GERMAN CULTURE

Evening Star, Issue 22571, 12 February 1937, Page 12

GERMAN CULTURE

A CURIOUS CONTRAST By a curious coincidence —if it is a coincidence—two exhibitions of German books were open in Paris recently, both in the Boulevard St. Germain, one only a few doors away from the other (writes the P?ris correspondent of the ‘Manchester Guardian’). One is the official exhibition. The other has been organised by the “ German Library of Burned Books,” an emigre organisation under the chairmanship of Heinrich Maun. The contrast between the two exhibitions is striking. The official exhibition is a curious example of German propaganda abroad. Its purpose is obviously to convince the foreign visitor that Germany continues to live a civilised life, that nothing interests the German more than art, music, and travel, and that things like rearmament, the next war, the “ Jewish problem,” and the superiority of the Genjjanic rape hold scarcely any place in the intellectual make-up of the modern German. It-is true that Hitler’s ‘ Mein Karapf ’ and Rosenberg’s ‘ Mythus ’ could not be conveniently excluded from any German book exhibition, but both books have been discreetly relegated to one of the least prominent corners of the exhibition. The places of honour are .held by finely-printed editions of things like 1 The Sculptural Beauties of Bamberg Cathedral ’ or a life of John Sebastian Bach. The most daring among the modern books shown at the exhibition is the book of memoirs of Captain Udet, the war “ ace but that, after all, is ancient history. SOME SURPRISES. It is true that the curious visitor who takes the trouble to look into the popular five-mark ‘ Reclam Encyclopaedia ’ will find some startling remarks in it. Thus, the article on France concludes with the words: “ In spite of the Fuhrer’s statement that ‘ the Saar plebiscite had marked the end of all territorial differences between France and Germany,’ France’s attitude to Germany remained as hostile as ever.” (How unfair to Laval,' whose greatest ambition in life was to make friends with Germany!) However, the visitor is not expected to be too curious, and is expected to leave with the impression that nothing counts more in the life of,the German people than the beauties of Nature and the fugues of Bach. The other exhibition, a little down the street, tells a different story. First, a list of burned books: Voltaire, Heine, Zoia, and scores of others, and photographs of the burning ceremony. Next a reminder that a large part of

Goethe has been “ expelled from the schools in the Third Realm,” and that in modern anthologies- Heine’s ‘ Lorelei ’ is attributed to “author unknown.” Military literature is well represented at this exhibition, as well as school books. These include a popular history of France, with a passage liko this: “Practically the whole of France is open country. This means that the Government can control the country perfectly in case of war, provided it is kept outside the war zone. But it also means total collapse once the belt of fortifications has been broken through. Such a task is obviously difficult, but by no , means hopeless. (Das scheint nicht aussichtslos zu sein.) And in any case the wide spaces of the air remain -open.” (Sammlung Goschen; “.Ffankreich ” von Dr Otto Maull, 1936.) HIGH LEVEL OF INCENDIARISM. While the destruction of Madrid by fire ’is in progress, the following passage from Dr W. Ginttof’s ‘ Chemical Warfare Experiments for Schools,’ with a gas mask oh its cover (“ Schulversuche zur Chemie der Kampfstoffe ”), is particularly sinister:—“ It is only thanks to modern chemistry that the technique of incendiarism has attained its present high level.” I could go on indefinitely quoting these charming “books for the young,” but these examples will suffice. The exhibition includes, among other things, a representative collection of Communist ; pamphlets printed in tiny type on cigarette paper and camouflaged in covers ranging from Goethe’s ‘ Hermann and Dorothea ’ to advertisements of “ Persil, the German Housewife’s Best Friend ’; a good collection of the ‘ Stunner,’ ‘ Judenkonner,’ and other popular anti-Semitic journals, as well as “ scientific ” treatises on the superiority of the German race. Of great interest are also the books of “free” German writers printed abroad since 1933.- They include most of the German writers, with an international reputation; Heinrich Mann, Feuchtwanger, Doblin, A. Zweig, Ernst Glaeser, E. Ludwig, Alfred Neumann, and others. Most of these are printed in Switzerland or Holland. The output of these men is all the more impressive. when one thinks of the, highly unfavourable and; in some cases, hopeless psychological and economic conditions in which many of these refugees—especially the younger men—are obliged to work.