GERMAN RACE AND CHARACTER

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 10

GERMAN RACE AND CHARACTER

•THE CUX.T OF ARMED POWER. ■ CENTURIES OLD IMMORALISM. 1 In one respect the German people are Unique in Europe (writes A. E. .Cawley). You have to go to China. Asia. India, or Africa bo find a parallel. This feature: is that in racial type and moral character' the Germans have been the same for at least 2,000 years. Let us take a few instances. Germany to-day has practically shelved Christianity. Her professors lament that fatal error of I,4oo'years ago. when Germany accepted a religion unsuited to her character. They wish she had clung to the worship of Odin, the War God- A hundred years after Christ Tacitus describes this military religion. The religion of modern Germany is a cult of armed power. And, in practice, her militarism has from the dawn of history been of the predatory type. Tacitus says that "to solicit by labour what Slight be ravished by arms was esteemed unworthy of the German 6pirit." Economic causes contribute here; the birthrate then, as now, was unusually high: and the raids upon the Roman Empire -were more or less due to the fact that "the -population outran the means erf support." Still, there is no little truth in the of the German professors that are the most warlike of peoples," if ""warlike" is taken to mean —addicted to raiding and fond of loot. In the middle centuries of history every German baron lived by loot. An archbishop, just appointed without salary, was askod. how he was going to live. He pointed to the position of his palace, on a height commanding four crossroads. IN THE BEGINNING. - The subtle immoralism of to-day is no .new thing; it is twenty centuries old and has been followed tnroughout history. "The Germans," says Gibbon, referring to their history generally, 'trespected only those duties wnieh they imposed on themselves.' . Interest and fanaticism often prompted their ministers of religion to sanctify the most .iaring and the most unjust, enterprises by the approbation of Heaven and full assurances of success (from the Deity)." So to-day the Kaiser as High Priest, no less than as War Lord, claims the exclusive assistance of "our old. God-" «Here is a story about the kings of the Old Prussians (the name, by the way, was first Borussian), who were not Germans at all. but a Lithuanian (Slavonic) people. The King was styled Kirwaido, which means God's' Mouth, and he governed in the name of the gpds. Before his death, self-inflicted -<vtfhen he felt weak, he preached a long sermon. Again, the continuity of the beer habit is extraordinary. Eighteen hundred years ago Tacitus speaks of the "strong toeer" made in. abundance "for the grosa purposes of German debauchery." It is still* more curious to read of the attraction* which foreign, "wines (to be drunk on the makers' premises) have always exerted upon the German gullet, in spite of the home vintages ot Lowenbrau. "Those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy and afterwards of Gaul sighed j Sbr -that more delicious species of in- < tbxication." In these latter days the German warriors in the- champagne distrie£ have fully satisfied -this traditional; craving. '".. ~.. ":.'* '~ "Gibbon says explicitly that "intemperate thirst of "strong liquors often urged the harbarians to invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents." (Here, for once, Gibbons fails to end his sentence with the genitive case.) "The German auxiliaries" invited into France during, .the civil wars of the sixteenth century jwere.allnred. by. the. promise of plenteous-quarters--in the "provinces' of Champagne and Burgundy." Centuries earlier the Boinans surprised the Alemanni (les Allemands) at Chalons, reposing after raids and' ; drinking "large draughts of rich'aid delicate'-wine-l" He chased them across'the EhineTand hanged their king in chains. LONG-HEADS AND SQTJAKE-HEADS. Next, as to the German racial type. Here there may he misunderstanding. lf_ there is a German race it must be represented-not by-la minority but a majority of tfie Geimans.7 Now, a few are: tall, long-headed; blond and bluer eyed. This minority belongs to Deniker's Nordic race (othenpse Teutonic or Germanic) : its home was the Baltic region, and' its members include the Norwegians, ISiycdes, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, and Northwest Germans. To it belonged the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Burgundians and other early tribes. Its purest type today is found in Scotland, East England, Scandinavia and Schleswig-Holstein. But Germans, the vast majority ar,c. stodasb, grey or brown-eyed, and vtyry broad in the- head. The Bavarians especially .deserve, the name "squareheajls." Tie euripus i 'thing J : i 3 that the majority ofthe population, from Bavaria Prussia, have been of this type from prehistoric times, as is proved by the; excavations. ■Thu mass of the Prussians are Lithuanian (Slav). There is probably still a Hurinish strain,, left -from the -fifthcentury occupation.'. The broad-headed SlavJike people of the greater part of Germany are,'according to Ripley, descended from the prehistoric race, whose round akulls have been dug up in abundance; they represent his homo AlpinusHouston Stewart Chamberlain, however, docs not admit that this race is found north ot the Alps. Anyhow, the roundheads extend, as they have done for thousands of years, from Central France to.'the Vrals. In justice to Heir Chamberlajn, it is to be noted that his big book is a eulogy not .of-therGermaus, bot-of the "Germanic peoples," including English, Scotch, Irish, Scandinavians, Dutch, Belgians, Germans, French, Russians and Finns; in fact, all Celtic, Nordic and Slav races. Half France, by the way, is as Teutonic as ha-h" Germany is Gallic Chamberlain gives as much credit to great Englishinei: .md Frenchmen as to Germans. His aim Is to prove that this coterie of sisterpeoples made the modern world, and is superior to all other races, especially in energy, independence and loyalty. Of. course, he has proved his case.