OLD HEIDELBERG AND NEW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22356, 1 September 1934, Page 27

OLD HEIDELBERG AND NEW

By C. R, Alien,

We are told that Herr Hitler has taken in hand that ancient seat of Teutonic learning, Heidelberg. As to the nature of the changes he has wrought, no one who has not been recently on the spot can speak. A few r impressions of this interesting town as it was 30 years ago may not come amiss. Thirty years ago Heidelberg was the scene of one of the most popular plays running in London. This was an adaptation of “Alt Heidt-lberg ” which was produced by Sir George Alexander at the St. James’s Theatre. So successful was it that Mr Alexander, as he then was, committed the blunder of following it up with another play IrOni the German which went by the English title of “ Love’s Carnival.” The following very frank announcement appeared in the advertisement devoted to the St. James’s Theatre: —“Owing to the failure of ‘Love’s Carnival,’ ‘Old Heidleberg ’ will be revived.” It is an ill wind that blows nobody good, for if “ Love’s Carnival ” had not failed I would not have seen George Alexander and Eva Moore in what was one of the most picturesque and pleasantly sentimental plays ot that period, a period when costume and setting counted for more than they do to-day.

! New- Zealanders were vouchsafed a performance of “Old Heidelberg” with Nellie Stewart as the innkeeper’s daugh- : ter, and HarcOurt Beatty in Alexander’s part. Years after “Old Heidelberg” ; suffered the fate of Bernard Shaw’s | “ Arms and the Man,” which was turned into “The Chocolate Soldier,” and was itself turned into “ The Student Prince.” I As a picture of university life at Heidelberg “ Old Heidelberg ” may be assailable, just as “ Trilby ” may be assailable as a picture of life in the Quartier Latin, i Nevertheless, it provided one with a cerj tain focus for one’s own fleeting impres--1 sions of the place. j Heidelberg should be approached by night. The river Neckar is spanned by I at least one stout bridge over which one ; passes on one’s way from Cologne to Frankfurt. The lights of the town formerly greeted the traveller by diligence, as now, doubtless, they greet the traveller by automobile. On the hill above the town stands the famous castle of the Electors Palatine. This ancient demesne has passed through many vicissitudes, having been twice ravaged by the French, and once damaged by lightning. Thirty years ago it appeared to nave been suffering pretty severely from the hands of the restorer. One’s own impressions of Heidelberg include one's passage from room to room in this castle, and one’s encounter with flamboyant glazed tiles. A Salamander, T recollect, was presented in one of these rooms. One contrasted these smooth and uninhabitable compartments with some of the cells which one was permitted to contemplate during a survey of Heidelberg University. Here, of course, one instinctively sought for sanction for the stage setting of “ Old Heidelberg.” Heidelberg is, one would suppose, the Oxford of Germany. We may ask ourselves if it can show to-day anything equivalent to that renascence which is associated with the Oxford Group. One would hardly think that individuality, which is at the heart of Christianity, would flourish greatly under the Hitler regime.

Heidelberg, nevertheless, like Oxford, has its religious history. It was on the door of the Church of St. Peter that Jerome of Prague nailed his celebrated thesis. In this church the ritual according to Catholic and Protestant usage was carried on simultaneously. The university has a fine scientific tradition. Bunsen, the inventor of the famous burner, was an alumnus of Heidelberg. Among others who sojourned in this old town were both Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. The British stage did not borrow so freely from the Rhineland then as it does now in the days of Eheinhardt. the producer, and Ernest Toller, the dramatist. Nevertheless. Irving came upon many useful suggestions for his great production of “ Faust ” while he was making holiday at Heidelberg. Among the conventional sights of the place one must not forget the mammoth tun to be found in thelower regions of the castle of the Electors Palatine.

I am not engaged upon a guide book, so I need not set down the precise number of gallons that this enormous receptacle is supposed to hold. By the side of the tun there used to stand a curious jack-in-the-box arrangement. One pulled a lever or a string and a lid flew open, releasing a fox's tail. This divertissement had been invented by one of the jesters on the staff of a former Elector of Palatine. There was something oddly pathetic about this evidence of a clown’s fecundity of idea. It was just about as good a joke as one of poor Jack Point's in “The Yeoman of the Guard.” Yet, perhaps, the Teuton sense of humour hag not been greatly developed since those far-off days. From what one gathered of the German cartoon in the late “nineties,” one was compelled to think that there is a lack of subtlety in the average German jest. This is probably tf superficial view. Hero 1 am concerned with German sentiment rather than with German humour.

"Alt Heidelberg” represented the apotheosis of German sentiment. Whether Herr Hitler has been adroit enough to direct the motive power of sentiment in order that it may turn the wheels of State according to his liking, is a matter for the more recent visitor to divulge. We are told that the Dictator has revived the old convention of duelling among students at Heidelberg._ Thirty years ago one would almost certainly encounter young men in immaeulate_ civilian clothes with their heads swathed in bandages celebrating the conclusion of a combat over, a glass of hock in one of those caravanseries that abound in the University town. Like the debates at the Oxford and Cambridge Union these duels were robbed of their sting because there ivas really no issue to prompt the ordeal. The British undex-graduate fights about nothing with words for his weapon; the Heidelberg student fights about nothing with swords for his. What, significance duelling has to-day at Heidelberg I really cannot say. It i 9 strange to reflect that George Alexander produced “ Old Heidelberg” in London but 10 years _ before Barrie wrote “ Der Tag,” in which the anti-Teutonic passions of the London theatre-goer were so deftly worked upon. Will we ever be able to look upon Heidelberg as a national asset, as we did when we looked upon the place with Herr Baedeker at our elbow', or heard those lusciously sentimental students’ songs as interpreted by the cast of “ Old Heidelberg”?