Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The German Problem
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with a feeling of compassion. He thinks of how he
lived not so very long ago, and he thinks of the
firmness with which the country was governed at
that time. But he purposely does not think about the
means by which this efficiency was achieved and
finally destroyed. He compares the past with what
he experiences today, and he is by no means
favorably impressed. Deep in the German national soul,
deep beneath the veneer of daily existence, which
reflects destitution, political quarrels, and effects of
the struggle between East and West, there lives a
primitive national spirit, which is indistinct as to
aim but strong as the power of nature. The German
has not changed as a result of the Second World
War, nor of its consequences, or of what it unmasked.
He repudiates the old Nazi party. This does not mean,
however, that he repudiates Naziism in the broad
sense. To be fair, one must admit that the
international developments after the Armistice in 1945,
have not given the German much reason to want to
change his ways. These developments hardly make
it clear to him that he is so very much worse than
many others. In any case, they give him reason to
say, and he gladly says, that the others are not much
better. He has the Russians on top of him, in the
worst cases in his community and in his own house.
He has ample opportunity to study the tug of war
between the powers which, together, crossed Nazi
Germany in order to found a permanent peace with
justice. It is only human nature that the German
of today should laugh at the drama played on
German soil. It is also human nature for him to feel a
certain malice. Nevertheless, it is something frighten-
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