INFORMATION ISSUED by the Assooanm » XWISH REHKEES HI GOAT BRITAHI

Volume XXIX No. 5 May, 1974 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE AssooAnm » XWISH REHKEES HI GOAT BRITAHI Fgon Larsen tion in Gennany, once a force for social criticism, became a pillar of the established order and potentially a factor reinforcing the move to the extreme right". UPHEAVAL AND CONTINUITY And on the extreme right we find that curious German phenomenon, anti-intellec tualism. Heine, says Professor Hinton Thomas, An Assessment of German History was the prototype of the critical, "rootless" Jewish intellectual who has kept figuring large It is perhaps significant that one of the . Upheaval and Continuity (also published in in the demonology of nationalist reaction. jiiost important recent books on the past one Germany under the title Deutschland—Wandel Recent research, continues Hinton Thomas, has hundred years of German history was not und Bestand by Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich) served to underline the extent to which the Published in that country but in England is altogether a fine example of modem histori contribution of the Jewish intellectuals (Upheaval and Continuity: a Century of cal scholarship, and the contributors' often "has helped to steer social and political think German History, edited by E. J. Feuchtwanger. diverging views provide an enormous helping ing in Germany into messianic directions", Oswald Wolff, London, 1973. £3-50). We of food for thought. In his excellent intro for instance "in important sectors of socialist *U, writers and readers among the refugees duction, Feuchtwanger makes the point that thought". This theory may raise a few eye ^ke, have developed a feeling that our during that last century the Germans have brows among Gemian Socialists, but it does country of origin looks somewhat different experienced more frequent and profound up show how puzzling that traditional propaganda when seen from abroad, particularly from heavals of their national life than most other line of the Gemian reactionaries must appear Britain. It is not just the geographical major nations—though they never had a to an Englishman: that brains and intellect distance; it is our whole attitude to Germany "proper" revolution on the French, Russian are a suspect Jewish characteristic. He tries, |nat has become more detached, calmer, and or seventeenth-century English model. Drastic but fails, to find the key to that attitude less influenced by passing trends—probably and violent territorial and political changes, among the writings of the Gennan poets and ^ore objective, or so we like to think. For Bismarck's kleindeutsche Losung under philosophers. |his we have to thank the English way of Prussia's predominance, a truncated and We and of viewing things beyond the Channel poverty-stricken Republic after the first and with—as it were—a wide-angle lens. Further- a divided nation after the second World War, Separation from Westem Ideas "lore, the writers amongst us have leamt to and above all the traumatic totalitarian Third express themselves simpler, while German Reich, to say nothing of one runaway infla "Another strand in the separation of the Academics who never felt a whiff of the tion and the economic crisis with six million German world of ideas from the West goes Ajiglo-Saxon intellectual climate are still wont unemployed in the early 1930s—it has indeed back to the development of German idealism," *o put their thoughts into involved and intri- been quite a lot of upheavals for a people says Feuchtwanger. "Through Hegel there was ?3te language. The German public, it seems, which had never had a chance of developing transmitted a view of the state, of the js still unimpressed by simple words ("Was a national identity. Germany was the last individual and of freedom, three essential com fcann an dem schon dransein, wenn sogar ich big country to be unified, and one may argue ponents of man's social existence, which put wn verstehe?") that is a root cause of the occasionally the stress on the collectivity and perceived quite dangerous German national inferiority freedom for the individual as arising in its complex. highest form only through the identification English Approach with the community. This made it much easier Golo Mann lists a great number of what he to regard authoritarian policies, which em The book now before us is a good example regards as failures of various social groups phasised national unity, as particularly suited °f this, and even its contributions by German in Germany to develop a democratic tradition; to Germans, while parliaments and parties Authors have benefited from that English thus, the middle classes missed their chance could be seen as factors of disintegration and clarity, for the lectures which are here re- to do so in the Weimar Republic. Abendroth, degeneration." Printed were first given on English soil. Dr. the Marxist, analyses the beliefs and behaviour ^laus Schulz, Director of the German Institute of the Social-Democratic Party, "the most It is Alfred Grosser, the Frenchman, who •Ji London, had arranged a series of lectures authentic expression of the aspirations of the recognizes the signs of a completely differ ^^ "Germany 1871-1971" in association with German working class". It was officially a ent mentality in present-day Germany, though "le London School of Economics and Uni Marxist party from the Gotha Congress of "perhaps Germany no longer exists because versity College, London; distinguished Ger- 1875 until Hitler, and from 1945 again until there are two German states. Both of *»an, English and French historians and 1959. But its moment of truth, its tragic them are already in many of their contents *riters accepted the invitation. Their texts failure, came in 1914 when it, "in a complete closely integrated with the relevant elements 2^ve now been edited and prefaced by Dr. volte-face and in defiance of its long cherished in other countries. From Bismarck to Brandt; *•• J. Feuchtwanger, Reader in History at beliefs, came out in support of the war". Rosa it is a change transcending the political-con Southampton University, a nephew of Lion Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were among stitutional sphere." And he emphasizes the *"euchtwanger and a descendant of the famous the small group who opposed that surrender. significance of "the gesture of the Federal Munich bankers. The lecturers were Golo Chancellor Brandt in kneeling in front of **ann, the leading German historian (AJR Walter Jens, Hinton Thomas, Kurt Sont the Ghetto Memorial in Warsaw" as human ^.^FORMATION reported on his paper in its heimer and F. L. Carsten have taken the and statesmanlike. "What he expressed in a •ssue of December, 1971); Wolfgang Abend- development of Gemian ideas and the German particularly touching way was, however, based r^th, the doyen of German Marxist historians; mind as their subject of study. All seemed on the same principle as the Treaty with •Salter Jens, a well-known German classicist well in the classicist age of Schiller, Holderlin Israel of 1952: in contrast to the GDR the *nd writer; Professor R. Hinton Thomas, who and Humboldt, says Jens; but classical edu Federal Republic has from the beginning specialises in Gennan studies; Martin Broszat, cation became an ornament for the bour accepted the responsibility (not to be con *^- L. Carsten and Kurt Sontheimer, inter- geoisie, leading to the self-conscious aesthe fused with the rightly rejected idea of collec ^tionally known for their works on modern ticism and 61itism of the Stefan George tive guilt) for the crimes committed in the '^ennan developments; Theo Sommer, a pro circle—and from there, comments Feucht name of Germany." A new continuity has minent German joumalist and editor; Peter wanger, it was "but a short step to a general developed in the new Germany; we must ferv ^- Ludz, a West German authority on the contempt for the manifestations of modem ently hope that the next century of history GI>R; and Alfred Grosser, a French political mass civilization, democracy, parliaments, will spare the country the upheavals of the Scientist and contributor to Le Monde, Paris. parties and so on. Thus the classical tradi last. Page 2 AJR INFORMATION May, 1974 THE BUDGET AND GERMAN OR AUSTRIAN PENSIONS NEWS FROM GERMANY The Chancellor announced in his Budget "THIRD REICH" MAGAZINE THE OLDEST BERLIN NEWSPAPER Speech that pensions from overseas "Vossische Zeitung" Exhibition received by United Kingdom residents will, The first issue of the illustrated fortnightly from the start of the 1974/75 tax year, magazine, the "Third Reich—Events from The liberal Vossische Zeitung, originally be taxed on the basis of the income arising, 1933 to 1945", published by the Hamburg "Koeniglich privilegierte und Berliniscbe firm of John Jahr, has appeared with a cir Zeitung von Staats-und gelehrten Sachen . irrespective of the amount remitted to the was the oldest newspaper of the city- United Kingdom. In future, therefore, all culation of 500,000. According to the pub lishers, the magazine has been produced to Founded in 1704, it became a victim of the such pensions will be liable to tax, subject give full and authentic information on all Nazi regime in 1934. From 1913 onwards » to the general allowances and reliefs, on the aspects of the Nazi Reich. It is planned to was published by the Ullstein Verlag. At pr^ amount arising. The Chancellor stated, appear in 52 parts. A number of noted West sent, the Institute for Newspaper Researcn however, that a deduction of 10 per cent German joumalists and historians are among of the City of Dortmund, directed by Pro will be made so that only 90 per cent of the contributors, but some have criticised the fessor Dr. Kurt Koszyk, holds an exhibition the income arising will be subject to publicity campaign of the publishers, which of originals and reproductions of publications United Kingdom tax.

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