"ERSATZ"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 26

"ERSATZ"

THE GERMAN MOVEMENT

HITLER AND WHAT HE MEANS

SUSPECT v WORD

It is one of the principal endeavours 1 of applied science to discover substi- ! tutes for materials that are necessary {J and either scarce or liable to become | scarce, says the "Manchester Guard- © ian." In war-time, when sources of , supply may be cut off, this endeavour [ receives a new impulse. Germany was [ cut off from almost' all her foreign 1 sources by the blockade and never | were so many 1 substitutes thrown on [ any market as were thrown on the ' German market during the Great War. 1 A few of these substitutes were a sue- \ cess—for example, the nitrate that was § produced by "fixing" atmospheric o nitrogen when the Chilean supplies « were cut off (though perhaps the § word "substitute" should not be ap- > plied to what is chemically the same o product, even if obtained in a different § way). But most of the substitutes were § not a success—the substitute tobacco > made of beech leaves, the substitute o coffee made of roasted acorns, the sub- § stitute textile made ot nettle fibre, the 2 sacking and bandages made of paper, O the substitute chocolate that was un- g eatable, the substitute soap that was o so gritty that it abraded the skin. And O so the German word for substitute— <J "ersatz"—came to have a derisive O meaning. "Ersatz" implies not only § the replacement ol an original by an o imitation of poor quality instead of O good, but of ordinary sham and decep- J{ tion, for the "ersatz" articles manu- O factured in Germany were officially jj advertised as in no way inferior or o even superior to the articles they were O [ meant to replace. The word "ersatz" S Q , even came to have a literary connota- O ; tion, for after the war it was used of § ' those literary products that were de- o 1 rivative while pretending to be « 1 original, of poor execution while pro- {J claimed as the work of a master —pro- o ducts with which the German Repub- § - lie abounded but which were, unlike o I the "ersatz" of war-time, used not « 5 merely for home consumption but for J, 1 dumping on foreign markets. So that o ! when Germans hear the word "ersatz" g D they hear more than we do when we o . hear the .word "substitute." They fee O * uncomfortable and suspect that there g is something wrong somewhere. 0 r COME BACK AGAIN. 0 = The word had begun to lose its dis- <] agreeable and sinister connotations fl 2 during the years of recovery, but of j] late it has come into use again w The <i t German people will not fail to have « J observed that its return ■is accom- c p panied by a whole series of disquiet- « ing and by no means unrelated pheno- J 1, mena—by rising prices, by a growing c food shortage, by re-armament, and « j" by talk of war. Recently they were t ;" able to read this word in the proclama- C a tion composed by Herr Hitler and read J out by Herr Wagner, the Bavarian < Home Secretary, to the Congress of the » National Socialist Party at Nurem- , r berg. Hitler was careful to explain » t- that by "ersatz" he did not mean J al ''substitute," but "entirely new , y material," such as "synthetic rubber.' j ;e But he will not have deceived the J v German public, which in all matters re- j c- lating to "ersatz" has more experience < •c than any other public in the world. , n The connotations of the word "ersatz < is are widening more and more, in fact. ( they have achieved national magni- < >r tude. The National Socialist, revolu- ] n- tion is in itself "ersatz." For what is ( s- National Socialism save a substitute 1 r- for Socialism, a substitute that has , al both of the essential characteristics of 1 is "ersatz" in so far as it is of inferior j at quality and much more expensive? , c- And what is Herr Hitler himself except 1 in "ersatz," a substitute for a true ( o£ statesman, who in time of trouble , >c. would guide the nation by a mature ir- policy and reasoned argument instead , n- of by demagogy, terrorism, and the ty hypnotic influence of monomaniac obie sessions? SUPREME INVENTOR. [ts But not only is he himself "ersatz"; nt he is the supreme inventor and proer ducer of "ersatz." He and his associa ates have, so he maintains, "treated tie their opponents too generously. The >st whole civilised world has been hornlis fled by the persecution of the Jews in ke Germany, by the concentration camps, on and the Terror. And yet the chief mcc stigator and inspirer of these infamies iil-1 declares, while putting on a kind of re'false modesty (an "ersatz" modesty), What he and his associates have been as I "too generous." In future, he anhe nounces. sterner measures will be he taken. Have not the Jews been perse)W cuted sufficiently? Is it not enough ty. that more than sixty thousand of them Ie- have been driven into exile, that nunsir dreds have been murdered or reduced sh to physical and mental wreckage, and lat .that they are all being systematically to ruined, not to speak of the daily insults and humiliations that are heaped upon them? Is it not enough that the political organisations of the opponents ow of National Socialism have been ac- totally destroyed, that the trade he unions, the Reichsbanner. and the Ke stalhhelm have been dissolved, that TiU thousands of political opponents have ith perished in the prisons, in the camps. f a or under the blows of the Brown all Shirts, the bullets of the firing sauads, ca- ,or the axe of the executioner? All this. 104- according to Herr Hitler, so far from the being enough, is "too generous." NOT NECESSARY NOW. al- The German people will not be deom ceived. In war-time there was no help l a for it. "Ersatz" was a necessity then. But where is the necessity now, the be necessity, above all, for "ersatz" of .'ho such magnitude that there is no room op- for anything else save in the remoter ion and still uncontaminated reaches of the ?ed individual soul and in those churches ier. and cathedrals where, alone of public the places, "ersatz" has not been allowed ent to enter? All else is "ersatz" —Hitler is the "ersatz," the Third Realm is "ersatz," the science, letters, art, and music are "ersatz" in the Germany of today. The ;ent i "Aryan" is "ersatz" for a genuine §1°- human being, while fierce intolerance 'ing and devilish oppression are "ersatz" for irds excessive generosity. There is one tab- question millions are asking inside and jrth outside of Germany, and it is the Ret^ supreme question of our day. How long is it going to last? All that can be be said in answer is that "It cannot a '~ last for ever, and perhaps it cannoi col' last much longer." Sooner or later the nee- « ersa t z " called the Third Realm anc 30U" all the other "ersatz" it contains, sup .' ports, and engenders will be swept ou' a. f" of existence. The German people rials w ] lose well-being is in the interest o: I°n!* all. will then have been freed fron 1 the foulest nightmare in their history 1 n and ws shall all be living in a cleane; any- world. >sent

; A lorry travelling along a road from • Sorau to Sagan (Silesia) upset on a t curve and spilt 20,0001b of soap-flakes it 1 was carrying on to the ground. Scarcer ly had the accident happened than a 5 downpour of rain flooded , the soapI flakes. The inhabitants state that never II before have they seen their road so i clean.