Evening star., 1955-01-20
Dorothy Thompson
A German Examines Germany
Unusual Book Records the Times When q Germans
Choice Was Between Being q Fool or q Coward

man people. He was once Q
man Of action, a participator
at the age of 10 In the assassi-
nation Of Walter Rathenau.
one of several committed
against ''collaborators," and q
fighter in an illegal Freicorps
In the struggle over the open
and undetermined Eastern
frontiers after World War !.
All Of this was very nefarious. :
But was not Pierre Laval shot
for similar reasons and were
not French guerrillas admired
as the Resistance?
Solomon regrets the assassi-
nation. He regrets all murder,
Of which he has seen sufficient.
He is no longer, in any sense,
a man of action. He has
lived through experiences that,
cause him to reject all he has
seen - everything except in
stances of noble human char
acter. (Among such noblemen
he counts the late General
George Patton, jr.).
In the form Of an answer
to the Allied Military Gov
ernments' famous 13l ques-'
ton "Fragebogen" - which
sought by so simple q card
cataloguing to separate good
from evil-he unfolds a pano.
rama of the national and so.
cial experience of every think.
ing German Of his age Che Is
43) and comes to a dead-end
street. II this is a cynical
book. 1t is the cynicisrn of
intolerable honesty and intel
lectual despair.
The theme of this remark
able document is a Germans
search for authority. as en-
bodied in an acceptable state.
The state must be legitimate
and just. Authority derived
only from the mere counting
Of heads can, and often does,
degenerate into mobocracy Gas
the founders of our Nation
clearly saw. One form Of
this, as Won Salomon saw from
the beginning was National
Socialism--and no one has
described 1t more scathingly.
Authority must win consent
by intrinsic merit. by It's ca
pacity to invoke uncoerced
loyalty. to secure ordered
freedom. to defend the Ma
ton, to establish righteous
ness. One by one he takes
the institutions and authori-
ties Of his country. as he has
known it--not exempting the
Kaiser and his usurpations---
and finds them all wanting.
He declares that he has lived
in a time when a Germans
choice was to be "a fool or
a coward" Self lf-admittedly
he has been both. Now he Is
reduced To that terrible de-
tachment Of being an observer.
And, being q writer, a re !.
corder.
He is not the only one Of
Germany's most gifted sons to
have found himself in this Icy
coldness. Ernst Juenger's
"Strahlungen" (his extraordi-
nary war diaries) not yet
translated here, reflect the
same terrible isolation.
Now, it is irrelevant whether
one likes or dislikes this book
and its author. The question
is whether he reveals a state
OF mind representative Of the
more percipient Germans Of
his age. am convinced that
he does. Since l946 ! have
been reporting that Germany
is. spiritually. a political vac
uuin. The Economic Miracle"
Is no substitute for real au-
thority. Lacking an authority
that commands intrinsic 10y
atty, Germany Is living in o
condition Of spiritual anarchy.
however ordered" lis outward
forms Of life may be. The
form this anarchy takes Is neu-
tralism. The body obeys land
profits from what the mind
rejects in the choice between
East and West. II rejects them
both.
Yet It Is proposed 10 arm
this spirit. and count on II 70
be q "bastion."
Wen. we shall see what We