Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931 BRITISH AND GERMAN PSYCHOLOGY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 June 1931, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1931 BRITISH AND GERMAN PSYCHOLOGY

THE alteration which lias taken place in the psychology of the hulk of the German, people, since the days when uiey | were led to disaster by the bombastic i and ridiculous Kaiser, shows itself in j their attitude towards the British people. In pre-war days the Germans were inclined to despise the British, who, their intellectual loaders told them, had degenerated into a somewhat frivolous and pleasure-loving people, from whom the realities of life were largely obscured by a phenomenal share of prosperity. When the great climax came, and the scales fell from the German people’s eyes, they saw things as they really were, and perceived that the least vindictive of their enemies were the British. It is not to be imagined that there was not in Britain a. burning resentment created by tho Germans’ flagrant breaches of the written and unwritten rules of war. Tliero was the strongest resentment, but when punishment had been made to fit tho Germans’ crimes as nearly as was humanly possible, the British were prepared to let bygones ’be bygones, and to look with some degree of pity upon those who bad been their bitter enemies. The result was that a succession of British Foreign Ministers held out . the olivebranch to Germany, who was admitted to membership of tho League of Nations, and once more enjoyed equality with civilised peoples. The effect upon the great majority of Germans has been that they recognise the fact that the British are as magnanimous after victory as they were indomitable in war, and there has been a tendency in tho Teutons, whether Prussians, Bavarians, or Saxons, to examine the nature and origin of British mentality and psychology, not so much in a spirit of criticism as of admiration of a nation which has exhibited such surprising and ineonquerable tenacity in war and an unexpected magnanimity in forgetting the bitterness which it had engendered. The effect of those attitudes of conquerors and conquered has been to cause a considerable number of Germans to visit England in order to examine the English at close quarters, .with v. view lo studying British character, psychology, customs, and habits of mind, md in the hope of discovering the sources of that national'strength which has resulted in such remarkable success.

It will have been noticed that recently the German Chancellor (Dr. Bruening) and his Foreign Minister (Dr. Curtius) visited England, apparently with a view to discussing Germany’s economic difficulties with the British Government, and that they were received in audience by the King at Buckingham Palace. At, Chequers the German Ministers were hospitably entertained by the British Government, and their visit to England, whatever its political results, demonstrated clearly enough that the relationship between the two Governments is friendly.

!' Last month there, arrived at Liverpool

Street, slalicm, in _ London, an aged wliiLn-luiii'ucl German whose remarkably blue eyes were filled with wonderment at the. scene around Idm. “All!’ he exclaimed in excellent, English to a übiquitous pressman who was awaiting him on the platform, “this great rush of people, how your London has changed. These motor ears and this great building astonish me. When I last arrived here, there were a few carriages drawn by horses, and inis station was much smaller. 1 had to come back and see your city again, and 1 shall stay hero with my many English friends, and see all that, your beautiful England eau show me.”

Who was this visitor, who wore a. long black coat, and a broad-brimmed half lie was Herr Lang of Oberammergau, who on three different occasions, in 1900, 1910, and 1922, had played the chief part, in the Passion Play, which people journey thousands of miles to see. He had come to England, drawn hv that spirit of friendship which he and his countrymen so much appreciate in the English who. whatever their faults, are not vindictive, hut know how to forgive and forget.

A little time previously, in the same English journal in which we saw the account of llerr Lang’s pilgrimage, there was a paragraph of a remarkable .scene which proves that; the Germans’ admiration of England and the English is not, confined to Teuton septuagenarians, Iml that young Germans as well as old visit England, perhaps in a spirit of curiosity, not. unmixed with wonder, hut, certainly in a spirit of respect and appreciation. The photograph, to which we have referred. depicted a group of German students who had evidently gone lo see the sights of London. 'They were dressed in warm overcoats, and wove the. caps of the various corps to which limy belonged. They were grouped round a smiling and stalwart killed soldier of tlm Cameron

Highlanders, and it was plain to see by the interest and astonishment in their faces that they were finding their visit, full of interest. They certainly had never seen anything like that Highlander before, and by the keenness of their scrutiny it, was evident that they did not intend to forget, him. There 1m stood, a, Sample of the extraordinary British Army which had played so remarkable a part in the overthrow of their own wonderful Empire. As lie

looked down on them with a goodnatured smile, he was typical, not only of his own gallant regiment, not only of the .slauneh folk from whom he inherited his splendid physical gifts, hut of the whole British race, one of whose great characteristics is its good-natured habit of extending the hand of friendship to a heaten foe. Of course, we have no means of knowing what those Germans students had to say of England and tin* English, when they got home. They may have admired what they saw (as they admired tho Highland soldier whose aspect was so new to them), or they may have found much to criticise, but we feel sure that in one thing they would find much fooil for thought, and that is the heartiness of the* average Londoner, whose good humour and high spirits mark him unmistakably as a man of extraordinary character. It was that high spirit and heartiness, that determination to ignore adversity, that ability to laugh in the fare of reverses, which won the war J'or Great Britain: characteristics, which, remarkably developed in the average Londoner, are found in all branches of 'the British race from Land’s End to John O' Groats. If the German visitors lo England learn that secret, they will be able to cany back to their fellow- | countrymen a great truth, which will be j new to them, namely that—apart from matters of physical and mental health—the ability to laugh at itself and to estimate correctly the comparative importance. or unimportance, of things gives to a nation a sanity of mind and resilience of character which help it to overcome great difficulties.