The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-03
Liberal Viewpoint
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

D
l. center of the European stage and is likely
to do so for some months or years to come In
telligent students of European affairs will wish
to understand how he attained his present po-
sition and developed the ideas which dominate
his policy.
Professor Louis L. Snyder has written a book
which throws more light on Hitler and his back
ground than any other which has come to my.
attention CFrom Bismarck to Hitler" Bayard
Press, Williamsport, Pa. He traces the various
currents in the development of German national
feeling which have led the German people to
rally enthusiastically around a man whose doc
trines are at the opposite pole from those of the
leaders of the former German republic and a
man whom the German aristocracy regarded as
beneath their contempt less than a decade ago.
DR.. Snyder sketches the major figures in the
development of German nationalism since the
middle of the last century.
Otto Won Bismarck was the guiding force in
achieving German national unity. He made
national state out of a geographical expression.
He was devoted to the cause of both unity and
monarchy. But he was not, as he is often rep
resented an apostle of blood and iron" He
would have preferred to unite Germany by
peaceful methods had such an achievement been
possible. After unity had been attained, Bis
marck pursued economic and social policies
protectionism and social legislation-w which made
for economic and social nationalism
THE intense anti-Semitism of Hitler was fore
i Swallowed by the Hohenzollern court
preacher, Adolf Stoecker, who sought to nation
alize German Christian thought. He espoused
social reform under Protestant auspices to en-
tice workers away from MarxiSm His chief
venom, however, was reserved for the Jews. He
bitterly opposed the erection of statue to the
great Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine, suggesting
that If any were erected it should be one of mud.
Ardent nationalism was spread among the
lntellectuals by the fiery and imposing Profess
sor Heinrich Won Treitschke, who preached Ger
man unity, eXtolled the Hohenzollern dynasty,
personi1ed the state, and held that only great
and powerful states should exist. There is no
place for small states incapable Of protecting
their citizens or producing a great art.
Though himself an internationalist and
champion of a European" rather than a ma
tional culture, the philosopher Friedrich Will
helm Nietzsche became unwittingly a powerful
positive factor in the growth of German ma
tonalism. His conception of the superman. the
will to live and the will to conquer appealed to
the new Germany" of the empire.
German art and music before the empire
had been cosmopolitan rather than nationalistic.
But Richard Wagner not only made German
music national; he made it world-famous and
set the pace for the Matchmaking of other phases
of German art and literature
William II, at heart an intelligent and pacific
man, was driven into compensatory exhibition
ism and SWaShbuckllng by his slight physical de-
fornity CHS withered left arm). So his funda-
mental pacific diplomacy was obscured especially
in the foreign press, under his bombastic refer
ences to miltarism, the strength Of his army
and navy, and the glories of war.
CEN. FRIEDRICH Won BERNHARD was a
" real apostle of war and glorifed it without
limit.
In Hitler We find sort of hodge podge of the
various earlier threads in German nationaliSnl,
intense patriotism, the laudation Of the state a
mystical religious eulogy of the military cult,
anti-democratic convictions and fierce hatred
of socialism, and really sincere and undying con-
tempt and animosity toward the Jews.
The short-sightedneSs of the entente in the
Treaty Of Versailles and after put into the con-
troll of Germany this man who observed that ut
ought to be greater honor to be a street.
cleaner of the German reich than a king of a
foreign power"
The only mistake which may be made in
reading this book is the possibility that the
reader might imagine that Germany is unique
in her nationalisrp. If so. let him consult
Professor Hayes France: A Nation of Patriots
and Schneider and Clough, Making Fascists"
Other important recent books in this field of
thought are Sidley l.. Gulick, Toward Under
standing Japan" Macmillan, 81; Paul H. Clyde
"Japan's Pacific Mandate Macmillan, 81; Maj
Frank Pease Pole to Panama" Speller, 81;
Jules Cambon and others, The Foreign Policy
of the Powers" Harper, s1.5e; Carrie Chapman
Gait and others, why Wars Must Cease" Mac
milan, 81. Maj. Pease runs Hitler close second
| as patriot and impersalist.