WHAT TREITSCHKE TAUGHT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 8

WHAT TREITSCHKE TAUGHT

Sir Austen Chamberlain A Student Fostering German Arrogance The late Sir Austen Chamberlain travelled a great deal, and spoke fluent French, a gift that stood him in good stead whenever he came into contact with the statesmen of Europe. As a young man he proved that he was* a keen observer, and all through his life he expressed a preference for the French. Sir Charles Petrie, in his new biography, records how Sir Austen once wrote:— “ ‘By contrast with the first approach of Englishmen and Frenchmen, generally uneasy and constrained, the first meeting of German and Englishman is usually easy and deceptively cordial. For one thing, the Englishman in general is not a great linguist, and knowledge of the English language is far more general among Germans than among Frenchmen. Watered by Different Rivers “ ‘At first sight, too, their habits and modes of thought seem not very dissimilar; it is only as one goes deeper that the profound differences appear. Our growth Is rooted in a different soil and watered by different rivers. The deeper Englishmen and Frenchmen penetrate into each other’s nature, the more they will find they have in common; the deeper Englishman and German go, the greater the divergence of faith and spirit which will be revealed between them. It is not without significance that it was prcceisely those Englishmen who knew Germany best, who had lived there, or had formed German connections, who first foresaw and warned their countrymen of the coming peril.’ “Among thos>e who were alarmed at the trend of certain sections of German opinion was Austen himself,” says : Sir Charles Petrie. “William 1., who had fought against Napoleon, might be still on the throne, and Berlin very much what it was when only capital of Prussia, but ideas were stirring which augured ill for the future. Austen regularly attended Treitschke’s lectures on Prussian history, and they disquieted him. On Octover 31, 1887, he wrote: - “ ‘Treitschke has opened to me a new side of the German character—a narrow-minded. proud. intolerant Prussian chauvinism. And the worst of it is that he Is forming a school. , If you continually preach to the youth of a country that they stand on a higher step of creation to all other nations, they are only too ready to believe it, and the lecturer who descends to this will be popular and draw ' big audiences. But it’s very dangerous. “ ‘I fear my generation of Germans, and those a little younger, will be far more high-handed and will presume far more on the victories of ’66 and ’7O than those who won th?m. There is a school growing up here as bad as the French military school, and if they come to the front, why. “gareaux autres.” They are likely to find a friend in Prince William, who is said to be thirsting for warlike distinction and is the idol of the military party and the youth.’ ” Years after Sir Austen had a conversation with Count Metternich, the famous German Ambassador, and his biographer writes:— The Ambassador and Treitschke “Austen called the Ambassador’s attention to the teaching of Treitschke, and to its influence upon the German youth. Count Metternich demurred: ‘Now listen, Mr Chamberlain. Till I came to this country I never heard of i Treitschke. He was nothing in Gei- I many. He was a firebrand, and he in- : suited everyone. But he had no influence.’ The Englishman replied:— “ ‘That is not my experience. Certainly he was a firebrand. I listened to his lectures and, as you say, he insulted everyone, but especially the Coburgs and the English. But he was a most popular firebrand. With every physical defect a public speaker could j have he was the most popular professor at the University of Berlin. His ‘insults’ were received with loud ap- i plause at crowded classes. And that is I not all. “ ‘The same thing went on in the | public schools. I know it from the ' stories brought home and the questions j asked by the 14-year-old son of the man in whose family I boarded. Well, my experience is 20 years old. But my friends who know Germany to-day tell me that the same thing Is going on throughout the whole educational system of Germany from top to bottom. . . “ ‘There lies the danger—in the growing belief, deliberately planted in the whole youth of Germany, that a con- I flict is inevitable. . . . “Inevitable” Twice “‘A nation which has thus twice preached the doctrine of ‘the inevitable conflict,’ which has prepared for

it with such patience and endurance, ! which has even gone to meet the heavy i sacrifices which it entailed, and has | twice provoked the conflict with extra- , ordinary skill at the most favourable I moment to itself, whilst leaving to its l opponent the odium of appearing at the time the aggressor—such a nation ; is indeed a formidable opponent when i it begins to preach and prepare for a third ‘inevitable war.’ ’’