GERMAN MIND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21508, 22 November 1939, Page 11

GERMAN MIND

Amazed At Happiness Of Foreigners Envy And Disbelief For years Germans have been kept in ignorance of the benefits enjoyed by citizens of democratic countries and have been taught a distorted version of those countries’ histories. Their clouded state of mind is reflected m the comments they make when they travel, as remarked by Mr Paul Martin, tour manager of an International travel agency published in the “Living Age.” He tells of his experiences with Germans touring the United States of America. “How large Is your army? What is the price of butter?” These are the first questions asked by Nazi tourists visiting the United States (he says). The answers amaze them. And they are surprised that In America people don’t steal the pennies left on newsstands, the milk entrusted to a doorstep, or the packages placed on top of a mailbox; that matches are given away with cigarettes: and that it is not forbidden to photograph the George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River. It is all so unlike what they were told to expect here—and what they have at home. As tour manager for a large travel agency, I have been guide for many German professional or trade groups —Nazi brewers, doctors, bakers, engineers. business men—come to study American methods and incidentally to enjoy themselves. Their reactions are a reflection of the isolation in which even well-educated Germans live, and an unconscious revelation of conditions in Germany to-day. All German tourists take it for granted that the beacon on a building in Chicago is for anti-aircraft defence, and some believe that the canvas covers on the telescopes at the top of the Empire State Building. New York, conceal machine-guns. They are puzzled by the lack of armed guards about New York, the absence of sentries along our Canadian border, the scarcity of uniforms everywhere. When they learn that the regular army of the United States numbers less than 180.000 men they are stunned.

Envy and Disbelief To them butter is a symbol of what they have had to give up for German rearmament. They cannot believe our butter is so cheap. The window of a chain grocery store will keep a group of tourists occupied for hours, shaking their heads in wonder. They feel both envy and disbelief as they observe our plenty—the immense volume of production; the enormous variety of lowpriced goods on a mail order catalogue; the high-piled fruit stands; the profusion of merchandise; jthe well-made, inexpensive clothes, typewriters and radios in a department store. Even here, they go on thinking in terms of Goering's “campaign against waste and spoilage.” They are shocked to find the extravagantly lighted signs of Broadway turned on before dark, surprised that we .make no effort to salvage empty tothpaste tubes, amazed that Americans can buy tyres without first applying to the Government and waiting for weeks. Our automobile graveyards leave them speechless. The brass firehydrants in front of our office buildings cause much comment. Germans cannot imagine a country where every bit of brass is not snapped up for munitions. Some even remark: “You won’t have those hydrants long!”

They think we wiped out the Indians in a pogrom such as that suffered by the Jews in Germany (except that the Jews deserved it), yet they expect to find Indians in Chicago. They want to see buffaloes in Buffalo, N.Y. They all think Germany invented good roads, so it is painful to discover that with the exception of a few hundred miles of their military highways (“highways of peace”) this country has tens of thousands of miles of roads that are much better.

The deluge of words about German superiority is enough to drive the tour manager crazy. Yet I often feel that the tourists talk chiefly to convince themselves, for their alternating surprise, resentment and apology tell another story. Struck speechless by the view from the Empire State Building, they recover quickly and explain that if they weren’t made poor by “encirclement,” they could have a building twice as high. But their materials must go for more Important things, such as “defending our honour and integrity.” Besides, “Germany makes wonderful optical goods, dyes and chemicals. . .” Ignorant of History The Nazis’ consciousness of race breeds strange misconceptions in the minds of even educated, intelligent men. According to their blood theories, the Pennsylvania Dutch who settled here two centuries ago are still "Germans.” They think that the United States is 25 per cent Germans, that all our important citizens are either German or English, and that Baron von Steuben won the American revolution. They almost weep over the legend that German would have been the language of the United States had not a “confused German delegate of democratic tendencies” voted against it at a meeting of representatives of the 13 colonies. They want to know the Jewish and German population of every city. It is a temptation to exaggerate the latter. When the Nazi tourists are tired or disgruntled, a good way to restore good humour is to announce that everyone speaks German in the town which the train has just passed. Milwaukee, with its large GermanAmerican population, is a painful disappointment to them, for the mayor is a Socialist, and the Milwaukee Germans go to church and read liberal German-language newspapers. They recover from these shocks to Nazi ego by explaining that the people of Milwaukee have been misled by the Bolsheviks, by the Jews or at any rate by the Pope, who, according to them, is a Mason.

They cannot grasp the fact that America is populated by Americans, and consider us a nation of mongrels. They are surprised to hear foreign languages so little spoken here. Yet they point with scorn to our “lack of national unity.” How can an American feel that he belongs (as do Germans) to a “Folkdom united by blood and soil,” when one American is an Irishman and his neighbour an Italian or Pole? Though they know that New York has a large Jewish colony they are scornfully amazed by its large numbers of Catholics and Masons and even more by its Italo-American population of more than a million. Their racial feelings come out when one mentions the Rome-Berlin axis. The Italo-Ger-man agreement, they say, is something they have to put up with—the Fuhrer’s wise politics, but not true friendship. Many of them seriously think that the President’s real name is Rosenfeld, that American banking is a Jewish monopoly, and that Morgenstern (J. p. Morgan) started the World War single handed. They are only vaguely aware of Washington or Lincoln. In trying to explain Lincoln’s historical impor-

tance, I once compared him with Bismarck as the unifier of his nation. An infuriated tourist almost crowned me with a beer stain. I had Insulted Bismarck by mentioning him in the same breath with “this Lincoln of whom I have never even heard!” If they read in our Press opinions contradictory to their own they say “It is all a lie.” In their papers, they insist, they get only one version of a story, the correct one. Some don't mind the shortage of news in the Nazi papers. Others would like more, but admit censorship -is necessary. “It would not be good for the masses to be distracted by confusing details.” They take home with them some Indelible impressions. They arrive passionately convinced that Germany is unsurpassed in every respect, and. while seven years of propaganda cannot be wiped out in two weeks, the visit is a disillusioning jolt. How much of a jolt one cannot tell because they keep such thoughts to themselves. Apparently they dare not risk an indiscreet remark, lest it get back to Germany. Though 3000 miles away, they walk in fear,