IN BERLIN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 31 May 1919, Page 11

IN BERLIN.

ITS DEPARTED GLORY. - PROPAGANDA BY POSTER. \ “I have for thc_ past fcnv days been looking round Berlin, once so familiar to 1110,” writes George Ren wick in tho Daily Chronicle. "And I cannot yet persuade myself that it not all a dream—a dream in which the unreal, the startling,’and the tragic mingle in most bewildering fashion.” It is really an unbelievable city, the writer continues. With Rs architectural mixture stiffly and ’ pompously imitating London, .Paris, Homo, apd Washington, it used to look so very strong and'stable; to imagine that it could possibly fall from its high estate was, one used to think, bo harbour fantastic thoughts. It constantly impressed on you the might oi a powerful Empire. But now that might has gone, though the vast symbols of it remain nunc -and terrible. “Last night in tho moonlight I dimly saw the cx-Kaiscr’s Palaco, tho Brandenburg Gate, which is the city’s Arc de Triqmphe, tho Reichstag building-* which was partly her Weiitniinster, and tho solid Prussian Uppjr House building, which stood for all fliat was reactionary’ under the old regime. When 1 last saw thorn—nob yet five years ago—they represented -,a system, a Government, and a power which seemed destined to stand for all time. They inspired something like .awe. OLD BERLIN IS GONE. “Last night, in a ghostly light, they seemed fantastic apparitions of 'another. world; they looked like _ things from a scone in some grim fairylancl; they were unreal and mirage-like. One almost supposed they had no more solidity. And how sad are those statues of Alarkgraf and Alarshal; Ibeir work is ruined and twilight shrouded'. “The Berlin of old has iudol'd gone. War made it an Imperial city, a 'ivp.ltstadt’; the cx-Kaiscr promised it would one day be the greatest of the world’s cities. War has munade it again, has reduced it, to a provincial city. Once more the sword II4IS failed to keep what swords won and made. Tho great gathering to deride 'the destiny of Germany was not hold, in once Imperial Berlin, but in GoeUWe’s and Schiller’s Weipiar. Is that bhe first omen of a return to. the higher spirit of pro-imperial days? “No more does one see the well-set-up, well-dressed, highly disciplined soldiery of pre-war times. Instead there arc the demobilised, who still wear their uniforms because they hnve no other clothes. And those on- duty -do not recall the old army at all; they appear to belong to a peasant army. You see them in the streets in stmng patrols or posted in twos and' threes at street corner.s. still with their steel helmets, rifles, and hand gycnades. Armoured motor-cars career about, but no one notices them; yon soon get quite accustomed on turning, the. street corners to find yourself looking down a machine-gun barrel. TRAGIC SCENES. “Here and there are bullot-iilddlod buildings, but on the whole tiio damage done to the Palaco and in other places during the December and January’ fighting is not so great as one expected after reading tho'accounts published at tho time of the struggle.. The recent fighting has wrought amici) greater havoc, though, being farthoi away from th« centre of tho city, I do not think the political danger was qflito so great. * “In Lichtenberg the scenes am certainly’ tragic enough. Here and 'there are badly battered houses; some streets are thickly strewn with wreckage. But the worst feature of the recent fighting was tiie ordeal of people living in tho suburb whore it took place. They had to stay in tbo- cellars' while the streets were swept bv rifle and machine-gun bullets, while artillery and tanks were at work. Tho casualty list, it- is declared, amounts to about a thousand killed and wounded, and it is really surprising that it is not very much larger. . 1 “When ‘fighting in Berlin’ is talked of, it well to remember, that it has always been strictly local. It is surprising bow few people have really seen anything of a struggle which gives tho newspapers of the world such big headings. Alqny thousands hare never even heard a shot firod. That gives some idea of the comparatively small hold of the disturber’s of peace and order. BATTLE OF THE POSTERS. “Over all, on Berlin’s walls, a curious warfare which all can see is being carried on. It is the poster battle against Bolshevism. The pictures arc horrible .indeed, but ltd more ghastly than Bolshevism. ' On one Bolshevism is represented am a terrifying gorilla ; on Smother as a murderer wiping out a family. Such placards, with their terrible black and red, aro stuck on buildings where a few years ago to have put them would have Ixien little short of treason. The various posters, indeed, make a curious study. One advertises a book about ‘la vie intime’ of tho ex-Kaiser; another invites people to begin a silence strike if tho Entente refuses to listen to Germany’s just demands. With these are appeals to subscribe to Berlin’s new four per cent, loan; while others ask people to see that Germany’s colonies aro returned to her. “Others show that the theatrical world appears to be little disturbed by’ events, for they’ advertise performances of Oscar AVilde’s ‘Salome,’ of some of Shakespeare’s plays,' of ‘The Dollar Princess’ and ‘The Alerry Widow,’ and of ‘Wilhelm .Tell’; and peace-time Berlin seldom offered such a range of concerts and lectures. > “The cinemas are crowded day and night; one can see Iho whole course of tile recent fighting in a series ot picture postcards which half-blind soldiers will offer to sell; hero and there one will como across someone selling copies of Prince Lichnowsky’s famous fnomoir. “When I returned last night from my long wandering, hardly persuade myself that I had really been out in Berlin,” tho correspondent concludes. “For the whole thing is too horribly pathetic. Berlin is Berlin no longer. Goodness only knows whatfit is. It is too colossal a tragedy to grasp.”