THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 197, 17 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GERMAN PEOPLE

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. "We must endeavor to understand the ideals of the German people," eaid Lord Morley in a recent speech. As a traveler in Germany, going to this town and that, as the mood take me, I have been trying to follow that advice and get some general idea of the character and aspirations of these people, who are supposed to be our enemies. It is not easy to get at the heart of' a great nation in which there are so i many differences of temperament, or religious and political convictions, and of social rank and caste. In conversations with individuals—with a "Herr Graf" in the smoking room of a hotel palace, with a leader of Social Democrats in a study littered with papers, with a German commercial traveller in a second-class railway carriage, with a working man on his way home from the factory—one gets a glimpse of different points of view, of violent antagonisms, of widely varying aspirations. These confuse the mind, so that one can reach no general conclusion, yet certain dominant impressions of the spirit which moves the whole nations in spite of all individual differences, take possession of one's imagination. TREMENDOUS VITAL ENERGY, j One aspect of that spirit is its im- j mense activity. Germany is tremendously alive. It is throbbing with a vital energy which is revealed in every branch of social and industrial life. lam writing this article in Dresden, which its people call the "Florence of the Elbe." Beautiful as a dream city, it lies on each side of that great river, which is the 1 highway of old history. This morning 1 I gazed across from the Bruhl terrace, which has replaced the earlier ramparts, ( upon the towers and domes and palaces ' of this capital of the' Saxon kings. The 1 beauty of its panorama put a spell 'upon J my senses. s

Yet it was not the beauty of decay, the lingering glory of an old-world life, which is divorced from the spirit of the modern world. Rather, as one explores Dresden on both sides of the river, does one realise that the spirit of modernity is at work to increase the beauty of the city, and that the activity of its inhabitants is still inspired by artistic ideals which give a new splendor to their life. In all the shops of its handsome streets one the signs of an intellectual magnificence. The buildings themselves are designed by modern architects who do not debase the old traditions of their craft. And in their windows, as in all the towns, of Germany, one sees the fruits of that national industry which is the story of the German race—beautiful' chjna, beautiful fabrics, and all the comfortable and charming things which give j grace and luxury to the home life of these people. It is significant that pic- | ture shops and book shops attract one's I | eyes in every street of shops, and they i are filled with reproductions of the great masterpieces of art, which still seem to have a message for the German hausfrau and her middle-class husband. Albert, this Florence on the Elbe is not merely the show city like the Florence of Italy, which lives upon old memories and has no other life. Dresden is crowded with factories, and at night its streets are thronged with artisans, all neat and clean and cheerful, and pleasureseeking after a hard day's work. And that brings me to another outstanding impression of German life. For some reason or other, which I cannot explain, German industrial life has not that blighting and hideous effect upon its surroundings which one finds in England. Hamburg is the Liverpool of Germany.' Yet I remember Hamburg as a bright, I handsome, clean and noble city, a para-! dise compared to the dreadful squalor of Liverpool. i

THE GERMAN WORKMAN.

Even in Essen and Elberfield of Westphalia, and the Saxon industrial towns like Chemnitz, which I have lately been exploring, there is not the terrible ugliness and graceless misery which are so debasing to the spirit of humanity in such towns as Oldham and Blackburn. There are gardens and playing fields between the factories. There are spacious squares adorned with statues which lift the imagination more than the effigies of those worthy citizens with sidewhiskers and tube trousers who stand upon their pedestals in English market places. And the people themselves, however poor they may be, do not flaunt the tragic ugliness of, their misery in the public ey«.

I am told there is real poverty in some of these German towns, but in spite of my efforts to find it I have seen no outward sign of it. I watched the children at play in the schoolyards of Essen, in the working quarter of the town. They wore good boots and good clothes. Their faces were well washed and their eyes were merry. Where were the little dirty, wizened faces, the naked feet, the rags and tatters which make one's heart bleed in an English slum? I have seen the workmen marching out of German factories. Thev come singing and laughing from their work, they come with square shoulders and straight backs, with clean hands and clean clothes, and they look at one with the eye of men who have self-respect, and a pride of work and a love of life. Very polite fellows, I have found them, with a hand that goes quickly to the cap when one asks a question of them, yet, in spite of a smart courtesy, not subservient or slavish.

A g a y young people, working hard, yet enjoying the fruit of their labor—that is one of my impressions of German life. They have not the light and careless gaiety of the French people, nor the Gothic sense of humor which laughs at all the serious facts of life, yet in a more sober and solid way they (find their pleasure in life. In every/ German city of fair size and importance there is the municipal theatre, subsidised out of rates, to whjch the citizens go with their wives to he£r the masterpieces of comedy and tragedy, performed by a company m which the "star" system is not allowed, and m which an all-round merit is expected by a critical audience. It is a means of culture and refinement of immense influence, surely, to the masses of the German people.

A FAMILY PARTY. Tb«y are a gregarious folk these Germans, and do not like to enjoy themselves m dark corners, if they do not go to the "Sehauspielhaus" they go to the "Bier-Halle," where for a few pence thev may sit for hours with their wives or sweethearts in a great company of fellow-citizens, all talking and laughing and joking while good music, rather loud and demonstrative, .is played to them by the hard-worked orchestra. J. he neat in these places is tremendous, for the German likes to be parboiled in his beer-stalls and his railway trains, but it is good to sit here, in spite of the atmosphere, and watch the nice plump German women enjoying themselves heartily with their solid men folk. In England the German is popularly supposed to be a rather brutal fellow with brusque manners and a rough way ot speech. Let I have been continually impressed by the unfailing courtesy the good-humored kindliness, the generous little ways of these people. It is delightful, for instance, to watch a family party assemble for dinner. There is a good deal of bowing and clicking of iK'Hs together: and a stalwart vounoman in the uniform of a German officer, who has just hung his sword upon the hat-rack, takes his mother's hand and kisses it with a simple reverence. Little

r German girls up to sixteen years of age make a curtsey to their elders, and behave with a respectfulness to their parents which seems strangely and charmmgly old-fashioned to an English visitor. These are small traits in the character of a people, yet they reveal big big qualities—a sense of discipline, a reverence for iamily life and womanhood, a sincerity and simplicity of spirit—which breed strong men and good women and children inspired by a sense of duty. Those two words, discipline and duty, seem to me to sum up the greatest and strongest quality of these people. They are the watchwords in every grade of life,

| and in every profession. Obedience to ones chief, whether lie be the foreman oi a factory or the superior officer in the battalion or the father of a family is the unwritten law of German life, and though it may have its disadvantages and may cause the democratic spirit t« pi ogress more slowly than in a more individualistic country like England, it makes for the solidity and power of a great people, and for national pride A good deal has been written about the haughty pride of the Germans. Certainly they are proud, though not always haughty. Moving about among them it seems to me that they have an assured pride, a splendid self-confidence, as of a nation with a great destiny in thewoi-M, and with a great strength to fulfil its purpose. In the streets and the hotels, even in the slums, the men • bear themselves like soldiers, well-train- : ed and well-disciplined, and as one comes i to know them one finds them not onlv ] physically smart and well set up, but , mentally smart, disciplined a.nd ,

t , he old Roman said with pride, "I am | a citizen of no mean city," so the humb- , lesu worker in Germany seems to be pi ond of his Empire and conscious of its | might among the nations. As far as I have studied them, the German people seem to me extraordinarily i,ke another race in Europe allied to them m blood and in mother-speech. Intheir pride and in their masterful sell-confidence, and in their belief that they have a great destiny in the world Uiey are amazingly and wonderfully like ourselves. But with a population increasing at the rate of 800,000 a year and with an ever-increasing energy and' industrial activity, the vital spirit of Germany frets against its frontiers.' We ? re 111 ore lucky in having elbow-room ' tor our younger sons.-Philip Gibbs, in ■ the London Chronicle. j