The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-02-07

LilOISllI pl OFOhlAlS anu Oioliie'J LIS
books to have come out of the war,
Published by Henry Holt and Com
pany, after it had been read and re-
read by their staff, submitted to
authorities on German history and
to professional propagandists Cover
whose protests it was finally releas-
ed), it was at last offered to the
public, with an interesting eXplana-
tory note by the publishers and an
introduction by Hans Morgenthau,
of the Department of Political Sci
ence of the University of Chicago.
Mr.. Morganthau, incidentally, does
a nice job of setting the author back
on his heels in a number of foot
notes, all of which were read and
approved by the author before pub
LEGATION.
The publishers describe the Ger
mans book as "angry," indignant
and furious" by turns. To this re-
viewer it is none of those things.
Rather it is completely sincere
effort of a patriot to interpret his
country to us and to make us under
stand how we look to Germany
deeply tragic because it demon
strates that the German mind and
the American mind have no common
ground upon which to meet.
To understand the book it is nee
essary to know something of the
author, a much travelled writer and
lecturer who belongs-and herein
lies the most dismaying fact of all
to the only class of Germany with
whom we would have any chance of
dealing successfully, the German
intellectual. Anti-Nazi and married
to JeWess, Herr Hauser got his
wife and children out of Germany
in 1889 and took refuge in New
York state, where he bought and
developed a small farm and rode
out the storm. He has, of his own
II CT WILL ISLL4A1 lCu Will LIS VILE W
Germany to contribute in whatever
way he can to the rebuilding of his
shattered nation. He expects to do
nothing more important than to
find piece of land somewhere,
work it, and offer shelter to a few
of Germany's homeless, hungry and
hopeless children. Not, I believe, as
indignant reviewers have suggested,
because he hates America or is I'M
grateful for the haven we supplied,
but because he believes it to be his
duty and his cross to bear.
Hauzers' opinions certainly do not
constitute the entire viewpoint of
all of Germany, but they do repre-
sent the views of a class with which
we should concern ourselves and
every American can learn some very
important things about the enemy
(advisedly, l do not say the "late"
enemy and his thought processes
by a careful reading of this brief
and honest book.
Himself a Prussian, Hauser is still
convinced that the Prussian ideals
are best suited to his country's well
fare. Tracing Germany's past back
to the period when the Prussian
overlords took over-under Fred
erick the Great-and achieved
species of unity among the warning
tribes that constituted the Germany
of that period, he builds up a strong
case for the Prussian system which
will fall on deaf ears in this country
because Frederick's premise was
that the average man was without
capability to decide anything for
himself and could be trusted only
after he had been trained to I'M
questioning obedience.
Hauser in his early twenties after
World War I, traces the decline of
German Culture, that formidable
lady who was represented in his
youth by nothing more than a few
decaying and sentimental relics in
the cultural capital of Weimar Re-
hgion too, had fallen by the way
side and along with politics-in
the larger sense-had ceased to have
anything real, stimulating, or vital
to offer to the youth of a beaten
and resentful nation. To Germans,
more accustomed to having their
thinking done for them than to
doing it themselves, the Weimar Re
public was weak travesty Came
then, into the midst of this frustra-
ton; imitation, the bread lines, the
soup kitchens and American movies
(tickets to which were given out as
part of the dole). And what Amer
lean movies and newsreels did, to
break down the strong German
tendency to initiate and strive to be
like they imagined us to be, before
the advent of Hollywood to the Will
helmstrasse, is story in itself.
Came also to all parts of the globe
the American tourist, then whom,