GERMAN FATALISM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 238, 29 June 1915, Page 2

GERMAN FATALISM.

HOW IT MAY AFFECT THE WAR

Ther e is -a German instinct of which little account has been taken as a fac-. tor in th e war, but which may yet exercise a good deal of influence on its course and its duration. Fatalism is most frequently associated in th e popular mind with Orientals, and especially with Mohammedanism. But it is by no means confined to the professors of that religion. The ancient Greek idea that the destinies of men are dependent absolutely on the decrees of the gods—the idea of an inexorable Fate —;extends to a greater or less degree, it is to be feared, to all lands, and tinges many, if not most, faiths. Unconsciously, it may be, but none the less surely, the average Herman is a profound believer in blind, immutable Destiny. The superstitions whioh are so rife in the Fatherland are often tinged with Fatalism.

Leibnitz's doctrine of philosophical necessity, conveying the idea of inrmuttable law, is co-related, perhaps, to the doctrine of Fate, but it would be doing a gross injustice to the great apostle of Optimism to suggest that the Fatalism prevalent in the Fatherland is founded on aphilosophic basis. It is an unreasoned and unreasoning basis. It is an unreasoned and unreasoning instinct, inherited partly from the original inhabitants of the country. This is shown by the fact that it is most pronounced in those districts is which the clearest traces ase found of the original races, such as the Wends and .Vheir characteristics. The German has no word equivalent to the Turkish Kismet. But he has. precisely the feeliug which the word expresses. In the end it gets the better 37en of the dogged pertinacity which '.s on e of his outstanding qualities. He resembles th e kind of force that succumbs and refuses to budge, when he feels himself "gripped," and which neither coaxing nor the whip will then more. THE SUICIDE CULT;. It is prevalence of an unconscious "atalism which ig responsible to a large vt<>nt for the enormous number of suicides in the;Fatherland. The Gorman ..locs .not show up under disap-•"'c-intbTent and -adversity. If trouble of .1 serious kind "overtakes him tie is • hclined to take "the short cut." When, la colloquial phrase he is "up against : t," his first impulse appears to solve he difficulty by taking his Ife. The -.umber of persons in Germany who fol-'o-.v this impulse is appalling. "It is 'he only way," coolly remarks ex-Lieu-cuant Borgert in Bilse's "Life in a "'arrison Town." The tragic ending of Borgert and Frau'Liemann in that vol-t-nve required no great effort of iinagnation on the part of the novelist, '.uch an ending was iu complete h.arnony with German ideas. According to the last, available st* vAici, about 13,000 persona in Gc«r\r.ny take their lives in the course cf •. year, equal to 212 out of every millon of the population. In Scotland the Proportion is GS to the million. The •■•• est rate of suicide in Europe is in ■■elsixd, while Saxony has the unpleas.

-J rl'sanction of possessing, tlic highest—32s out of each million of the population. Shortly afttfr the Germans were turned back from the Marne there wer e reports of suicides among the officers and men. There were similar 'reports after the determined but fruitless attempt to break through to Calais, and also after other heavy blows inflicted by the Allies. To any one familiar with Germany and with the German character there is certainly nothing inherently improbable at least in thes s reports. Quite the contrary. CREEPY SENTIMENT. Fatalism is but a poor substitute for, enthusiasm. The contrast can: readily be imagined between the effect likely to be produced on the soldier by the spirited stfains beloved cf the British •Tommy" and the influence of some of ffae lugubrious melodies and fatalistic odes dear to.the German. Hauff's "Reiter's Morganlied" was a great favourite In 1870, and is, the writer understands, a favourite in the Gevman army to-day. T3ie music, which is in a minor key. haunts the ear. Th c first verse runs: Dawn at day, dawn of day, light me to an early grave Soon the trumpet loud will blow, Then I to my deatih must go— I and many a comrade brave. This may be admired as courageous; resignation to destiny, but it is hardly I calculated to rouse and inspire, One ?.a.n imagine it giving a company of sol. ders the feeling known as "the creeps." It in worth while remembering that, till the present war, defeat had been unknown in modem Germany. Prussia brought Denmark, Austria, and France Quickly to their knees, and for tfce past forty years Germans have been as sanguine with regard to the lofty Destiny of their race as was Napoleon of his own. But once the tide of war has fairly turned, the feeling that it. is usraless to fight against Destiny will T>roj> a biy lead to unloosed for and important developments.