Nuremberg and the Nazis

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21886, 12 September 1936, Page 14

Nuremberg and the Nazis

In the last few days the fire of Nazi eloquence has been sweeping from Nuremberg, the scene of the fourth congress of the German National Socialist party. And there is a reason why this beautiful mediaeval city, which stands today much as it stood three centuries ago, should be chosen for the annual Nazi rally. Nuremberg is the chief city of the old province of Franconia, and Otto Deitrich, in his book “ To “ Power With Hitler ” writes: “ Adolf Hitler, the “ leader of the German nation, finds that Fran- “ conia is the most German of all German provinces. It is not by chance that he has “designated this old, formerly independent “town, the home of the Meistersingers, and “ for a long time the intellectual centre of the “First Reich, to be the centre of our Party “ Congresses.” It is said that in no other city are the tradition »and culture of old Germany so harmoniously blended as they are in Nuremberg. In some ways Nuremberg is a unique survival from spacious and humane days which seem to be no longer with us. Modern architecture has not been allowed to rob the city of its rncient character; the people there still live in the crooked dark houses in which remote forbears played out their little life dramas; the larger buildings, black with age, slumber assured in impregnable peace. The Pegnitz river running through the town, adds touches of incredible loveliness to the scene. But Nuremberg' has more than its beauty to com-

mend it to the civilised world. It was the birthplace of Albert Durer, one of the artistic adornments of the fifteenth century; it was the home of Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, and it was the town in which the watch, first known

as the “Nuremberg egg,” was invented. The churches of the town are still among the glories of architecture. This, then, is the venerable background against which the Nazis of to-day preach in somewhat primitive terms the splendid principles of the Third Reich. And it must be said that there is incongruity in the fact that much of what is said is the antithesis of the civilisation for which Nuremberg stood in the past. Herr Hitler, in his address to the Nazi Cultural League, made a new ferocious attack on the Jews,- accusing them of being “ carriers of the bolshevik plague across the “ world.” It is convenient for him to be able to bring two enemies of his regime into such association. There will be in Nuremberg, too, leaders of Nazi youth filling young Brown Shirts with the sublime principles of a new religion, the counterpart of which is to be found 2000 years ago. Representatives of the churches have already protested against the rebirth of paganism and the “ deification jf “ Hitler.” There are men working to establish religion on the basis of Teutonic mythology, and General Ludendorff has said that, “ Ger- “ many will never become invincible until >t “has a single State religion like Japanese “ Shintoism.” There is paganism and persecution in contemporary Germany, and there is also preparation, but what the preparation is for has yet to be seen.