring
about better world-but its faculty
OF reasoning freely seems atrophied
That alone can explain how boys. who
on other occasions would seem to be
Kind and generous. reveal themselves
to be abjectly cruel as soon as it be-
comes question of outraging, of tor
menting Jews. They have been taught
tne silly slogan Of race superiority and
they believe in it blindly.
If one points out to them the dam
gers of this intellectual servility toward
crazy dogma just because it has been
proclaimed from their leader, they
answer:
Pretend to Heroism.
We do not pretend to intelligence
but only to heroism. We want to set
up new society based on the agri-
culturist and the soldier. We despise
the type of the American merchant
of the British fnancier or the French
Intellectual.
Beneath these high-sounding words
there lies nothing very new. The Ger.
man generations who served Bismarck
and who, after Bismarck, obeyed Kaiser
Wilhelm II without criticism. in reality
did the same thing, though they may
have done 1t a little less theatrically
They were carrying bonds of which
they did not complain; they were the
servants Of the Hegelian divinised state
state with a tremendous power, but
also with the terrible danger-as was
shown in 1914-of uncontrolled rulers
left free to bring their country to dis
aster.
History is repeating itself. The trag-
edy Of the present German youth and
its teachers lies in this: They are
deeply convinced that they are work.
ing for the grandeur and the power
of the German people. whereas, most
probably. they are preparing crises and
sufferings for Germany even more
dreadful than fhose NJ the mast