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For all I have said, Merkle's posture of aloofness did not reflect a lack of deep feeling. On the contrary, it was wrested from a deeply passionate nature. He obscured this aspect of his personality because he did not wish to impose his sentiments even on his friends. Like one of the heroes of classical drama, Merkle took on himself the battles to which he thought destiny had called him. Those of us whom he honored with his friendship therefore felt as if we had been admitted into a chivalrous order.

The emotions from which Merkle's aristocratic conduct had been wrung can be seen in a letter he wrote in November 1944, when his hometown of Pforzheim had been destroyed in the war: "Fate would not pass this town by. But for me this place is not of brick and mortar; it is founded on quite a different

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kind of building block that cannot be reduced to rubble so
long as the heart does not allow it. And the heart will not
acquiesce. It clings to old scenes, to hills and trees, and
to the memory of many days which were gifts of God and of
youthful dreams. For, in the end, ideas are stronger than men
and more long-lasting."

A few months after his death, Merkle's daughter Monika
and Dr. Scholl did me the honor of accompanying me to Hans
Merkle's grave on a still, verdant hillside, shaded by trees
overlooking the city of Pforzheim which had risen from the
ashes, rebuilt by men and women whose dreams overcame their
reality.

After that occasion, Monika graciously let me see the
letter I have just read to you. I thought then how lonely a

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life this caring man imposed on himself, how much of the
travail of others he took on himself, and I wondered whether
some of us might have broken through this solitude by an act
of grace.

But then I reflected that Hans Merkle lived just as he
wanted. Duty was his companion, honor his imperative. He
expressed this best in his essay, "Virtue and Trust:"

"Confidence in the future - that virtue of the soul, as the
French put it - must be fought for every day. It involves
permanent exertion, a coming-and-going; yet, as we travel a
path so strewn with stones, a God occasionally consoles us
with a smile."