Tatty Jackets

Holocaust Memorial Day: Thoughts and Complications

2012-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

I wasn't going to write anything in particular for today because this isn't something I find easy to put into words in a little white box on my computer screen. It's on the one hand too complex a topic to say anything concrete about it at all (we still don't know, as an indisputable historical fact, how many people died, how, and on precisely whose orders*) but on the other hand it can be summed up quite simply: long-running prejudices, left largely unchallenged, led to the systematic murder of millions of people. However, living in Germany and studying Nazi cultural history means I think about this a lot and in connection with many other topics, and I might as well commit some of those thoughts to paper.

The Holocaust is not just Nazi history and Nazi history is not just the Holocaust; although neither can you extract one from the other. An accusation often more of less explicitly levelled at historians of "every-day life" in the Third Reich is that we (I guess I'm one of them too) are "trivialising" the Nazis, particularly when trying to trace broader continuities in cultural history. By looking at what people read or cooked or how they spent their days off, we're reducing the crucial question of "how could such evil have come about?" to just one of many sideshows. The counter-accusation is that of fetishising the Holocaust; by studying it only in a certain way, sealed off from other historical currents, we run the risk of draining it of all real meaning. Detaching the events from the physical and cultural worlds in which they took place - denying that they were a product of normal humans, and normal political processes - is to make them intangible and incomprehensible.
Related to this is the issue of "learning the lesson", of "never forgetting" and of "the message". If you ask someone what that message is, they will probably say something along to lines of "never again". Probe any deeper, and everything suddenly falls apart. What shouldn't we do again? Give governments control over life and death? Allow them to remove people from next door without paying attention to where they're going? Happily let much of the popular press print story after story, systematically demonising a particular religion or minority group? Vote for a man with a small moustache?
Sometimes, it seems that the main "lesson" to be learned is not to dress up in Nazi uniform or have any kind of fun while invoking that particular set of shared associations. I agree with Jennifer Lipman (who wrote this in the Telegraph today) that it would be nicer all round if people didn't do that kind of thing, and that it is a probable indication of a general lack of awareness. However, returning to my first point, the Nazis were not *only* mass-murderers. As a group they were also self-important, deluded, frustrated, crowing, bullying, pathetic... humans. They built themselves up as something greater than everything that had gone before and as the fathers (and mothers) of a new, better world order but, in the end, they were wrong and they were human. They deserve ridicule, not that hushed, fearful awe which so easily morphs into respect. The more people making fun of the mere idea of them, the more they can be kept spinning in their graves, and the less easy it is for groups wanting to emulate them to gain any kind of traction**. I'm not worried about people playing Nazi-themed games on a skiing holiday. I'm worried about people very carefully planning to plant home-made bombs in areas with high immigrant populations and paint neo-Nazi slogans on the resulting headstones. I doubt there's much overlap.
The other thing which the above article displays is the emphasis on visits to former concentration camps - primarily Auschwitz - as the best method of "understanding" the Holocaust. There's an assumption that if you haven't been there then you won't "get it", and that making people go will make them somehow "experience" "it" and (as I feel Lipman is implying) change their behaviour in accordance with this increased respect and understanding. I've never visited the Ground Zero of the Holocaust or any of the other former camps. I'd definitely learn something if I went - I'd have a greater understanding of the spaces people moved in, of the numbers, of the lack of privacy, of the dehumanising impact of the surroundings. But the Holocaust was not just in the camps. It was on packed freight trains, station platforms, on trams and on foot; it was in every city, town and village in Germany and occupied Europe. It was in the empty houses the victims left behind and the tragically hopeful letters they sent to their relatives. It was in every aspect of life from the laws which people supported and the brief economic prosperity they enjoyed, down to the desperate fugitives in their neighbour's attic and the second-hand clothes they received when their houses were bombed. The Holocaust was everywhere and in everything, and it certainly can't be "got" by a group of warmly-dressed, well-fed tourists looking at a gas chamber, before putting into practice their legal right and physical ability to turn around and walk away.

I have no way to conclude all of this except to say that I could spend my whole life studying the Holocaust and would still never claim to understand it. Nor would I criticise anyone for spending less time studying it than whatever is generally considered to be sufficient for a historically-aware citizen. Every one of the myriad factors and processes leading to the Holocaust is still in existence today in some form and in many different combinations. They are unavoidable aspects of humanity. We need to constantly be aware of them and prevent them from combining in such a way as to cause discrimination, suffering and death on anything like the same scale. The Holocaust is an example of what can happen; arguably the worst of many examples from history. To those with no personal connection, that's all it ever can be.

*Too many, horrifically and unnecessarily, and on the orders of people whose politics should never, ever be re-adopted.

**Making fun of fascism is not a worrying new trend but has happened for as long as there have been fascists to make fun of. Was Charlie Chaplin or the designer of this poster guilty of trivialising events? It's only wrong when we assume that people are doing it out of ignorance or a lack of empathy, which really isn't for anyone else to judge.

Snippets - Seaside Fun in 1830s Lytham

2011-09-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

The local history I was taught at school in Lytham St.Annes seemed to consist of a flood, a lifeboat disaster, and the building of a church in the middle of a lot of sand-dunes. They never told us about the fun, frolics and nutty stunts. These stories are all taken from the Preston Chronicle.

Walking Backwards. - On Tuesday last, at Lytham, George Edwards, a man of colour, walked backwards a distance of 10 miles, in one hour and 49 minutes, on a piece of ground half a mile in extent. He has also performed the task of taking up with his mouth, from the ground, 100 potatoes, one yard distance from each other, in forty-three minutes and 42 seconds, returning with each potatoe to the starting place. (Saturday July 30th, 1831)

Swimming Feat. - On Tuesday last, Dr. Bedale, of Manchester, in compliance with his previous anouncements, exhibited in presence of several hundred spectators, some of his peculiar and surprising feats in the waters of the Ribble. Soon after twelve o'clock, he appeared in a boat a short distance below Penwortham bridge, and having provided himself with a suitable garment, his legs were tied together, and he was thrown headlong into the stream, from which he soon rose and floated in different postures with the apparent lightness of a log of wood, and without any perceptible exertion. In this manner, and afterwards in a variety of postures, he swam and floated towards Avenham and returned with t
he ebb, to the gratification of the curious. In the afternoon he proceeded to Lytham to confer a similar gratuitous treat upon the visitants to that place, where he would find a wider scope for his skill in "wrestling with the ocean wave." (Saturday August 13th, 1831)

Bathing Exploits. - Sunday last, being one of those midsummer hollidays, with a high tide, of which the lovers of country excursions and salt water usually take advantage, a vast number of both sexes, and of all ages, set off for Lytham at an early hour, in carts and other vehicles, as well as on foot, "to lave their lim
bs in ocean's briny flood." About 60 individuals however, with greater pretensions to taste than to seek locomotion, by these every day-means, resolved to enjoy an aquatic excursion to the same destination ; and sweating, and puffing under a load of finery, they embarked, full of glee and expectation, at the Marsh end, on board the Lytham Packet and stood down the river. All appeared to betoken a day of genuine pleasure ; but, as fortune would have, it the Captain of the Packet and his mate had newly taken command, and not having sufficiently studdied Hamilton Moore's navigation ; while following their vocation of "spinning yarns," in this town ; being, in other words, fresh water sailors, before they had completed a third of their voyage, they ran the vessel upon a sand-band, to the g

reat alarm and chagrin of the passengers. There she stuck as fast as the obelisk, and after numerous attempts to gether off, which helped to bed her the deeper in the sand, the gay assemblage had but the alternative to stay aboard for the next tide, or submit to the dreadful necessity of making their way on shore, upon Longton Marsh, in the best way they could. The latter was, after a sage council of war, preferred, - and some of the females waded, and some were carried on shore, to the infinite detriment of their holliday garments. One lady in a lutestring dress was fairly soused under water, without having had the trouble to go so far as Lytham ' and divers were the mishaps to shoes, stockings, bonnets, and their etceteras. Even after landing they had new perils to encounter. The sea had left large pools and slimy ditches in the Marsh, over and through which they were force to push on as they could: they had next to scramble over dikes

and hedges, and experienced "hair breadth scapes" and "moving accidents, by flood and field," before they reached the village of Longton, where they had leisure to ruminate on their adventures, and wisely come to a resolution to make the next trip to Lytham upon Terra Firma. (Saturday August 4th, 1832)

Photo: bathers in 1834. There's more on wonderful nineteenth-century bathing suits from ModCloth, Thread for Thought and Clancy's Classics.

History Misremembered

2011-08-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

These sentences are taken from "English as She is Taught", a collection of answers given by American schoolchildren, published 1887. The whole thing is available in various formats here. These are simply the ones I liked best.

Longevity
Alfred the Great reigned 872 years.
Elijah was a good man who went up to heaven without dying and threw his cloak down for Queen Elizabeth to step over.
Luther introduced Christianity into England a good many thousand years ago. He was once a Pope. He lived at the time of the Rebellion of Worms.
Julius Caesar is noted for his famous telegram despatch I came I saw I conquered.

Technical Terms
Greece is divided into periods.
The history of Rome is wrapped in antiquity.
The Middle Ages come in between antiquity and posterity.

Animals in History
Gorilla warfare was war where men rode on gorillas. [Wishful thinking?]
The Celts were driven out of England into Whales.
Queen Mary married the Dolphin.
The only form of government in Greece was a limited monkey.

Personalities
Columbus knew the earth was round because he balanced an egg on the table.
Benedict Arnold was greatly regretted by the Americans as well as by the English.
Rufus was named William on account of his red hair.
The Britains conquered Julius Caesar and drove him ignominiously from his dominions.
Cromwell was only a parallel with Bonaparte.

Did You Know..?
The Puritans found an insane asylum in the wilds of America.
The Habeas Corpus Act said that a body whether alive or dead could be produced in court.
Slavery was caused by the admission of Missouri into the Union.

Floundering (or How to Answer a Question with no Information)
William Penn was born in Boston in 1607. He was the first white man who founded Pennsylvania. He founded Pennsylvania because his name was William Penn.
Gen. Washington is famous for the Washington Monument.

Cuttings - Lancaster - June 1811

2011-06-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

Two stories of military misconduct from the Lancaster Gazette, June 1811. The best thing about these for me is the presence of the words "sennight", "grazier" and "whither". Every day's a school day. Bear in mind that these events take place in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars.

On Friday sennight, a court-martial was held at Boston, on a private in the Local Militia assembled there, named Bilton, for having absented himself from duty, and behaving insolently to his officers - The Court sentenced him, for these offences, to the months imprisonment in the county gaol, - the first and last fortnights of the time in solitary confinement: and the man was accordingly taken under guard to Lincoln on Saturday, and delivered into custody at the castle.

A Lieutenant in the above regiment resigned his commission on Monday, rather than undergo a court-martial on his conduct for appearing in town to be married, at a time when he was availing himself of the excuse of illness for not joining the regiment this year. He is a considerable grazier at Pinchbeck; and when on the point of leading his intended bride into Boston church, was arrested by order of the Colonel, and taken into the field of exercise; whither, in a short time, the lady (albeit, not remarkable for modesty) followed, and demanded her gentleman; and it was with difficulty she could be scared away.

The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras

Cuttings - Wrexham, April 1894 - Part III

2011-06-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

Final clippings from the Wrexham Daily Advertiser, with the loose connecting theme of "cures which are clearly bonkers".

Extract from "Our Ladies' Column - By one of themselves", April 28, 1894

"I had a paper sent to me from Cannes the other day by a doctor who is resting there on his return from the Medial Congress at ROme, and in it I find that both the "Lancet" and the "British Medical Journal" have submitted this "Champagne sans sucre" to exhaustive analysis, and they both declare that it supplies a long-felt want to the medical profession, who hitherto have been afraid to prescribe champagne to their patients because of the sugar ordinarily contained in it, but that this "Laurent Perrier sugarless Champagne" removes the objection, and in addition it is assisted in its reviving effect by the introduction of a proportion of coca leaf extract. Of course, all champagne is a rather costly and luxurious beverage, but taken in moderation, and by those thos are exhausted through illness or overwork, I do not think it will be found to be an extravagant remedy, and it certainly is a pleasant one. All these restorative luxuries I mention for the benefit of my readers, though I hope they may not require them."

Advertisement from the front page of the same edition:

Cuttings - Wrexham, 1894 - Part II

2011-06-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

Following Monday's revelations of a FRAUDULENT NUN in Glasgow, the editor respectfully submits to her readers' attention further extracts from The Wrexham Advertiser and North Wales News.

ART AND SCIENCE, April 14

"Professor Fleming, the great authority upon electric lighting, is lecturing on the subject at the Royal Institute. He points out that in 1879 a Select Committee of the House of Commons reported that there was no reasonable scientific grounds for believing that the electric light would ever be a practical success. There are now 260 miles of mains in London, and quite 400 miles in the provincial towns."

LOCAL NEWS, April 07

"THE PHONOGRAPH - We invite our readers' attention to the phonograph which is at present on exhibition in the Blossoms Hotel Yard, Charles-street. Mr Garner, the proprietor, has a fine instrument, and the records are of a very superior kind. We have listened to several and can testify that they are exceptionally good. Mr Garner takes most of his own records, and has one of a cornet solo by Mr Lloyd, of the Blossoms Hotel. The proprietor takes more than an ordinary interest in the instrument, and his conversation concerning it shows he thoroughly understands it. No one who has an opportunity should fail to hear this marvellous invention."

FOOTBALL, April 21

"STOCKPORT COUNTY V. NANTWICH. - At Stockport, on Saturday. The home team, who were assisted by a stiff breeze, completely overplayed the visitors in the first half, and goals were obtained by Leigh, Smith, Hewitt, and Upton. At half-time Stockport led by four goals to none. After the interval McCoombe put on another point for Stockport. Nantwich then played up much better, but were unable to score, and retired beaten by five goals to none."

Cuttings - Wrexham, 1894 - Part 1

2011-06-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

From the "General News" section of the four April editions of The Wrexham Advertiser and North Wales News, 1894. I'll post cuttings from "Arts and Science", "Local News" and "Football" on Wednesday, followed by advertisements and other bits on Friday. If I get some positive feedback, hopefully I'll make this a regular thing.

April 7th

"Alexander Douglas, alias Donaldson, was sentenced to four years' penal servitude at the Old Bailey, on Monday, for bigamously marrying Annie Crump, a young woman living at Birmingham, who advertised for a husband, and from whom he obtained a number of goods and £80 which she had saved. The prisoner, who is an ex-convict, pleaded in extenuation that his victim had shown great indiscretion, but the judge remarked that the prisoner in making this statement aggravated the offence."

April 14th

"On Sunday afternoon, Mr John Hutton, twenty-three years of age, Great Orton, near Carlisle, went for a ride on his bicycle and returned after a couple of hours' spin. On dismounting he fell dead. He had been suffering from influenza, and was under orders not to do any cycling for a month or two."

"It is announced from Berlin that in spite of the prohibition of the police, experiments have been made indoors with the bullet-proof coat invented by the German tailor Herr Dowe, who himself wore the coat and was shot at. The bullet-resisting property of the garment is said to have been proved. Herr Dowe sustained no injury."

April 24th

"The Bishop of Manchester, writing to the author of a pamphlet entitled, "A Few Plain Words to the Bishop," says that he "lives as plainly as any working man," works harder and more hours than nine out of ten of the working men, and yet is compelled by the expenses incidental to his office to spend £1,000 a year more than his official income."

April 28th

"At Glasgow, on Monday. Sarah McCormick pleaded guilty to falsely representing herself to be a converted nun from Lanark Convent, and inducing the public to pay to hear her recite alleged shocking revelations of convent life. She was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment. A charge against "General" Evans, of the Gospel Army, of aiding in the deception, was dismissed."
(Also appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post Tuesday, April 24, 1894)

On the cliquishness of minorities

2011-05-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Two quotes, out of what I assume is a huge number of similar examples. The first is Frederick the Great surveying his new Polish territory, quoted in Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present (Oxford, 2009), pp.37-8:

In 1772, he wrote to Voltaire of the Poles as the 'last people in Europe'. Likewise, he expressed dissatisfaction with the Jewish presence in the towns of the frontier provinces, concluding however that they were necessary 'on the Polish border because in these areas the Hebrews alone perform trade. As soon as you get away from the frontier, the Jews become a disadvantage, they form cliques'.

The second is from David Cameron's recent speech on immigration (which I blogged about at the time, here). The full text of this is on the BBC website:

In one case, an applicant applied as an 'Elite Chef' for a fried chicken shop. The main qualifying criterion was the rate of pay. So in this case, his sister, who owned the shop decided to pay him exactly the amount that allowed him to qualify. There was nothing the authorities could do and he was allowed in.
So it has fallen to this government to sort out the system - and we are completely changing the way it works so it is truly geared to the needs of our economy.

Rather than suggesting that Cameron is the reincarnation of Frederick the Great, the point I'm trying to make is this: Minorities have often been attacked on the basis that they band together to help each other, excluding the majority population, and therefore securing advantages for themselves. If this does happen it's because the majority, especially in boom times, don't need to forge such close networks to deal with problems. It makes more sense to move away from home to somewhere you can find a job you want to do, which you stand a good chance of getting because you're fluent in the right language and fit in with the dominant culture there. You may not need to be around to take care of parents, elderly relatives, younger siblings and cousins, because they have full access to state services. Immigrant communities have stronger bonds because they need them. Partly as a consequence of this, and in turn causing it, groups of such workers can be very useful to the national economy, as shown by both of the above quotes.

No resemblance: David the Great and "Just Call Me" Freddy

The problem comes when the economy contracts again, and everyone needs to fall back on their support network. Minorities may then seem to have an unfair advantage, because they are used to dealing with hardship and have informal systems in place for helping everyone in their community to scrape by. Similar to people failing means tests because they have spent twenty years in work carefully putting a little money aside each month, minority communities may end up punished for their previous organisation, thrift and hard work.*

The best historical example of this would be the fate of Jewish communities in Europe. Legally barred from other professions, they came to specialise in finance and in the trade in second-hand goods. During the economic crisis following the depression, most people existed in a world of torture and deprivation, defined by these two industries. On the one hand life-savings became worthless and interest on new loans was crippling. On the other, possessions had to be sold off cheap, and essentials such as clothes and shoes bought after a lot of haggling and pleading. Because of the ways they had had to deal with previous discrimination and hardship, Jewish communities seemed to be easily profiting from Germans' misfortune. Coupled with the pervasive myth that it was a worldwide Jewish conspiracy that had caused the crash in the first place, this was a very toxic mix.

Immigrants and other minorities make naturally easy targets. Politicians should be wary of criticising them, however subtly, for those same patterns of behaviour they have been forced to adopt. When stuck between a rock and a hard place, it's natural to want to give each other a leg-up.

*That isn't to say that majority white communities in Britain have not undergone extended periods of hardship. There are countless examples, particularly in former industrial or mining towns. My focus here is on communities who are easily distinguishable from a majority population who consider themselves to have been in that area longer.

Sehr geehrter Herr Hitler...

2011-05-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Fascinating latter from Hitler to a British newspaper, declining their offer to publish his thoughts on the economic crisis: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/yours-faithfully-adolf-hitler.html
I'm especially impressed by the translation, which has maintained the pompous, slightly rambling style of the original.

Find the fifth pig

2011-05-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm developing a bit of a side-interest in the propaganda war that took place in the occupied Netherlands during World War Two. Consequently, coming across this via a comment under a Five Chinese Crackers post kind of made my evening.

America's Tragedy: Third Reich Perceptions of the United States

2010-07-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

I love it when a plan comes together...

In a development which I feared would never actually take place due to my usual scatty and disorganised state of operation, work which I've done for this blog is going to form part of my soon-to-be-completed but largely-not-written-yet Masters dissertation. The topic can be roughly summarised as 'Third Reich perceptions of the United States' - hopefully it will explain how positive and negative views were reconciled in the minds of the general public once it became clear that Germany and America would be at war for a second time. Kurt G. Sell's Worüber man in Amerika spricht, which I've posted passages from before (see tag list) makes an appearance, alongside six more or less similar books. You can expect a smattering of translations from these to appear over the next few weeks, whenever I'm avoiding doing the more important work on the dissertation itself.

The following argument is taken from Menschen Wie Wir? Ein Amerikabuch für Europäer (Berlin, 1943) by Edmund Fürholzer, who I still no next to nothing about. The aim of his 400-page book is to explain why, when the US benefitted from the hard work of German immigrants and the support of German politicians, they are nevertheless prepared to go to war against Germany. In his words, Americans 'share our blood but not our spirit', 'us' being the Europeans. So whose spirit to they share? A soulless, materialistic pairing of Anglo-Saxon and Jewish, passed down from the Pilgrim Fathers.

Obviously I don't agree with any of the following, this is a translation of something I think is insane*.

From its first beginnings, the state of New England was anchored in an Old Testament mindset. State and religion were one, and there was no going back. The more it became clear that running the state along biblical lines would be impossible, the more fanatically the Puritans clung to the illusion; America's tragedy began to run its course. Intellectual Phariseeism and empty form replaced the original heroic spirit. The attempt at transplanting the Jewish Old Testament state into the Christian seventeenth and eighteenth century was doomed to failure. [...]

Der Staat Neu-England war von seinem ersten Anfangen an in den Gedankengängen des Alten Testamentes verankert: Staat und Religion bildeten eine Einheit. Es gab kein Zurück. Je stärker die Unmöglichkeit einer altbiblischen Staatsführung offenbar wurde, um so fanatischer klammerte sich das Puritanertum and den Schein; die Tragödie Amerikas nahm ihren Anfang. An Stelle des ursprünglichen heroishen Geistes trat intellektuelles Pharisäertum und tote Form. Der Versuch, den Judenstaat des Alten Testamented mit seinen Gesetzen und Anschauungen in das christliche sibzehnte und achtzehnte Jahrhundert zu verpflanzen, mußte scheitern.

We can see from looking at some of their laws and customs just how closely the Puritans followed the letter of the Bible.: They called themselves “the Christian Israel“, they spoke of their emigration to America as the „flight of the children of Israel“. Their god was Jehovah, their constitution was in line with the laws of Moses. In place of the Christian Sunday came the Jewish sabbath. The boys were circumcised. The Puritans took their festivals from the Old Testament. The self-righteousness and hubris of old Judaism ran in their veins. Whether to absolve themselves from mistakes or to justify their very unchristian conduct towards colonists of other beliefs, they always had an apt Bible quote to hand. [...]

Wie stark die Puritaner sich nach den Buchstaben der Bibel richteten, ersehen wir bei Betrachtung einiger ihrer Gesetze und Sitten: Sie nannten sich ,,das christliche Israel“; von ihrer Auswanderung nach Amerika sprachen sie als der ,,Flucht der Kinder Israel“. Ihr Got war Jehova, ihre Verfassung war den Gesetzen des Moses angepaßt. An Stelle des christlichen Sonntags trat der jüdische Sabbath. Die Knaben wurden beschnitten. Die Feste entnahmen die Puritaner dem Alten Testament. Selbstgerechtigkeit und Hybris des alten Judentums gingen ihnen in Fleisch und Blut über. Sei es zur Beschönigung ihrer eigenen Fehler oder zur Rechtfertigung ihrer sehr unchristlichen Handlungsweise gegenüber andersgläubigen Kolonisten - stets hatten sie ein passender Bibelzitat zur Hand.

Oliver Cromwell, the greatest of all Puritans, celebrated his victory over Ireland, which he depopulated with inhuman cruelty, turning it into a land of pestilence and hunger, with the words; „And now we ask ourselves: who has completed this great work? It was not done through our power; God the Father delivered it to our hands.“ Jews as the chosen people of the Old Testament and England as the chosen people of the New Testament; these become one in Cromwell's words. It should therefore come as no surprise that he allowed England's Jews to travel freely to the transatlantic colonies. It was strictly forbidden for the island's Catholics to settle in the New World. [...]

Oliver Cromwell, der größte aller Puritaner, feierte seinen Triumph über Irland, das er mit unmenschlicher Grausamkeit entvölkert und zu einem von Seuchen heimgesucht Hungergebiet gemacht hatte, mit den Worten: ,,Und nun wllen wir uns fragen: Wer hat dieses große Werk vollbracht? Nicht unsere Macht war es; Gott der Herr hat sie in unsere Hände gegeben.“ Juda als das auserwählte Volk des Alten und England als das auserwählte Volk des neuen Testamente verschmolzen in Cromwells Worten zu ein und demselben Begriff. Daher kann es auch nicht wundernehmen, daß er den Juden Englands die Auswanderung nach den transatlantischen Kolonien freigab. Den Katholiken der Insel war die Ansiedlung in der Neuen Welt strengstens verboten.

The resistance of other protestant religious communities failed due to the Puritanisms heavy political clout. They were English to the full; the common belief in an Anglo-Saxon divine calling proved a unifying bond, even in the face of bitter contradictions in the application of dogma, all taken from the same Old Testament. The most radical political course cut through all ecclesiastical differences; in the end Puritanism was able to claim for itself leadership of the New World's Anglo-Saxon church state. This attitude outlasted the colonial period, going on to determine the public life of the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was the spirit of Judaism which American Christianity adapted itself to. [...]

Der Widerstand anderer protestantischer Religionsgemeinschaften gegenüber der Neu-England-Richtung scheiterte an der stärkeren politischen Durchschlagskraft des Puritanertums. Engländer waren sie alle; der gemeinsame Glaube an eine göttliche Sendung des Angelsachsentums erwies sich als einigendes Band, selbst bei erbitterten Gegensätzen in Auslegung der Dogmen, die alle auf dem gleichen Alten Testament fußten. Die radikalste politische Richtung setzte sich gegenüber allen kirchlichen Differenzen durch; schließlich behauptete sich der Puritanismus doch als Führer des kirchlich-staatlichen Angelsachsentums der Neuen Welt. Dieser Geist überdauerte die Kolonialzeit und bestimmte in neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert das öffentlichen Leben der Vereinigten Staaten. Es war der Geist des Judentums, dem sich das amerikanische Christentum assimilierte.

The racial Jew arriving in America really did find the Promised Land. He did not need to adapt to new conditions, as instead the foreigner had assimilated to his beliefs, his thoughts, and his behaviour.

Der nach Amerika kommende Rassenjude fand tatsächlich das Gelobte Land vor. Er brauchte sich nicht neuen verhältnissen anzupassen, sondern die Fremde hatte sich von selbst seinem Wesen, seinem Glauben, seinem Denken und Handeln angeglichen.

(Fürholzer, pp.30-2)

*Shouldn't need saying, but this is the internet and some people aren't big on context

"No time for dissatisfaction": Thomas G. Masaryk on suicide

2010-05-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Long before Thomas G. Masaryk became father and first President of the new, independent nation of Czechoslovakia, he wrote a doctoral thesis on suicide. Suicide and the Meaning of Civilization covers a whole spectrum of possible causes for this act, which, as the 19th century drew its final gasping breaths, was talked of as an epidemic in many European countries. I've been cheating a little by reading an English translation from 1970 (meh, I've got coursework to write), but the German version is available to read online here.

Masaryk's treatment of the subject, published in Vienna in 1881, comes across as a strange pick-and-mix bag; admissions that the available statistics are insufficient to reach conclusions amongst bold, unsubstantiated assertions. This is not all that surprising when you consider that at this time sociology was only just beginning as a discipline. The following are some of the statements I found less believable but hey, I'm not expert on the subject:

Chapter 2, Section 1
5. Wind. The wind and suicide are already related in the popular belief that strong winds rise whenever someone hangs himself. In any case, certain winds are pernicious, as for instance, the sirocco; Cheyne claims the fall and west winds are responsible for suicides in England, and Osiander makes the same assertion for northern Germany. But how hot, drying winds, or cold and damp winds exert their unfavorable effects is evident to all. Think, for example, how the drying winds of America cause a degeneration in the glandular system, which causes the striking difference between the Yankee and his Uncle Bull* and also in part his irritability.
6. […] Women, it is said, choose Sunday with relative frequency, no doubt for religious reasons; Saturday, as housecleaning day, allows them no time for dissatisfaction with life; Monday is also supposed to be very unpleasant for women.
7. With respect to time of day, most suicides are generally committed during the day, the fewest at night. Night has something soothing, life-giving, and restorative about it; also, most men are born at night, when the fewest deaths occur. The bright day excites and stimulates. While the darkness of night leads to understanding, peace of mind, and sleep.

pp.15-16

(translation: William B. Weist and Robert G. Batson)

*John Bull, i.e. the English?

England's Mask has Fallen - Index

2010-03-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

Another one from the British Library. England's Mask has Fallen (,,Englands Maske ist gefallen") is a 68-page paperback from 1939 with no attributed author. Priced at 30 Pfennig, it has the same cheap, flimsy feel to it as ,,Das ist England!" and the cover style is strikingly similar. I couldn't find a picture online (although there's what seems to be an abridged version knocking about on ebay and some rather questionable online bookshops) so a description will have to do.

Imagine, if you will, an angled, three dimensional map of the British Isles, with London marked as a black hole. Thin waves of smoke emanate from this blot, forming the shape of a looming figure of death, complete with scythe. In front of him is the disembodied head of Winston Churchill, with obligatory cigar and Union Jack top-hat. The title is jovially scrawled across the top in red, cartoonish letters. Classy, I think you'll agree.

For such a short publication, the index is amazingly detailed, although the subheadings don't appear in the main text (and until I read the whole thing, I wouldn't trust all of my translations):

The Strangler at her Side
England conducts an economic war - Pirates for centuries - The destruction of Poland is a slap in the face for England - English freebooters across the globe - How England robbed Spain, Holland, Portugal and France of their former power - The old enemy of neutral countries - Germany's correct treatment of neutral countries - England's blockade, this time without hope of success.

A Hero's Death for Money
England praises with silver bullets - Money, the soul of England's policy - Poland as the latest victim of English warmongering - South-east Europe withdraws from England's moneybag policies - Dishonourable English controls - The City charges usurious interest - England's currency wavers - Isolation attempts fall apart - Security in Europe only possible without England's machinations.

The Poison Trade
The infamous Opium War against China - A people's health is ruined - England destroys Chinese cultural artifacts - England's typical mass-smuggling operation - Use of violence against Chinese protests - England's ever-increasing blackmail of China - Trust in England not justified.

Protector of the Jews
The Jews rule in England - Kings and lords in the service of Jews - Jewish war profits in England for centuries - The Jew in the British Parliament - All influential positions overrun with Jews - Cromwell and Queen Elizabeth in Jewish hands - A Jew as British Prime Minister.

Hunger and Superstition
Areas of poverty in England - Terrible plight of the unemployed - A hundred thousand unemployed Englishmen undernourished - English working class families going hungry for years - The youth without vocational training - The impoverished people of England suffer from despair - Comfort through a love of gambling - The unemployed gamble away their pittance - Football betting a mass swindle - The richer England fails to care for the sons of its homeland.

An Empire Expires
Weakening vitality of the English nation - Decline of the population - Birth rates too low - England is aging - The old English hypocrisy - Birth rates in the British Empire also developing unfavourably - The English unwilling to raise families - 25 percent increase in birth rate needed to maintain England's population - The English no longer a pioneering people, but colonial rentiers - England's demographic and political decline.

Time is working against England
Germany has prepared in time - A long war is to England's disadvantage - England's currency in free-fall - England losing ground in world trade - Question mark over British Army's oil supplies - England's dependence on iron and food imports - England must risk her foreign possessions - England's gold reserves pumped dry - England's power is crumbling - Time is on Germany's side.

The two things that strike me about the structure, as set out above, are the amount of repetitions and the lack of chronology. I'll be interested to see how coherent the whole text is, and what level of detail is provided.

"That's England!" Cover and index

2010-03-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

I had my first visit to the British Library a few weeks ago (such a wonderful, friendly, relaxing place that for the first time ever I actually wished I lived in London) and looked at a couple of Nazi-era books on the British Empire. Time and money constraints meant that I only made a few notes and copied down the indexes, but they're illuminating enough.

First up, That's England! World Domination through Blood and Gold by Fritz Reipert, published either 1939 or 1940. It's only forty pages long, cheaply bound and priced at 40 Reichsmarks*. The cover alone puts it firmly in the categories 'popular' and 'subjective'.

Index: (Bear in mind that German employs exclamation marks far more liberally than English. The author also uses 'Britain' and 'England' interchangeably.)

1. England - same as ever!
2. The bloodstained path to a British Empire
3. The sanctity of contracts - as England sees it!
4. England in the stocks!
5. British conduct during the World War
6. Versailles: new edition - England's dream!
7. German peacekeeping - English warmongering
8. England is to blame for the war!
9. England's blood-guilt in Poland
10. Lies and horror stories - England's weapons!
11. Abuses of neutrality - the prerogative of British warfare
12. England's last resort - hunger blockade!
13. England's big mistake!

*Trying to figure out what that is in today's money, or any other meaningful comparison has me beaten so far. I'm still working on it.

On leprosy, salmon, and Irish gluttony

2010-01-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

Some medical information for you, heavily laced with no-holds-barred racial prejudice. This is from Irelands Naturall History by Gerard Boate (1657:

Ch. 24. Sect. 4. Of the Leprosie

The Rickets are of late very rife in Ireland, where few yeares agoe unknown; so on the contrary it hath been almost quite freed from another disease, one of the very worst and miserablest in the world, namely the Leprosie, which in former times used to bee very common there, especially in the Province of Munster; the which therefore was filled with Hospitals, expresly built for to receive & keep the Leprous persons. But many yeares since Ireland hath been almost quite freed from this horrible and loathsome disease, and as few Leprous persons are now found there, as in any other Countrie in the world; so that the Hospitals erected for their use, having stood empty a long time, at length are quite decayed & come to nothing. The cause of this change is not so obscure nor unknown, as it is in most other changes of that nature. For that this sickness was so generall in Ireland, did not come by any peculiar defect in the Land or in the Air, but meerly through the fault and foul gluttony of the inhabitants, in the excessive devouring of unwholesome Salmons. The common report in Ireland is, that boiled Salmons eaten hot out of the Kettle in great quantity, bring this disease, and used to be the cause why it was so common: and some famous Authors have not stuck to relate as much for a truth. But that is a fable, and Salmons have not that evill quality, which way soever they be eaten and prepared, but when they are out of season, which is in the latter end of the year, after they have cast their spawn: upon which they doe not onely grow very weak and flaggie, but so unwholesome, that over their whole body they break out in very filthy spots, just like a scalled mans head, so as it would loath any man so see them; nevertheless the Irish, a nation extremely barbarous in all parts of their life, did use to take them in that very season, as well as at any other time of the year, and to eat them in very great abundance, as easily they might, every river and rivelet in most parts being very full of them, and by that meanes that horrible disease came to be so common amongst them. But the English having once gotten the command of the whole Countrie into their hands, made very severe laws against the taking of Salmons in that unwholesome season, and saw them carefully observed; whereby hindering those barbarians against their will to feed on that poisonous meat, they were the cause that the woefull sickness, which used so mightily to reign amongst them, hath in time been almost quite abolished: which great benefit, with so many others, that hatefull people hath rewarded with seeking utterly to exterminate their benefactors.

(pp.184-5)

On a people's failure to ripen

2009-11-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

Not strictly within the aims of this blog but still an interesting quote, and one which returns to the odd idea of geographic determinism (is there an official term for this?) which we saw here. The following is taken from Irish Witchcraft and Demonology (1913 / 1972) by St. John D. Seymour, BD. Quite wonderfully, the whole book is available online.

It is often said that Irishmen succeed best out of Ireland; those qualities they possess, which fail to ripen and come to maturity in the lethargic atmosphere of the Green Isle, where nothings matters very much provided public opinion is not run counter to, become factors of history under the sunshine and storm of countries where more ample scope is given for the full development of pugnacity, industry, or state-craft. At any rate, from the days of Duns Scotus and St.Columbanus down to the present, Irishmen have filled, and still fill, positions of the highest importance in every part of the globe as friends of kings, leaders of armies, or preachers of the Truth - of such every Irishman, be his creed or politics what they may, is justly proud.

You hear that Ireland? It's the weather you've been oppressed by all these years, and nothing else. On the other hand, it's still a more positive view of the Irish than in the first textboo k we looked at.

Kurt G. Sell on "the great melting-pot"

2009-11-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

More thoughts from the Nazi-era cultural commentator. For an explanation of who Kurt G. Sell was and why I'm reading his book, see this post. My two other posts on this book are here and her e.

According to our guide, New York represents everything bad about "the great melting pot". Sell repeats his earlier assertion that it's the less worthy / capable / hard-working immigrants who stay in the East Coast cities, and then presents us with some statistics:

Total population of New York: 7 million

Negro population: 440 000

Jewish population: 2 million

The Jews are by far the most numerous: at 2 million they make up 27% of the population of New York, while the figure for the whole of the USA is only 3.6% (4.6 million). With the Jews, then, the disparity [of New York?] with the rest of America is far more drastic and one would be completely justified in calling the largest city in America "jewified". More Jews and Negroes live in New York than in any other city in the world. (p.85)

,,Die Juden sind bei weitem am zahlreichsten: mit 2 Millionen bilden sie 27% der New Yorker Bevölkerung, während für die gesamten USA. nur 3,6% (4,7 Millionen) gezählt wurden. Bei den Juden ist also das Mißverhältnis zu dem übrigen Amerika noch viel drastischer und es ist durchaus berechtigt, wenn man die größte Stadt der USA. als ,,verjüdet" bezeichnet. In New York leben mehr Juden und meahr Neger als in irgeneiner anderen Stadt der Welt."

1st or 2nd generation immigrants: 73% of the NY population

Without these immigrants (whom, Sell is keen to point out, the inhabitants of more provincial states would not consider to be Americans at all), New York would have a similar population to Detroit. Sell doesn't name a source for his numbers, but based on the Detroit / New York comparison, I'd say there's a good chance that he's using census results from 1930 (presuming he had access to these at that time). The population given here for New York was 6,930,446 and for Detroit 1,568,662. If he was also excluding the black population from the "American" inhabitants of New York, then the figures would roughly match up. On the other hand, the 1931 census report (full, huge, beautiful pdf here) gives the black population of the whole state as only 412,814. This is the point where I admit that statistics aren't really my bag.

Immigrant population by nationality (in the order Sell lists them):
Italians: 1 070 000
Russians: 945 000
Germans (incl. Austrians): 888 000
Poles: 458 000
Englishmen: 178 000
Hungarians: 11 500
Romanians: 93 000
Czechs: 72 000
Immigrants "from 40 other countries of the world": 800 000

It seems utterly bizarre to me that immigrants of Irish descent haven't been given their own category. Surely the census form can't have ignored such an important (and emotionally charged) distinction? I've a suspicion that Sell has casually swept them under the "Englishmen" heading, as he no doubt did with the Scots and Welsh. What is this German aversion to the words "Britain" and "British"?

Moving on, what, according to Sell, has this genetic gumbo done to parts of New York? Nothing positive:

Of the 38 million immigrants between 1820 and 1930, nine tenths landed in New York, and almost one sixth of them stayed in New York. New York is, by American standards, a very old city but she has failed to take care of either her welfare service or her many inhabitants. These have to then bunk down with their countrymen. So it was that the terrible slums came into being, and these have still not been cleaned up, despite the fact that the better class of New Yorker and the loudmouthed New York press constantly gab about the cultural peaks that America has reached, far above the "poor Europeans". The Lower East Side of the island of Manhattan, which stretches from south to north and accommodates the most important part of the city remains the worst slum in the western world. Here dwell Jews, Chinese, Armenians, Greeks, Slavs, Czechs, obviously no Germans. A stroll on a hot summer's evening through Orchard or Rivington Street or through any part of Lower East Side is like a visit to a run-down goat shed.

,,In New York landeten zwischen 1820 und 1930 neun Zehntel der 38 Millionen Einwanderer, und fast ein Sechstel davon blieb in New York. New York ist nach amerikanischen Begriffen eine sehr alte Stadt, aber weder um soziale Einrichtungen noch um die vielen Einwohner hat sie sich gekümmert. Diese suchten daher bei ihren Landesleuten Unterschlupf. So entstanden die furchtbaren Elendsviertel, die heute noch nicht gesäubert sind, obwohl der bessere New Yorker und die großmäulige New Yorker Presse andauernd von den kulturellen Gipfel schwatzt, den Amerika erreicht habe, weit über den ,,armen Europäern". Der untere Osten der Insel Manhattan, die sich von Süden nach Norden erstreckt und den wichtigsten Teil der Stadt beherbergt, ist immer noch der übelste Slum der westlichen Welt. Dort hausen Juden, Chinesen, Armenier, Griechen, Slawen, Tschechen, selbstverständlich keine Deutschen. Ein Spaziergang an einem heißen Sommerabend durch Orchard oder Rivington Street oder durch das Lower East Side-Viertel überhaupt ist wie ein Besuch in einem verwahrlosten Ziegenstall."

You know what's the coolest thing ever? Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can show you exactly what the corner of those two streets looks like today:

View Larger Map

Complete lack of goats but still, I love the internet.

"the most worthy-to-be-visited of all historicoromanticalbeautyspotagglomerations"

2009-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

Title: Germany
Author: Gerald Bullett

This is my first purchase since moving back to England. It's from "Black's new series of coloured books" and has 32 colour illustrations by E.T. Compton and E.Harrison Compton (who I think did the illustrations for other books in the series too).

It was published in 1930 and the text has a whimsical P.G. Wodehouse / Jerome K. Jerome feel to it. The reader and three travelling companions - a brother and sister as well as the author - are touring Germany together, very much not mentioning the war. We start our sightseeing in Cologne:

And, let me confess at the outset, we have not among all three of us more German than could be written on the back of a postcard. When Alf was at school the language of Goethe and Beethoven fell into disgrace before he had begun to master it; Angela, for a similar reason, was never given a chance; and so it falls to me to be the linguist of the party. I do my best; and the resulting dialogue, if it could be rendered in English, would be something after this fashion:

Q. Please how much clock goes the boat by with or from Cologne?
A. (but this, you must understand, is pure guesswork). Please a very fine express steamship will in the early morning down the beautiful Rhine a much-to-be-enjoyed journey make.
Q. Boat. The Rhine. How much clock?
A. The distinguished gentleman will the ancient and sumptuous castles on the many hills situated to enjoy not fail.
Q. Please how much clock?
A. It is the considered opinion of ladies and gentlemen the best and wisest that the Rhine country is in the whole world the most worthy-to-be-visited of all historicoromanticalbeautyspotagglomerations.
Q. What is the weather? I wish, how much clock?
A. Please very much.

In the end we discover what we want to know from a time-table hanging on the wall; and, having time to spare, we go and look at the Cathedral. [...] When you suddenly come upon it in the middle of Cologne its size and splendour make you gasp. And inside, lost in its vastness, you almost wish it would dwindle and become a small parish church. (pp.2-4)

And just because I like showing off, here are some of my photos of Cologne Cathedral, taken last month.

Categorising the Americans

2009-10-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

I've given you Kurt G. Sell's views on American food and women, but what of the population as a whole? The well-travelled journalist acknowledges many differences between Americans from different areas and states, despite the homogenising effects of chain-stores and migrating army communities:

It is very difficult to start a conversation with people from the eastern states. Even when they discover that someone is from the same town, they maintain their reserve and keep the conversation to strictly impersonal topics such as the weather or baseball. Drivers whose cars have New York license plates will stare straight past each other, even when they meet on a country road thousands of miles from New York. In the same situation, drivers from the small but hugely self-confident state of Indiana, always willing to sing their home's praises, will throw their arms around each other. If an Illinois traveller on a bus sees a car from Illinois drive past, he will practically fall out of the bus with excitement and holler loudly, "Helloooo Illinois". Fall into conversation with a Midwesterner and he'll tell you outright where he's from, what his job is, what he has planned for the moment and so on, because he believes he owes you this information out of politeness. People from the southern states even go a step further by adding a philosophical undertone to their explanations, professing, without being asked, their views on religion, women, Negroes, on "sin" in general, and on a hearty bout of drinking. (pp.30-1)

,,Es ist sehr schwer, mit Leuten aus den Oststaaten in ein Gespräch zu kommen. Selbst wenn sie erfahren, daß man aus derselben Stadt kommt, so bleiben sie reserviert und unterhalten sich allenfalls über streng unpersönliche Dinge wie Wetter oder Baseball. Autofahrer, deren Wagen eine New Zork Lizenz hat, sehen glatt aneinander vorbei, auch wenn sie sich irgendwo, tausend Meilen von New Zork entfernt, auf der Landstraße treffen. Autofahrer aus dem kleinen, aber ungeheuer selbstbewußten und stets die Reklametrommel der Heimat schlagenden Staat Indiana fallen sich aus gleichen Anlaß um den Hals. Wenn ein Reisender aus Illinois im Bus einen Wagen aus Illinois vorbeifahren sieht, so fällt er vor Begeisterung fast aus dem Bus und juhuut ganz laut: ,,Helloooo Illinois". Unterhält man sich mit einem Mittelwestler, so erzählt er Ihnen ohne Umschweife, woher er kommt, welchen Beruf er hat, was er augenblicklich vorhabe usw., weil er glaubt, er sei deise Auskünfte schuldig. Leute aus den Südstaaten gehen noch einen Schritt weiter: Sie bringen philosophierenden Unterton in ihre Ausführungen und bekennen unaufgefordert, was sie über Religion, Frauen, Neger, über ,,Sünde" im allgemeinen und über eine ausgiebige Zecherei denken."

Can you imagine this guy "youhooing" from a bus?

He also gives a brief history of immigration to North America, to explain the lack of upper-class and other social phenomena. I'm going to attempt to give an even briefer version in my own words, without necessarily agreeing or dismissing any of the content of it. Analysing the accuracy of Sell's views would take a lifetime that I can't spare.

Two groups arrived in the 17th century: rich sons of English aristocrats seeking their fortune by setting up plantations, and the "real emigrants", the pilgrims of the Mayflower, who were fleeing the horror of religious persecution in England. Have you spotted the source of all evil yet? You will.

The native population refused to work for the English plantation owners, leading to the establishment of "white slavery" in America, "following the famous English model" of punishing contracts and a scrip system for the workers but a life of luxury for the owners. Once the horror stories had reached home and white labour became hard to find, black slaves were imported from Africa via the West Indies:

"Black ivory" was the name for the cargo which the cultured Englishmen had brought to them in the most terrible conditions in the holds of ships. [...] Runaway slaves were pursued with bloodhounds, and when the North finally attempted to introduce more humane conditions in 1861, it was the cause of (or at least the excuse for) a civil war which lasted until 1865 and ended with the defeat of the English South.
The plantation owners had to set their slaves free but the Negroes, who had been somebody's property for generations, were at a loss in this new situation in which nobody advised or supported them, and so began the sad and also dangerous chapter of the USA's Negro problem. (p.14)

,, ,,Schwarzes Elfenbein hieß diese Fracht, die die englischen Kulturträger in den Laderäumen der Schiffe unter den furchtbarsten Verhältnissen heranschaffen ließen. [...] Flüchtige Sklaven wurden mit Bluthunden gehetzt, und als der Norden endlich 1861 etwas menschlichere Zustände einführen wollte, da kam es darüber (wenigstens was das der äußere Anlaß) zum Bürgerkrieg, der bis 1865 dauerte und mit der Niederlage des englischen Südens endete. Die Pflanzer mußten ihre Sklaven freigeben, aber die Neger, die Generationen hindurch Leibeigene gewesen waren, wußten mit dieser neuen Lage, in der sie niemand beriet oder unterstützte, nichts anzufangen, und so begann das traurige, ja gefährliche Kapitel der Negerproblems in den USA."

As if to balance out the empathy shown at the beginning of that extract, here's how the book describes the distribution of later immigrants:

The flow of new blood always came from the east - in other words, from Europe - and the pressure of the continually-gathering masses on the East Coast caused the country's borders to be pushed further and further west until they reached the Pacific Ocean. The incapable and the scum stayed in the great cities of the East, particularly in New York; the others, especially the Germans and Scandinavians, pushed on into the Midwest and North-West and built there new homes for themselves. (pp.17-8)

"Der Zustrom neuen Bluts kam immer vom Osten ß das heißt von Europa - und durch den Druck der Massen, die sich an der Ostküste immer wieder ansammelten, wurden die Landesgrenzen immer weiter nach Westen vorgeschoben, bis man endlich am Stillen Oyean angekommen war. Die Unfähigen und der Abschaum blieben in der großen Städten des Ostens, besonders in New Zork; die anderen, insbesondere die Deutschen und die Skandinavier, drangen vor zum Mittelwesten, zum Nordwesten und schufen sich dort einen neuen Hausstand."

It's impossible to say whether this is Sell's own opinion or something added at someone else's insistence. I was certainly surprised to read the word Abschaum (which I've translated as 'scum'), which I feel doesn't really fit with the tone of most of his writing here.

One reason I find books like this fascinating is because they can reveal such strange combinations of opinions which simply don't square with the simplified categories we try to put squash historical ideas and personalities into. Nazi Germany clearly wasn't a three-way battle between "real" Nazis, brave anti-fascists and an apathetic mainstream, in common with all societies, there were endless constellations of opinions on thousands of different issues. You had people like Sell here, who could empathise with the plight of black slaves, but still believe in a hierarchy of races (much more dealing with this theme will follow soon), just as you have people in modern Britain who are against racism but don't mind if items important to members of other cultures are banned. How will they be classified when kids are learning about "Computer Age England", or whatever the course will be called?

So, would I describe Sell as a "Nazi" writer? To borrow a term from science blogging, I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

American women - the view from the Third Reich

2009-09-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

In my first post on Worüber man in Amerika spricht, (far too many moons ago) I dealt with the foreword and anything I had managed to find out about the author, his life, industry and colleagues. To summarise: Kurt G. Sell was a German journalist and diplomat who acted as foreign correspondent, providing background information (for German news agencies and a regular radio bulletin) on American politics, society and culture. When the United States entered World War Two, he and his colleagues were imprisoned and later flown back to Germany. This book, "What America is talking about" (roughly translated), was published in 1943 and gives his impressions of his former adoptive home It's a strange mix of genuine affection, Nazi ideology and bewilderment at America's funny foreign ways and it's very difficult to say how much of it represents Sell's own opinions or the work of the censors. Either way, it's a fascinating read.

Details from the front and back covers

In this section, Sell describes how women have "feminized" American society, their two chief obsessions being comfort and eternal youth:

The woman is responsible for the fact that not only every office building but also every reasonably modern apartment building has an elevator as she doesn’t like to walk, let alone climb stairs. [...] Cars are used, even when the destination is only three blocks away. When choosing a car, the woman has the last word, and so it is primarily for her that they are built. The upholstery, and in many cases also the outer paintwork, is of two tones. Armrests and adjustable seats turn the car into a motorised divan: it goes without saying that heating and radio are provided. (p.21-2)

Die Frau ist dafür verantwortlich, daß nicht nur jedes Bürogebäude, sondern auch jedes einigermaßen moderne Mietshaus einen Fahrstuhl hat, denn sie mag nicht gehen, geschweige Treppen steigen. [...] Autos werden benutzt, auch wenn das Ziel nur drei Häuserblocks entfernt ist. Bei der Auswahl des Wagens hat die Frau das letzte Wort, und daher ist er hauptsächlich für sie gebaut. Die Polsterung, vielfach auch die Außenlackierung, ist in zwei Tönen abgestuft. Armstützen und verstellbare Sitze machen aus dem Auto einen fahrbaren Diwan: für Heizung und Radio ist selbstverständlich gesorgt.

It also seems to be a feminine element of civilisation that the Americans eat every dish (including the dessert but excluding the soup) only with a fork and then only use the knife, kept in reserve, when the meat cannot be separated with the fork. This procedure is very laborious and repeatedly presents a shock to the foreigner: one holds the fork in the right hand and with it picks up a piece of food, which is taken to the mouth with that fork. Then one takes the fork in the left hand, reaches for the knife, and cuts oneself a small piece of meat. However, under no circumstances does one ferry it to one’s mouth with the left hand. Far from it! One puts the knife to one side, passes the fork back to the right hand and uses it to eat the cut off piece of meat. This action is repeated throughout the entire meal and leads to the situation whereby everyone rests their left elbows on the tabletop and lets their left hand wave freely in the air. It doesn’t look very attractive but the American woman has instituted this for reasons of comfort, and the meat is usually brought to the table in such a way that one need hopefully never reach for the knife. This spares the teeth the need to chew; they are as unable as the knife to prove what they are there for.” (p.23)

Ein weibliches Zivilisationselement scheint es auch zu sein, daß die Amerikaner jede Speise (einschließlich der Nachspeise, aber ausschließlich der Suppe) nut mit der Gabel essen und das in Reserve gehaltene Messer nur dann benutzen, wenn sich das Fleisch mit der Gabel nicht zerteilen läßt. Diese Prozedur ist sehr umständlich und für jeder Ausländer immer wieder ein Schock man hat die Gabel in der rechten hand und pickt damit ein Stück Nahrung auf, das man mit dieser Gabel yum Mund führt. Dann packt man die Gabel in die linke Hand, greift yum Messer und schneidet sich ein kleines Stück Fleisch ab. Das führt man aber keinesfalls mit der linken Hand in den Mund. Weit gefehlt! Man legt das Messer weg, übergibt die Gabel wieder der rechten Hand und holt sich damit das abgeschnittene Stück Fleisch. Dieser Vorgang wiederholt sich während des ganzen Essens und führt [...] dazu, daß jeder den linken Ellbogen auf die Tischplatte stützt und die linke Hand frei I’m Raum schweben läßt. Das sieht nicht sehr schön aus, aber die amerikanische Frau hat das aus Bequemlichkeitsgründen eingeführt, und meist kommt das Fleisch schon so auf den Tisch, daß man möglichst gar nicht zum Messer zu greifen braucht. Das erspart den Zähnen auch das Zerkauen; sie können ebensowenig wie das Messer noch zeigen, wofür sie da sind.

After the provision of comfort, a woman’s priority is to maintain her youthful appearance for as long as possible:

From behind, even the older American woman looks like a young girl: shoes, stockings, very short skirts, hairstyle, are the same from the ages of 16 to 60. [...] The hunt for a husband has become difficult; so many men have been called up, and immigration has ceased, and so one must arm oneself against the competition. (p.24)

Von hinten sieht auch die ältere Amerikanerin wie ein junges Mädchen aus: Schuhe, Strümpfe, ganz kurze Röcke, Haartracht sind von 16 bis 60 Jahre gleich. [...] Die Jagd nach dem Mann ist schwierig geworden: so viele Männer werden eingezogen und die Einwanderung hat aufgehört, also muß man sich für der Konkurrenzkampf rüsten.

He goes on to say that life has become less comfortable since the declaration of war, with rationing, a shortage of cars, and no delivery service from grocery stores. I'm not sure if this is a pure statement of fact or if there's an element of "serves them right" in there.

I'm going to eat my lunch now, using only my fingers, with both elbows on the table (it's a sandwich).

Meanwhile...

2009-09-15T07:54:00.001-07:00

Now that I'm back in the UK and under the same roof as a scanner, here are some pictures from Greater Britain (original post here). I'm still in the process of dismantling my life as a teacher and setting up again as a student, so posts may be even less frequent than usual.
You should be spending the time on www.futilitycloset.com anyway.

Front cover

Titles pages introducing the series ("French and English prose texts") and the book.

Map comparing pre and post-canal routes to India, p.2

Map of Africa, p.99

Pull-out map of the world, inside back cover.

Other offerings from the same publisher.

A Nazi-Era History of Hamburg

2009-08-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

... Not that you'd really know, for the first three quarters of the book. And I was looking very closely for signs of fanatical revisionism because these 80 page volumes from Christmas 1941 come with a “get well soon” message from Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann - a name which by rights should be as infamous as Goebbels, Goering and Himmler.

"Get well soon" message

It briefly describes Hamburg’s development from a small, dependent settlement on the Elbe, to a wealthy, independent merchant city, to Germany’s largest harbour and gateway to the world. At no point does it mention the contribution of Jewish merchants to Hamburg’s prosperity but then it doesn’t mention Jews at all. Apart from taking the side of the Saxons against Charles the Great, Hamburg’s earlier history is dealt with in the same brief, upbeat, “didn’t we do well” manner you find in most local museums.
There are some facts about Hamburg’s prominence after the French Revolution which might not stand up to scrutiny; apparently, all of England’s trade with mainland Europe ran through Hamburg, and it was this English connection that dragged the ever-neutral Hamburg into the fight against Napoleon, in which they suffered the worst treatment imaginable. Then we hit the World War One, in which Hamburg allegedly proves its loyalty to Germany and shares in its cruel treatment at the hands of its opponents:

The historical development of our city could easily create the impression that Hamburg had placed her own interests over those of Germany. However, we must not overlook the fact that it was only through this political independence that the Hamburg’s inner strength of purpose, enterprising courage, tenacity in the face of set-backs, and flexibility in the conquering of new markets could develop, and could blossom among Germany’s ranks. The successful utilisation of these qualities for the city simultaneous meant service to the interests of Germany; Hamburg’s profile in the world was Germany’s vindication, Hamburg’s economy was the German economy. The fact that Hamburg, despite all her international connections and despite the various points of contact with foreign ways and customs, remained truly German at heart, is proven by the inscription on the memorial columns in Adolf Hitler Square: “40 000 sons of this city gave up their lives for you!” (p.62-3)

Der geschichtliche Werdegang unsere Stadt könnte wohl den Eindruck erwecken, als ob Hamburg seine eigenen Interessen über die Deutschlands gestellt hätte. Es darf aber nicht übersehen werden, daß sich nur in dieser politischen Selbständigkeit die den Hamburgern innewohnende Tatkraft, der Mut zu großen Unternehmungen, die Zähigkeit bei Rückschlägen und die Geschicklichkeit bei der Eroberung neuer Märkte entwickeln und in den Zeilen der deutschen Zerrissenheit ungehindert entfalten konnten. Der erfolgreiche Einsatz dieser Kräfte für die Stadt bedeutete aber gleichzeitig Dienst an den deutschen Interessen; denn Hamburgs Ansehen in der Welt war Deutschlands Geltung in der Welt, Hamburgs Wirtschaft war deutsche Wirtschaft. Daß der Hamburger trotz aller internationalen Bindungen und trotz der vielfachen Berührungen mit fremdlündischer Art und Sitte in seinem Kern echt deutsch geblieben ist, beweist die Inschrift an der Gedenksäule am Adolf-Hitler-Platz: ,,40 000 Söhne dieser Stadt ließen ihr Leben für euch!”

This paragraph shows one of the problems that more extreme nationalists faced in Germany. The aims of independence and unity had mostly been achieved but people’s identity was (and to some extent is) bound to their city or region. This must have been especially strong in Hamburg - the most successful of the old hanseatic cities - which had fought so long for independence from outside interference and restrictions, and which was very international in its outlook. This combination of weak internal ties and strong international ones meant that, similar to their Italian counterparts, the Nazis had to work hard to create a sense of the whole of Germany standing shoulder to shoulder against the rest of the world.

Front cover

And so onto the next chapter, dealing with the First World War and its aftermath:

Hamburg’s decline
The development of the German state ran almost parallel with the proud developments in Hamburg. The kingdom which had been created in Versailles in 1871 had become a great power, whose flag flew over all seas, whose hard work had led to the creation of her colonies, and whose highly-valued industrial wares were gladly bought in all the world’s markets. It had also become a military power, with a decisive voice in Europe.
The rise of the state, whose glory sadly hid here and there bitter political and social injustice, was viewed as increasingly dangerous by other world powers. They were working on a plan of war against Germany.
The shot in Sarajevo, hardly thought to be significant at first, was the decisive signal. Within only a few weeks almost the whole globe stood in arms against Germany. The state marched into the greatest war in the whole of history. At one stroke, all the life which had given Hamburg its face died out in the city. Hardly a single ship left the harbour. The trade fleet floated in long lines against the quayside, was interred in enemy ports or stayed in neutral harbours.
Large and small ships served as support vessels. Many sank under fluttering flags of war. Life in the shipyards continued regardless. One after the other, battleships grew on the Helligen [?*]. Men and women stood at the lathes, in order to supply the fighting front with granades.
However, a hunger blockade lay around Germany like an iron belt. Women and children were becoming paler. Hunger was found everywhere in Germany and Hamburg. The Hamburg Regiment, the 76th Infantry regiment, had gone to the front in the very first days of the war. In difficut battles it had bled for the great empire. [...] Then came, whilst the front was still standing, Germany’s most shameful hour: revolution in Germany. (p.64-7)

Hamburgs Niedergang Mit Hamburgs stolzer Entwicklung fast gleichlaufend war die Entwicklung des Reiches gegangen. Das in Versailles 1871 entstandene Kaiserreich war zu einer Großmacht geworden, deren Flagge auf allen Meere wehte, die mit Fleiß sich der Erschließung ihrer Kolonien widmete und deren hochwertige industrielle Güter auf allen Märkten der Welt gern gekauft wurden. Es war außerdem eine militärische Macht geworden, die in Europa ein entscheidendes Wort mitzusprechen hatte. Der Aufstieg des Reiches, hinter dessen Glanz sich allerdings hier und dort bittere politische und soziale Ungerechtigkeit verbarg, ward in den Augen anderer Großmächte für diese immer gefährlicher. Planmäßig arbeiteten sich auf einen Krieg gegen Deutschland hin. Der Schuß von Sarajewo, zuerst kaum gewertet, war das entscheidende Signal. In wenigen Wochen stand fast die ganze Erde gegen Deutschland in Waffen auf. Das Reich zog in den größten Krieg der Geschichte aller Zeiten. Mit einem Schlag erstarb in Hamburg alles Leben, das ihm bis dahin sein Gesicht gegeben hatte. Kaum ein Schiff mehr verließ den Hafen. Die Handelsflotte reihte sich in langer Linie an den Keimauern, war in feindlichen Häfen interniert oder lag in neutralen Häfen. Große und kleine schiffe taten als Hilfskreuzer Dienst. viele sanken unter wehender Kriegsflagge. Das leben auf den Werften aber ging unentwegt weiter. Kriegsschiff auf Kriegsschiff wuchs auf den Helligen. Männer und Frauen standen an den Drehbänken der Fabriken, um der Kämpfenden Front die Granaten zu liefern. Um Deutschland aber legte sich wie ein eiserner Gürtel die Hungerblokade. Frauen und Kinder wurden bleicher und bleicher. Der Hunger ging um in Deutschland und Hamburg. Das Hamburger Regiment, das Infanterieregiment 76, war in den ersten Kriegstagen schon nach dem Westen gegangen. In schweren Schlachten blutete es für das große Reich. [...] Dann kam, während die Front noch stand, Deutschlands schmählichste Stunde: Revolution über Deutschland.

Again, no mention of Jews or even weak liberals, and no resort to stabbed-in-the-back imagery. These are all elements I’ve been taught to expect from Nazi propaganda dealing with the end of the First World War, and they are all conspicuously absent.
Back to the text, and the “revolution”: Workers begin to demonstrate in Hamburg, stirred up by outsiders but also by anger; their wives and children are starving, their politicians have betrayed them and they are effectively disenfranchised by Hamburg’s class-based voting system. All of these things apparently make life easy for Marxist agitators. Hamburg’s soldiers return to find a “town beset by choas and hunger, wailing masses and incompetent leaders.” (p.67: aufgewühlte, hungernde Stadt, lärmende Pöbelhaufen and unfähige Führer. Die vierzigtausend Söhne der Stadt schienen umsonst gefallen zu sein.) Hamburg in the hands of the workers doesn’t provide much work, though the author also refers to international reasons for the crisis:

Hamburg becomes a national-socialist city
The heart of Hamburg, the harbour, and its life-blood, the ships, showed how Germany’s largest harbour was dependent almost exclusively upon trade across the globe. The decline of the world economy hit Hamburg hard, doubly so, as it was quite clearly shown in this and later years just how senseless the demands made by our opponents in the World War were.
Thousands and thousands lost their jobs, ship after ship was chained up in Walterhofer Harbour, machines rusted, factories fell into disrepair, life expired again in Hamburg. Year after year passed by, and each held less comfort than the last. (p.72)

Hamburg wird eine nationalsozialistische Stadt Hamburgs Herz, der Hafen, und sein Element, die Schiffe, zeigten, wie sehr Deutschlands größter Hafen fast allein abhängig war von Handel und Wandel in der Welt. Der Rückgang der Weltkonjunktur traf Hamburg schwer und hart, traf es doppelt hart, da sich in diesem und in den späteren Jahren erst richtig zeigte, wie sinnlos die Forderungen der Weltkriegsgegner waren. Tausende und tausende wurden erwerbslos, Schiff am Schiff wurde in Walterhofer Hafen an die Kette gelegt, Maschinen rosteten, Fabriken verödeten, das Leben erstarb wieder in Hamburg. Jahr um Jahr kam herauf und versank. Und jedes Jahr war trostloser als das andere.

According to the book 1929, first year of the Great Depression, was a decisive year for Hamburg because Adolf Hitler appointed Kaufmann as its Gauleiter. He is to unite the squabbling factions in the local branch of the NSDAP and “win” Hamburg for the national-socialists. The next passages are full of war metaphors (which are pain to translate) and there is a definite conflation of an election campaign with a military campaign (the German word Kampf has many uses).

For weeks and months the drumfire from National-socialist meetings rang out over the proud, dying city. The different groups within the party aligned themselves firmly behind their Gauleiter. In difficult battles in meeting halls they showed their political opponents that they were willing to meet terror with terror.
However, as the National-socialists grew, so did the communists. the front lines became clearer. On both sides stood fanatics. On both sides stood fighters.
And so, in 1930, Paul Keßler became the first National-socialist to fall. The fight became bloody. During the campaign for the Reichstag elections, the communists’ best troops, the Red Marines, were soundly beaten. (p.73-4)

Wochenlang, Monatenlang geht über die stolze, sterbende Stadt das Trommelfeuer nationalsozialistischer Versammlungen. Die verschiedenen Gruppen der Partei richten sich klar auf ihren Gauleiter aus. In schweren Saalschlachten zeigen sie dem politischen Gegner, daß sie gewillt sind, Terror gegen Terror zu stellen. Mit den Nationalsozialisten aber wachsen auch die Kommunisten. Die Fronten werden klarer. Auf beiden Seiten stehen Fanatiker. Auf beiden Seiten stehen Kämpfer. De fällt, 1930, als erster Nationalsozialist Paul Keßler. Der Kampf wird blutig. Im Reichstagswahlkampf wird die beste Truppe der Kommunisten, die rote Marine, zusammengehauen.

And so the strident prose continues, with more fighting, both politically and on the streets. More talk of fanatics, of Hamburger workers, of deaths in the ranks. The tone changes suddenly and we learn that two important organisations within the NSDAP were founded in Hamburg. Then we return to a list of party members who died, including one who was “shot down”, though we aren’t told who did the shooting. Finally, the breakthrough (although we don’t learn exactly how this was achieved):

By April 1932 the NSDAP is Hamburg’s strongest party. New electional campaign continue to come. The depression continues to worsen. The number of people without work continues to rise. Germany, and with her Hamburg, seems ready to lie down to die. Then, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, and a few weeks later Hamburg’s government becomes National-socialist. (p.75)

Im April 1932 ist die NSDAP. Hamburgs stärkste Partei. Immer neue Wahlkämpfer kommen. Immer größer wird die Not. Immer mehr Menschen sind ohne Arbeit. Deutschland und mit ihm Hamburg scheinen sich zum Sterben legen zu wollen. Da wird, man schreibt Januar 1933, Adolf Hitler Reichskanzler und Hamburgs Regierung wenige Wochen später nationalsozialistisch.

Title page with drawing of a large wooden buoy

The final chapter affected me quite strongly. It claims that the Nazis delivered the population of Hamburg from years of misery and were leading them into a brighter future. Anyone who has seen the arial photographs of Hamburg’s streets after the firebombings of 1943 will understand what kind of deliverance fascists bring their active and passive supporters. When extremists are in control, it’s never only the minorities who suffer.

Hamburg becomes a Reichsgau**
After years of depression and poverty, the first glimmer of hope shone over the city.
Adolf Hitler himself created the first great supply of work through ambitious planning and gigantic projects. At first, this was predominantly restricted to the domestic market. Only later was Hamburg, the harbour city, gripped by the wave of work and progress. However, what Hamburg could do on its own, it did.
The chimneys began to smoke once more, the machines ran again. The graveyard of ships on Waltershofer Harbour emptied slowly.
Meanwhile, the Leader was building the empire. His Hamburg Gauleiter, Karl Kaufmann, became Reichstatthalter on 15th May 1933, and Hamburg became an inseperable part of the one, great empire. [...] In August 1934, the Leader called the German people to a referendum. Almost unanimously, Hamburg answered him with a “yes”. (p.76)

Hamburg wird Reichsgau Nach Jahren der Not und des Elends leuchtet der Stadt zum ersten Male wieder ein Hoffnungsschimmer. Adolf Hitler selbst schafft in gewaltigen Planungen und gigantischen Projekten die ersten großen Arbeitsvorhaben. Sie sind zuerst vorwiegend auf den binnenländischen Markt beschränkt. Hamburg, die Hafenstadt, wird von der Welle der Arbeit und des Aufstieges zwangläufig erst später erfaßt. Was Hamburg aud Eigenem schaffen kann, aber schafft es. Die Schlotte beginnen wieder zu rauchen, die Maschinen werden wieder blank. Der Schiffsfriedhof in Waltershofer Hafen leert sich langsam. Der Führer aber baut das Reich. Sein Hamburger Gauleiter, Karl Kaufmann, wird am 15. Mai 1933 Reichstatthalter und Hamburg unlösbar Teil des einen, großen Reiches. [...] Im August ruft der Führer das deutsch Volk zur Volksabstimmung. Fast einmütig antwortet ihm Hamburg mit ,,Ja”.

According to the book, things were looking up in Hamburg: industrially, economically, culturally. “Once again, Hamburg has become the old city of hard work, of enjoyment, of merchantile daring. Hamburg is a city of workers. Hamburg is also a KdF. city***.” (p.78: Hamburg ist wieder die alte Stadt des Fleißes, der Lebensfreude, des Kaufmännischen Wagemutes. Hamburg ist Stadt der Arbeiter. Hamburg ist auch KdF.-Stadt.) Then the writer describes what he sees as the most important development. On the advice of Goering and Kaufmann, Hitler redraws the political borders in the North of Germany. Hamburg’s boundary is widened to include surrounding towns and villages, including Altona (in the East), Wandsbek (in the West) and Harburg-Wilhelmsburg (South of the river Elbe). In exchange, other small communtities and the towns of Cuxhaven and Geesthacht are given to Prussia. This leads to a sentence you don’t hear very often: “A centuries-old fight was ended on the orders of Adolf Hitler” (p.79: Ein jahrhundertalter Kampf wird durch den Befehl Adolf Hitlers beendet.).

Finally, Hamburg can grow out of its corner, finally the different harbours of Hamburg and Prussia have been united under one great, decisive leadership. Space for new settlements is there, sites for factories can be found everywhere. Hamburg is Reichsgau through the action of the Leader. Hamburg is growing and growing. In order to withstand crises, it is building up new industries alongside its harbour, its trade, its wharfs. It is rebuilding the banks of the Elbe, creating new harbours, allowing new fisheries to develop. Hamburg has grown a new face; a German, a global face. For before Hamburg, the Reichsgau, there now lies a new, bright future as Germany’s gateway to the world. (p.80)

Endlich kann Hamburg aus seiner Enge herauswachsen, endlich sind die verschiedenen hamburgischen und preußischen Häfen unter einer großen, umfassenden Leitung zusammengeschlossen. Raum für Siedlungen ist da, Platz für Fabriken liegt überall. Hamburg ist Reichsgau durch des Führers Tat. Hamburg wächst und wächst. Es schafft sich, um Krisenfest zu werden, eine neue Industrie neben seinem Hafen, seinem Handel, seinen Werften. Es baut sich sein Elbufer neu, schafft sich neue Häfen, läßt große Fischereianlagen entstehen. Hamburg erhält ein neues Gesicht, ein deutsches, ein weltweites Gesicht. Denn vor Hamburg, dem Reichsgau, liegt nunmehr sonnenhell eine neue Zukunft als Deutschlands Tor zur Welt.

Hamburg after the 1943 bombing

* I'm stumped. I've searched for this word and possible typo variations and am still stumped. Help.

* The NSDAP, and later the Third Reich were divided into large administrative areas called Gaus and the leaders were known as Gauleiters. I couldn't find a sensible way to translate either term.

** Kraft durch Freude, I think. I'm not sure what being a "KdF city" actually involved though.

Trivia: Greater Britain

2009-08-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

These extracts didn't really fit in with my previous post on Greater Britain (1900), but I thought they were too interesting to leave out completely. Here are three bits of antique trivia for your Friday afternoon enjoyment:

1. Origin of the phrase "white elephant" to describe something expensive but useless.

"Higher up the course of the Irrawaddy lies Upper Burma, which we took possession of more recently, to deliver it from the tyranny of its native king. Before that his subjects used to cross our border to be safe from their oppressor; and since it has become British the country is much more prosperous.
A well-trained elephant here is worth 5000 rupees, that is £500 of our money. Far more valuable, however, in the eyes of the natives, are the so-called "white elephants", in this part of the world reverenced as living idols. They are not really white, but piebald, with flesh-coloured or light-brown patches, a peculiarity perhaps caused by the animal rubbing itself against a tree to get rid of the flies that torment the cracks in its thick hide. Kings used to go to war for such a treasure, which at their courts would be lodged in a gilded pavillion, waited on by noblemen, and fed from vessels of gold - as if the poor beast were any better for such distinctions." (p.39-40)

2. Possible origin of the term "Indian summer".

"The autumn [in Canada] is generally a very pleasant time, when may be expected the short season of calm sunny days and gorgeously coloured woods which is known as the Indian summer. It is said to have been given the name by early American colonists, because the Indians then made their last raids against the settlements before snow came on to shut them up in the deep woods." (p.46)

3. Report of a macabre but somehow impressive mechanical toy captured in India, as well as an explanation of how hunting is a brave and manly pastime, but only if you're English.

"A menagerie of wild beasts often makes part of an Indian court; and the degenerate rajah, who perhaps dare not hunt them in their native jungle, takes delight sitting in a safe place, to see the captive creatures let loose on one another, for so does cruelty go with cowardice. The Sultan Tippoo, one of the worst of the tyrants from whom we delivered India, used to keep savage tigers in his palace to tear in pieces those who has displeased him and when his capital was taken by our soldiers, they found among his treasures a machine representing a tiger as large as life in the act of devouring an Englishman. in the body of it was a sort of organ giving out sounds to imitate cries of distress mixed with the tiger's horrible roar. This pretty toy for a sovereign to play with was brought home to an English museum. [...]
Such a [rich, Indian] sportsman does not much care to seek out a tiger alone, and meet him face to face, as Englishmen often will." (p.32-3)

The tiger is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum and there's a very informative description of it's origin, workings and symbolism here.

"A progressive people, such as we are"

2009-08-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

Title: Greater Britain
English geography textbook adapted for German learners of English.

Ed. Dr. J. Klapperich, Oberlehrer an der Oberrealschule zu Elberfeld (senior tutor at Elberfeld Realschule)
From the series: Französischer und Englischer Prosaschriften (French and English prose)
Publisher: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung / Herman Heyfelder, (BERLIN, 1900)

This book brilliantly exemplifies the mixture of misapplied progressive ideas and ingrained, matter-of-fact racism that characterised a lot of late 19th century writing about the British Empire. Perhaps the best example is this phrase from a passage about the abolition of slavery: "it was wrong to treat the most barbarous of our fellow-creatures like beasts". This is nothing unusual for it's time, but I find it important to remember that children in Britain and Germany who read this book at school, would have been in their fifties at the outbreak of the Second World War; experienced and respected members of the community, teachers, civil servants and politicians, and most of them voters.
Anyway, why were German children reading about the British Empire? Here's an extract from the (German) foreword:

In our time, when German and English interests are brushing against one another in all parts of the globe, it should be of particular advantage to gain a more accurate knowledge of the efforts and campaigns of the English beyond the European seas.
The language is easy, clever and completely modern; the original work from which the following chapters have been taken was written in the past few years by a noted author, for the highly recommendable collection of geographical teaching material published by Blackie & Son, Glasgow. In order to make the reading material even easier, I have, wherever possible, removed the more difficult and far-lying names. [...]
On behalf of the publishing company Blackie & Son, Mr Walter W. Blackie of Glasgow has allowed the publication of the following extracts in friendly rememberance of his time spent as pupil of Elberfeld Realschule. For this, I offer him here once again my sincere thanks.

(In unseren Tagen, wo deutsche und englische Interessen sich in allen Erdteile berühren, dürfte eine genauere Kenntnis von den Bestrebungen und Erwerbungen der Engländer jenseits der Europöischen Meeren von besonderem Vorteil sein.
Die Sprache ist leicht, gewandt und durchaus modern; das Originalwerk, welchem die folgenden Kapital entnommen sind, ist für die sehr empfehlenswerte Sammlung geographisher Unterrichtmittel, herausgegeben von Blackie & Son, Glasgow, erst in verflossenen Jahre von einem namhaften Schriftsteller verfaßt und veroffentlicht worden. Um den Lesestoff noch weiter zu erleichtern, habe ich fernliegende und schwierigere Namen nach Möglichkeit gestrichen. [...]
Mr Walter W. Blackie in Glasgow hat in freundlicher Erinnerung an die Zeit, welche er als Zögling der Realschule zu Elberfeld verbrachte, namens der Verlagsfirma Blackie & Son die Herausgabe der folgenden Abschnitte gestattet. Hierfür spreche ich ihm an dieser Stelle nochmals meinen besten Dank aus.)

The core of the book consists of 119 pages of text, divided into 42 short chapters, covering India, Canada, Australia, Africa and the West Indies. There is also a 7-page overview at the back, listing all British possessions along with their area, population and principle exports. A second volume contains a full glossary, although some explanatory notes on the language are provided at the back of the main volume too. There are no illustrations apart from 4 maps and there is a pull-out, coloured map of the world on the inside back cover.
The book describes, in a colourful and interesting way, transport routes to different colonies, the landscape and climate compared to Britain, the flora and fauna, main industries, and several principle cities. Sometimes the author also gives a little information about how Britain acquired the land in question. Of course, in some countries we were just there to lend a guiding hand:

"Britain has large property in this [Suez] canal, and, to keep it safe as the gate between Europe and Asia, British officials are at present directing the government of Egypt, the country having been brought to the brink of ruin by its own unwise and selfish rulers." (p.3)

In other areas, we fought bravely against the odds to save the native population from their self-imposed lack of freedom, and we should be damn proud of ourselves for it:

"India, or Hindostan, has been called the brightest jewel of the British crown. The people of such a tiny island as ours may well be proud to have conquered so great a country. Our other possessions beyond the sea were mostly won from small tribes of ignorant savages, too much occupied in fighting each other to join in defending themselves against the swords and guns, the ships and horses, that made them think Europeans supernatural beings. But India, when we first knew it, was filled with many millions of people, in some ways as learned and civilised as ourselves, among whom we found powerful rulers, large armies, and magnificent cities." (p.1)

"The story of this great conquest by small bands of Englishmen reads more like a fairy tale than plain history. The fact is that the Bengalees, with whom we had first to do, were so slavish and timid that any bold soldier among them would be like a dog driving a flock of sheep. [...]
We had most trouble in subduing the Sikhs, a manly nation of Hindoos inhabiting the Punjaub in the northwest of India. The Goorkhas, also, and other hardy hill tribes, long held out against us in their mountain strongholds. But these brave foemen, once beaten, have usually turned out our heartiest friends among the natives, while those who more readily cringe before us, keep longer a secret hatred of the conquerors whom they durst not opporse openly." (p.12-3)

Apart from this hint at smoldering resentment, absolutely no causes are given for the "Indian Mutiny", just a description of how bravely the colonists held out before reinforcements could arrive. Then, its aftermath and the changes that were imposed:

"When the mutiny had been thoroughly put down, it was felt that India could no longer be governed by a company of merchants, as it had hitherto been. The famour East India Company was dissolved and our Queen was proclaimed sovreign of Hindostan, in place of the Grand Mogul's descendant, who had allowed himself to be made a figure-head for the Mutiny.
In the name of the Queen, who there takes the title of Empress, India is now ruled by a Governor-General at Calcutta, with subordinate governors at the other Presidencies of Madras and Bombay. Under them the country is managed and the laws are administered chiefly by British judges and magistrates, but some of the most trustworty among the natives are also put into high positions. What makes our magistrates respected, above all, is that the native know they will tell the truth and try to do justice. Lying is the weak point of eastern nations, as of all who have not been used to freedom; yet they understand what an advantage it is to have to do with men whose word can be trusted.
The most sensible of the natives must see also the benefits of British rule. Other conquerors have overrun foreign lands merely to plunder and destroy; but we think of the real good of the people. We give them roads, railways, canals, telegraphs, and schools. We keep them from fighting with each other, as in old times, and do not allow their own princes to oppress them." (p.14-5)

The author is just as up-beat about the situation in New Zealand:

"The islands, when we came to them, were inhabited only by a race called the Maoris, who seem to have been originally South Sea Islanders. Though given to cannibalism, which they may have taken to because they found here so little flesh for food, the Maoris were far above most savages - brave, warlike, and with some notions of arts and industry; their better treatment of women also showed them superior to the miserable aborigines of Australia. At first, the settlers got on with them pretty well, but by and by there came quarrels, leading to a series of wars lasting for a quarter of a century. At one time there were 10,000 English soldiers in the field against them, but the Maoris defended their palisaded forts so well that we can hardly be said to have got the nest of it. At last peace was made, and the Maoris are now so far civilised that they vote like other citizens, and some even sit as members of the colonial parliament." (p.93-4)

Elsewhere, the indigenous population was less satisfactory, and had to be "tamed" rather than "civilised". In Africa, for example:

"This is not the place to tell the story of the wars which both we and the Dutch have again and again had with the Kafir tribes. Peaceful missionaries, also, have faced dangers and hardships to carry light among these darkminded barbarians. The religion of the Kafirs is a cruel superstition, only too true to their fierce nature. They believe much in witchcraft and evil spirits. Their priests are cheating conjurers, who pretend to be able to bring rain and work other miracles. If anything goes wrong, such impostors try to throw the blame of it on anyone who may have offended them, and often thus get innocent people put to death on suspicion of being wizards and witches.
When the Kafirs showed themselves so cruel to their own countrymen, it may be supposed what they were to their enemies. But, between our missionaries and our soldiers, the tribes near the colonies have now been tamed so far as to keep from interfering with the settlers, and many of them are learning to live quietly and industriously." (p.108)

And worst of all in Australia:

"In the early days of the Australian colonies, the Blackfellows made dangerous neighbours, being always ready for massacre and treachery, but slow to be won over by kindness, as Captain Cook found. It is to be feared that kindness has been too little tried on them; but at least they have learned to be afraid of our superior strength. Not so much by our weapons as by the diseases we have introduced among them, and by the fatal strong drink which we carry with us to curse all lands, they seem likely to be exterminated before long. There were believed to have been no more than 150,000 of them when we first came; but now the dwindling and degraded tribes cannot number half as many." (p.77)

There is no difference in tone between this passage and the description of the (at that time) near extermination of the buffalo from the plains of Canada; no sense of injustice, only mild regret at the result of a natural process. However, when other European nations were responsible for genocide, the author is far more indignant in his description:

"The first Spanish settlers in these islands [The West Indies] behaved very cruelly to their original inhabitants, and killed almost all of them off in a short time, though they had received the strangers with friendliness. Other white men who sought to make their fortunes here were less cruel, but not less lazy and greedy than the Spaniards. to work for them in the hot sun of this climate, they brought negro slaves from Africa, whose descendants now make up a great part of the population. By and by it began to be felt, first of all in England, that it was wrong to treat the most barbarous of our fellow-creatures like beasts, tearing them from their native soil and families and driving them to toil under the lash for the profit of their masters. the shameful slave-trade was first put down; then slavery was abolished wherever the British flag flies, an example since imitated by all civilised nations. but when the negroes were no longer obliged to work, they showed themselves as much disposed for idleness as their masters; and the West Indian Islands have not flourished in freedom, especially since sugar, one of their chief products, has come to be largely made in Europe." (p.115)

This idea of laziness as the cause of other peoples' misfortune is a common theme in Greater Britian. Cowardice and superstition are also vices that the author abhors and parts of the book read like morality tales on a national scale:

"The Hindoos belong to the same branch of the human family as ourselves, that called the Aryan, whose various languages are so like each other as to be evidently related. But this race are our elder brothers. When the peoples of Europe were still ignorant barbarians, their far-off kinsmen in Hindostan wrote thoughtful books, made wise laws, and could defend themselves manfully as well as obey their rulers, qualities without which there cannot be a great nation.
By and by the Hindoos degenerated, grew cowardly and superstitious, and could no longer keep to themselves the rich country that tempted invaders. Then came swarms of pirates and mountain robbers, who mostly belonged to another stock, and had this in common that they followed the faith of Mohammed, the Arabian prophet, who more than a thousand years ago set up a bitter rivalry to Christianity." (p.10)

"A progressive people, such as we are, is one not too slow to change its habits, thoughts, and actions when good reason has been shown. A superstitious people is the opposite of this: one that, without regard to right or wrong, will go on doing as its ignorant forefathers did, and so falls behind in the world.
In India, the bulk of the population are Hindoos, by religion at least, and the Hindoo religion is a sadly superstitious one. It was once a much nobler way of thinking, but through sloth and slavery of mind it has grown corrupt, as weeds will flourish rather than flowers or fruit when a garden is left to itself. Pious Hindoos honestly believe that they are right in their worship; but it seems worse than wasted upon hideous idols and degrading ceremonies." (p.15-16)

"The lazy fellow who has no other trade, likes to be a servant or an official, with not much to do and plenty of other hands to do it for him. [...] Their chief ambition is to get some place under government, as policeman, doorkeeper, or clerk, which gives them a chance to play the great man in a small way and to take bribes for doing favours. Backshish, which means money given and taken as from master to slave, not earned in fair wages, is the curse of India, as of all eastern lands, where poor men will cringe like dogs, and lie and flatter where they dare not bully. That is what comes of being born out of a free country." (p.36)

"Destructive fires are very common in the American forests, as also on the prairies, where, however, the grass is sooner burned up. We have seen how lazy farmers clear the ground by fire, and the wasteful Indians would think nothing of burning a wood to have a better crop of berries by and by." (p.54-5)

"Some [Kafirs] are still proud barbarians who care for no work but that of killing. Others are found serving the colonists as herds, grooms, and labourers on the land where they were once masters. A Kafir is usually a strong fellow, who will work well while he is at it, but does not keep long in a mind for industry. Often he comes down to the settlements for a spell of work till he has earned enough to buy a gun, a wife, or some cattle, with which, for the rest of his life, ge can set up as an idle gentleman among his own people." (p.108)

However, the author does posit the idea that the English could have turned out just as lazy, under different circumstances:

"The climate of a country is important, not only for the comfort of those who live in it, but as having a great deal to do with their character. We British would not have conquered or colonised so much of the world, but that we belong to a country where the weather stirs us up to be active and hardy. [...] But it would have been very different with us had we been born under the Indian sun. There the climate makes it difficult, often dangerous, to be out-of-doors during a great part of the day. To live in warm, damp air softens both body and mind. So, rich people in India are not ashamed to grow fat and lazy, while the poor, who have to work as well as they can, lose their spirit, and would like to be idle if they could.
In some ways it is not so hard to be poor in India as in Britain. The heat makes a great saving in food, clothes and houses. [...] A servant may be hired for a few shillings a month, out of which he keeps himself. A native soldier's pay is about sixpencea day, to support himself, his horse, and his family. [...] Give the Hindoo one cooked meal of rice a day, a thatched roof to keep off the sun, a grass mat or a frame of wicker work to lie upon, a cotton cloth to wrap about his waist, and he is not disposed to take much more trouble, unless to please the priests and the idols he worships." (p.8-9)

There are some other attempts to draw comparisons between British customs and those of other peoples, but these can't make up for the contemptuous language used in the descriptions of physical characteristics, religions and lifestyles, and in the placing of different peoples on a scale from savage to almost civilised. None of this makes particularly pleasant reading;

"We found this vast country [Australia] inhabited by a peculiar race of savages, who, in many respects, are among the lowest of the human race. The "Blackfellows", as they were nicknamed by the settlers, are rather dark brown, with thick black hair, and a coating of grease and dirt that hides the natural colour of their skin. Herded together in wandering tribes, they have no fields or villages, and only faint idea of religion, government, or comfort. [...]
They are truly savage in their treatment of women. or "gibs", who count as little better than beasts of burden. An Australian savage buys or steals his wife, sometimes knocking her down by way of courtship; and when he is in a bad humour will punish her by a blow on the head from a heavy club, or by running a spear through her limbs. [the author mentions this later, as a common punishment for stealing]. There is a story that an explorer was asked if the bullocks he brought with him were the white man's "gibs", because they carried the baggage!" (p.74-5)

"The bodies of [Aborigine] boys and girls are often horribly gashed with sharp stones to leave raised scars, which are admired as marks of manhood or beauty. The nose is pierced to have a long bone stuck through it, as we have ear-rings. In some parts a boy's two front teeth have to be knocked out when he reaches a certain age. Such disfigurements are common to all savages, and have not wholly died out among ourselves, when one comes to think of it. The tattooing of the sailor, the shaving of the soldier, like a girl's ear-piercing, are remnants of our savage ancestry." (p.76)

"The Hottentots are a stupidly barbarous people, with yellowish-brown faces, black wooly hair, flat noses, and thick lips. The most remarkable point about them is their language, which has some curious clicking sounds hardly pronounceable by Europeans, and not unlike the cackling of geese. [...]
Of the same stock as the Hottentots, apparently, are the Bushmen, who, like the Australian aborigines, count physically among the lowest of savages, though is some ways they seem more intelligent that they look. In height the men are only about four and a half feet, the women even smaller. Their poisoned arrows made them dangerous enemies; but they were hunted away like beasts by the original settlers, and only a few of them are now found hiding in the deserts and caves upon the edge of the colony." (p.106-7)

"Here and there at the stations [on the Canadian railways], or hanging about the villages, we catch sight of a group of Indians, who, dressed in a ludicrous mixture of their own costume and cast-off white men's clothes, stare wonderingly at the "fire-waggons" which are beyond their comprehension. They cannot be expected to like having their old hunting-grounds turned into farms; but they are harmless enough, so long as not allowed to get at whisky, and are kept in order by a few hundreds of mounted police." (p.63-4)

"Now and then the train may give us a peep of an Indian camp, tall pointed tents of smoky skins or canvas, round which feed their troops of active ponies. We have reached the country of the Blackfeet, fiercest of all western Indians, as the Iroquois were in the east; but both of them have long ago learned that the white man must be master." (p.65)

"The Mohammedans, too, have their superstitious customs; and there are smaller bodies with peculiar ones of their own. in Bombay, especially, may often be seen the high black hats and white garments of the Parsees. These are descendents of old Persian fire-worshipers, who many centuries ago went there as exiles from their native land. Though not numerous, they are an intelligent and progressive people, who take kindly to many of our ways, and sometimes even beat us at cricket, which has become their favourite game. Like the Jews, they succeed as money-makers and men of business; and a great part of the trade of India is in their hands." (p.17-8)

"It is often said that a Burman is fit for nothing but steering a boat or driving a cart, but they show themselves able to work hard when their living depends on it. Though they do not take readily to business for themselves, they can be useful as clerks and assistants to the English merchants who are opening up the resources of this country." (p.41)

The pride in Britain's / the English people's achievements is overwhelming, and must have had a strange effect on German pupils. Here are two final extracts for you. The first one is almost funny in its patriotism, the second is the final paragraph of the book:

"New Zealand was originally discovered in 1642 by the Dutch navigator Tasman, who naturally called it after a part of his own country, as Australia was first named New Holland. In the next century it was visited by Captain Cook, after whom came other Englishmen, till towards the middle of this century it began to be settled as a British colony. [...] A much better name for the country would be New England, if that had not already been taken by our great colony in America." (p.91-2)

"But here must end a list of a chief colonies, which might have been spun out to far greater length. They are to be numbered by hundreds in all, if we count every island. Scattered over the face of the earth, they are calculated to cover one fifth of the world, and to be sixty or seventy times the size of Great Britain, whose bravery and enterprise has won such wide dominion, that on the British Empire, it is truly said, the sun never sets." (p.119)

"Little Folks in England"

2009-05-25T03:14:00.000-07:00

A mere slip of a book for you today. It's a collection of 'easy' reading material from 1925 which, according to the editors, could be used after just one year of English lessons. All texts are taken from other volumes of reading material and centre around the 'typical' daily life of English children; how they play, what they do at school (especially the sports they play), and the stories they read.
The foreword explains the necessity of teaching with texts that introduce learners to the characteristics and culture of foreign peoples, not only to the language. The second book in the series is (was to be?) "England and the English".
Here are a few scans, a list of texts used, and my favourite text: "A Jolly Cricket Match".

Collection English Life, Part I: Little Folks in England
A. Schwieker & Dr. F. Schwieker
Otto Meissners Verlag, Hamburg

The following text is the only one in the collection which isn't credited. The text after it is from Tom Brown's School Days but I'm reasonably sure that this one isn't.

9. A Jolly Cricket Match

1. "I am sure you must be very stiff, Frank, after your hard work yesterday," said Mrs. Langham, when the family met in the breakfast-room on the Saturday morning following a grand cricket match; "yet I am very pleased indeed to see that you have made the effort to be down in good time for breakfast this morning."
2. "Now, Frank, tell us all about the match yesterday," said Bella, when they were all seated at table.
"There's not much to tell," said Frank. "our side won, as you know, and they played very fairly on the other."
"Our side smashed the other fellows all to bits," exclaimed Jack, "and old Frank scored the greatest number of runs on either side; I heard several say he was the best batsman by far on the field."
"You shut up, old fellow," replied his brother; "That's all stuff; there was plenty of good batting on the other side; it was a jolly match altogether."
3. "I do wish I could play in a real match," said Ben.
"You play!" said Frank, "Why such a bit of a chap as you would be mistaken for one of the wickets and get continually bowled down. how would you like that?"
"Never mind, Ben," said his mother, "go on growing, and some day you will be really the 'Big Ben' you are now called in fun, and then you will play with as much spirit as any boy."

The sources (exactly as they appear under each text):

Longman's British Empire Readers (Game of Leap-frog, Playing at Horses, Little John Going to the War, Jack and Jill)
Mc.Dougall's Suggestive Lessons in English, Book I (An Unlucky Drive, A Children's Party
Mc.Dougall's Suggestive Lessons in English, Book VI (A Letter telling about a Pet Canary)
Collins' Second Story Primer (A Tug of War, Roy and Toby at the Sea-side)
Waddy, The English Echo (On the Heath)
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays (Football, A Jolly Cricket Match[?], At Rugby School)
Mrs Hawtrey (The Holiday)
A Day on the Sands - Nelson's Picture Readers (The Little Sailors, Oh, What Fun!, Crabs for Tea, Sand Castles)
Little Dots (Willie's Fishing)
Daily Chronicle, July 1924 (The Pierrots appeared, Afloat on the Rolling Deep, Man Overboard)
The Child's Companion (The Schoolboys are snow-balling)
Standard American Series. Third Reader (A Brave Boy)
Baret, The First English Lessons (Santa Claus)
E.M. Towle (School Life)
Oliver and Boyd's Excelsior Readers, Book I (The Flower Castle, A Flower Story: St.Leonard and the Dragon)
Chamber's Stepping-Stones to Literature, Book I: Stories from Near and Far (The Story of Catskin, Lazy Jack, How Maize Came)

England: The Robber State (I)

2009-05-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

I first came across Raubstaat England (England the Robber State) at a fleamarket a few months ago (and blogged about here). I managed to persuade myself that 40 Euros was too much to pay for 1941 cigarette card album but put up far less of a fight when I found it in a shop for 3/4 of the price.
Unlike typical British and American albums, most of the space is given over to text, making it more like a history book with the illustrations removed. It is, however, a history book with a very clear aim. Here are the front and inside covers:

The introductory chapter to Raubstaat England is called ,,Vorkämpfer der Freiheit" (champions of freedom). The title is in quote marks although there's no indication of who might have said this, or if it's a view attributed to a whole group of people. It's amazing how punctuation can indicate so much sometimes. The author (Dr E. Lewalter) starts with a description of his first English lessons, shortly after the turn of the century, in which he and his classmates were taught to recite a sea-shanty. Firstly, a bit of a dig at the unfamiliar pronunciation:

"[...] with amazement we became aware of which contortions the human speech apparatus, and of which uncleanliness the voicebox must be capable of, in order to bring forth truly English sounds."

(,,[...]wir wurden mit Staunen gewahr, welcher Verrenkungen die menschlichen Sprechwerkzeuge, welcher Unreinlichkeiten die Muskulaturen des Kehlkopfes fähig sein mußten, um echt englisch klingende Laute hervorzubringen.")

Eventually the class are trusted to recite the full sea shanty in chorus, pre-pubescent voices escaping through the open classroom window to declare triumphantly to the world:

"And 't is our endeavour
In battle and in breeze
That England shall ever
Be Lord of the seas."

I agree with the author that this is a slightly dubious thing for German children to be memorising and chanting in the middle of an Anglo-German arms race. On the other hand, he has beefed up the militarism in his translation:

,,Ob Schlachten toben,
Ob Stürme dräun,
England muß Herrin
Der Meere sein."

which, brought back into English, goes something like: "Whether battles rage or storms threaten, England must be ruler of the seas". This rather unfairly changes the song from one of ambition to one of jealous protection of superiority, which nicely sets up the central message of the book.*

Lewalter wonders why nobody worried about Germany's youth, even after World War One, being taught using such anglophile material, which he feels must have led to a creeping sense of awe regarding England's naval power. Apparently the rest of his old textbook failed to provide balance and consisted of moving and edifying texts on, for example, the death of General Wolfe**, the Battle of Blenheim (with no mention of Prince Eugene), and all manner of English victories, including against the Scots and the Irish.
Two impressions arose through exposure to this material:
1. that the English always had right, and therefore the sympathies of the young German reader, on their side.
2. that the English had always been friends and allies of the Germans; their "cousins across the Channel" (,,Vettern jenseits des Kanals")
So where is he going with all this?

"However different the experiences of individual youths may have been, taken as a whole one is able to say that the German youth before the world war was raised in a strange, almost resigned reverence towards England - to be followed by a harsh awakening when England allied herself with our enemies right at the start of the world war."

,,Mögen solche Jugenderlebnisse auch im einzelnen recht verschieden gewesen sein, im ganzen wird man sagen dürfen, daß die deutsche Jugend vor dem Weltkriege in einer seltsamen, fast resignierenden Englandfrömmigkeit auferzogen wurde - aus der dann ein böses Erwachen folgte, als England sich gleich zu Beginn des Weltkrieges auf die Seite unserer Feinde stellte."

Lewalter makes it clear that this attitude only applied to England and that it would be unthinkable, especially after the war of 1870, for French grammar textbooks to contain texts glorifying French imperialism. He admits that German sympathies for the Boers during the Boer War "cast a threatening shadow over Anglo-German relations" (,,einen bedrohlichen Schatten auf die deutsch-englischen Beziehungen geworfen") but this was not seen as grounds to change the way in which Germany's youth were taught.

Without knowing which textbook was inflicted upon the author and his classmates, it is impossible to judge whether his assertions are accurate or exaggerated. None of the pre-1914 English textbooks I have found so far deal so thoroughly with England's military history. However, the re-use of texts by English authors seems to have been common (quicker, easier, more authentic and no doubt cheaper than having German authors write sample texts from scratch) and the chosen texts were never intended to provide a balanced view of history, but to serve as interesting reading exercises. Also, this problem hadn't gone completely unnoticed before the 1940s, as shown by the foreword to the 1939 rewrite of Pleasant English II.

So that's brought us to the beginning of page two. The other 128 pages will have to wait.

*Interestingly enough, a similar process - that of interpreting a patriotic song as having an overly aggressive, expansionist message - has also been carried out on the German national anthem.

**Benjamin West's painting Death of General Wolfe is the first collectible picture in the album and has the following caption:

"General Wolfe's death in Quebec", a picture which has been reproduced countless times and is widespread not only in England, but also across the whole of Europe. The sentimental portrayal glorifies one of the most brutal violent actions of English history: the plundering of Canada.

,,General Wolfes Tod bei Quebec", ein Bild, das in unzähligen Wiedergaben nicht nur in England, sondern in ganz Europa verbreitet wurde, Die rührselige Darstellung verklärte eine der brutalsten Gewalttaten der englischen Geschichte: den Raub Kanadas."

Links
Here are a few resources on the history of cigarette card collecting in Germany:

http://www.germancards.com/GeneralStuff/germancards.htm
http://www.franklyncards.com/one/german.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_card

And this is a list of other albums published by the Cigaretten-Bilderdienst: http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-106295

Schmidt: Lehrbuch der Englischen Sprache

2009-03-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an English textbook I found on the "Kunstmarkt am 17. Juni" in Berlin. It's from 1905 and has some nice Jugendstil touches:

The first section of the book is a series of "lessons" to be used by teachers. It seems to be following a Berlitz-style approach; target language only, gestures and tone of voice used to convey meaning (so words are associated directly with concepts, not with first language translations), and intensive repetition of new vocabulary in different contexts and grammatical structures. As this explanation of the Berlitz Method puts it, "Teachers would have to constantly encourage students to speak the language being taught, employing a barrage of questions to be answered and a quickly expanding vocabulary. "

One thing I love about this book is the generous detail of the illustrations (although it's a shame more pages aren't illustrated). I find them far more appealing than the rough, cartoonish approach of many modern textbooks.

Further in, the book switches to more typical reading material for self-study. The texts cover the usual range of historical, political and cultural information but there are some surprises. I'm tempted to use this next page on my own classes, for a "guess the gadgets" activity:

Most helpfully of all are the model letters which could be copied and used in a wide variety of situations, from getting out of social engagements without causing offence, to putting tradespeople in their place:

"Pleasant English" for unpleasant times

2009-03-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

This book needs no long preamble to make it sound interesting. It’s an English textbook for years 7 and 8 of the German Volksschule and it was published in 1939, shortly before the learners were officially at war with the subject matter.

Its condition suggests that it had a similar life history to most schoolbooks. A certain Fräulein Ingelore Giesecke carefully wrote her name in pencil on the inside cover before it fell victim to inkblots, a cracked spine and the violent loss of page 15. The inside pages aren’t dogeared or faded so Miss Giesecke may not have been the most enthusiastic of pupils.

That’s enough whimsical speculation about the owner, it’s the foreword which deserves our full attention. It’s aimed more at teachers than learners and explains how the various features of this book should be used in class. It explains that the exercises, which are provided after each chapter of reading material, are to be given as homework and so they don’t “release teachers from the duty” of finding other ways to practice in the classroom. It explains that a glossary is provided at the end of the book so that students don’t need to waste time looking through a dictionary, and also that the approach to grammar and speaking is functional rather than theoretical. In fact it says roughly the same as the foreword to every textbook I’ve ever taught from. The interesting part deals with the newly-written reading material:

The reading material serves to widen the sphere of experience from domestic life to life in the wider communities involved in day to day life and to the values which determine the behaviour of the Englishman towards these communities. In essence, these values bear a northern-germanic stamp and have enabled Englishmen to achieve great and awe-inspiring works; of which the formation of the British Empire constitutes the greatest. It is necessary that we Germans recognise and appreciate the real, inherent qualities of the English in order to be able to value them as political allies, or so as not to undervalue them as enemies.
However it is even more important that the young German is brought up to be proud of his own national identity and to have confidence in his position in relation to other peoples, so that he does not – as was previously the case, particularly in Hamburg – fall victim to an unworthy idolisation of all that is English. It is the task of English instruction to instill a worthy, self-assured attitude towards other peoples; with the rewriting of this reading material I hope to have given the teacher a useable basis for the fulfilment of this task.

Der Lesestoff bringt die Erweiterung des Erlebniskreises vom häuslichen Leben zum Leben in den größeren Gemeinschaften des täglichen Lebens und zu den Werten, die die Haltung des englischen Menschen diesen Gemeinschaften gegenüber bestimmen. Diese Werte sind im Wesentlichen nordlich-germanische Prägung und haben den englischen Menschen zu großen, achtungsgebietenden Leistungen befähigt, deren größte die Schaffung des britischen Weltreiches bildet. Es ist für und Deutsche nötig, die echten, artgebundenen Werte der Engländers zu kennen und zu achten, um ihn als politischen Freund schätzen zu können oder als Feind nicht zu unterschätzen. Noch wichtiger ist es allerdings, daß der junge deutsche Mensch zu Stolz auf sein eigenes Volkstum und zum Selbstbewußtsein anderen Völkern gegenüber erzogen wird, um nicht, wie das früher und besonders in Hamburg der Fall war, einer unwürdigen Vergötzung des Engländertums zu verfallen. Zu einer würdigen, selbstbewüßten Haltung gegenüber dem Fremdvolk zu erziehen, ist Aufgabe des englischen Unterrichts; mit der Neugestaltung des Lesestoffes hoffe ich dem Lehrer eine brauchbare Grundlage für diese Erziehungsarbeit gegeben zu haben.

Task 1: Compare and contrast these stated aims with the assertions of schoolteacher Agnes Pernitz.

The book contains eighteen chapters, covering largely the same topics as English Life and Thought but from the point of view of a German family, the Petersens, who have moved to England. The two children, Peter and Katie, have things explained to them by various adults and friends, and come across as fairly stupid as a result. There’s information about life at an English school, sights in London, Christmas traditions (no Santa in Germany), typical suburban homes...

...London landmarks...

...and so on and, like with English Life and Thought, some parts are very much of their time. For example, when Peter tells his friend Morris that he will be joining his school, the exchange runs:

“Here is a piece of news for you. I am coming into your class,” said Peter.
“Cheers,” cried Morris, “We shall have great sport.” (p.49)

Although that’s nowhere near as dated as this incident on a day trip to the zoo:

When they came near the elephants, Katie gave a shriek.
“Negroes,” she cried, pointing at two coloured men who were in charge of the elephants. Peter laughed at her, for they were not Negroes, but Hindoos. (p.19)

The grammar exercise which follows their trip to the zoo is also not really suitable for the modern English class:

Then there are the parts which live up to the aims of the foreword. I’ll start off with a fairly mild one, in which Kate asks her teacher about British coins:

“All lawful coins of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are called Sterling which means “good”. And as a little German you may be interested to hear that this word is a compliment to your forefathers. As a matter of fact, early Saxon traders who came to this country from the East, that is to say from Germany, and who, therefore, were called Easterlings, introduced silver coins which were better than any other silver coins. They were honest tradesmen and the English people trusted their money more than anybody else’s and therefore all good money is called Sterling. You must feel proud of this fact, I am sure.”
Kate was a little confused about all she had heard, but, nevertheless, she did feel proud of her forefathers and grateful to Miss Allen for this explanation. (p.56)

As indeed all small children are when a simple question like “Why do you write d for penny?” is answered with a lecture on ancient history.

The Easterling Theory seems to have been around for a good while (at least according to the Wikipedia entry for Sterling Silver), with 'Easterlings' referring to the 12th century Hanseatic League. More on their importance for German nationalist historians when I finally finish some translations from Raubstaat England.

The next extract is from the chapter “Modern Youth”.

Peter explained to Morris that some of his comrades had been sent to Nuremberg during the Party Rally. They were to take part in the displays of the Hitler Youth Movement.
[...]
The envelope contained a number of snapshots which one of Peter’s comrades had taken on their march to Nuremberg.
“This is my patrol-leader,” said Peter. “Lucky fellow to be sent there. He is a decent chap, though.”
“They must have had a hard time to walk all that way from Hamburg to Nuremberg,” replied Morris.
“I should not have minded walking,” continued Peter. “Most of us are good walkers, and I like walking very much. By the way, we are trained to exert ourselves, and this march to Nuremberg is a glorious test of what we can do.”
Morris was interested in the uniform and at last asked Peter if he had his uniform with him. Then Peter took Morris to his room, put on his uniform and told Morris about camping, sports, and other activities and entertainments.
[...]
“Well,” said Morris at last. “I am going to be a Scout. Mr.Henderson, our gym-master, is a Scoutmaster. He has asked me to join the Scouts. But first I have to be a Tenderfoot. Then I shall have to pass an examination, and after that I’ll become a second-class Scout. It will be great fun, I am sure.”
[...]
“I wanted to be a Wolf Cub long ago,” he continued. “Dad said he did not mind. But my mother would not let me. She is always afraid that I may catch a cold. But Mr.Henderson persuaded her to give her permission.” (67-8)

And now for the world domination bit. Morris and Peter’s teacher is demonstrating the range of the British Empire using a globe (mentioning a few German colonies in passing, all of which are explained in footnotes. France doesn’t get a mention, naturally). How does our Average German Kid react to this geography lesson?

Peter was deeply impressed. But at the same time he was thinking of what the Fuehrer had said about the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ and saying to himself: “Well, one day we’ll have colonies of our own again, after all.” But he did not say anything about what he was thinking, not even to Morris. He had already learnt to keep his tongue and leave things to those responsible for his country’s welfare.(p.76-7)

This section is followed by a list of “countries and their inhabitants”, including “The Sudetenland”, which is inhabited by “The Sudeten Germans” (and no-one else, apparently).

None of the things I've mentioned so far provoked any emotions in me other than mild amusement at an obsolete view of the world and relief that we've put so much distance between then and now. With the benefit of hindsight however, the last chapter is more than a little poignant. The title of the chapter is “Hero-worship” and the two boys are visiting the Cenotaph in London. It struck me as quite ironic that such an idealised view of integration and multi-culturalism can be combined with references to trench warfare and the Hitler Salute:

Every man who passed on foot, in bus or car, raised his hat, and ladies bowed their heads as they passed the Cenotaph.
Peter was reminded of a similar scene which he had witnessed in Munich when he passed the Feldherrnhalle with his parents and every passer-by raised his arm to greet the Dead of the 9th of November.
77. the boys had stepped on in silence. After a while Morris broke the silence:
“One day I’ll take you to Westminster Abbey where the ‘Unknown Soldier’ is buried.”
Peter did not answer. He was thinking of his uncle who had been killed by an English shell in Flanders and whose body had never been found.
Morris felt that something had risen between them. At last Morris said: “I know, Peter, what you are thinking. You are German, and I am English. We both love our country and worship our heroes. That is no reason why we should not be friends.
[...] We are taught that England expects every man to do his duty, and I suppose you have similar sayings. But I do know that I could not be friends with a boy who is not willing to live up to what the Great Men of his country died for. I hope we shall always remain friends.”
Peter made no reply at first. He just caught Morris’s hand, and said: “Yes, William.” When they parted that night, they felt as they shook hands, that their friendship had strengthened. But they also felt that they were not mere individuals, but members of two great nations.

It's poignant because here we have two boys - fictional but with many real-life counterparts - admirably pledging to remain friends against the odds. The German boy has made every effort to integrate and the English have placed no unreasonable demands upon him. He can be German as well as a member of English society. The boys haven't forgotten the past, nor do they allow themselves to be unfairly constrained by it. They represent healthy skin covering the scars of the First World War, about to be ripped open again by the Second. Whether they survive or not, their friendship almost certainly won't.

The core material of the textbook is followed by a very strange assortment of supplementary texts: songs, poems, Christmas stories and a Punch and Judy script. There's a 25-page glossary at the back, organised according to chapter. There's also 25 pages of grammar notes, including the best diagram for English tenses of any textbook I've ever seen. You can take your 2-D timelines for a short walk off a long pier:

A German's view of America in 1943

2009-03-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

(This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, Violetta Crisis.)

Links for the lazy:

The book's stated aims

Kurt G. Sell and his radio series

German news agencies under investigation

And..?

Right then, after a few months of "talking round the hot porridge" as the Germans say, we finally come to the main point of this blog: History. More specifically, old books which grab my interest at fleamarkets, mostly in Hamburg. All my rummaging around really paid off a few weeks ago when I discovered this book. I'd have bought it just for the cover but, fossilised moths excluded, there's enough material inside to keep me occupied for years of research. The title translates roughly as "What is being talked about in America" and it was published by Franz Müller publishers, Dresden, "in the fifth year of the war", 1943.

The book's stated aims

Here are the most informative parts of the blurb and foreword (apologies for the ugly translations):

Tausenden von deutschen Rundfunkhörern ist Kurt G. Sell bekannt, dessen regelmäßige Plaudereien viele jahre lang über die kurzen Wellen aus Washington zu uns kamen und uns ein anschauliches Bild über die für Europäer oft recht komplitzierten Entwicklungen in der USA. vermitteln. Kurt G. Sell war 15 Jahre lang der Vertreter des Deutschen Nachrichtenbüros in der Bundeshauptstadt der Vereinigten Staaten. In den letzten Jahren, als die Intrigen Roosevelts immer intensiver und die Beziehung zur Reichsregierung infolgedessen immer gespannter wurden, war es einzig und allein Kurt G. Sell, der täglich zu den Pressenkonferenzen von Cordell Hull und zweimal wochentlich zum Presseempfang von Franklin D. Roosevelt ging. Er hatte daher wie kein anderer Deutscher die Gelegenheit, amerikanischer Politik zu studieren und sorgfältig zu beobachten, wie Roosevelt in den zehn Jahren seit seinem Amtseintritt seine Ränke schmiedeten. Er kannte Land und Leute schon vorher aus längerem Aufenthalt in New York, Chikago und an der Westküste. Im Auto und Flugzeug hat er das weite Gebiet der USA. oft bereist und viiel Verständnis für die Eigentümlichkeiten des Amerikaners dabei gewonnen. Um so schmerzlicher war es für ihn, der so viele Jahre in Wort und Schrift für freundschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen den beiden Völkern geworben hatte, in den letzten sechs Jahren zusehen zu müssen, wie egoistische und andere Treibe einen immer tieferen Keil zwischen Deutschland und USA. treiben. Seine Stellung in Washington wurde dadurch immer schwieriger, und am Tage nach Pearl Harbor wurde er, obwohl noch Friede zwischen Deutschland und USA. bestand, nachts von der Geheimpolizei Roosevelts aus dem Bett gerissen und verhaftet. Erst im Mai 1942 durfte er die Heimat wiedersehen.

Translation: Kurt G. Sell is known to thousands of German radio listeners via his regular chats which came to us for many years, over the airwaves from Washington, and provided us with a vivid picture of what were for Europeans often very complicated developments in the USA. For 15 years, Kurt G. Sell was a representative of the German News Office [DNB] in the capital of the United States. Over the last few years, when Roosevelt's conspiring became more intensive and, as a consequence, relations with the German government became increasingly strained, Kurt G. Sell alone went to Cordell Hull's daily press conferences, and twice a week to the press reception of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He therefore had more opportunity than any other German to study American politics and to carefully observe how President Roosevelt's plots were hatched in the ten year after his inauguration. He had already got to know the land and people through long stays in New York, Chicago and on the West Coast. He had often travelled the wide expanse of the USA by car and by plane and gained a deep understanding of the peculiarities of Americans. And so it was even more painful for this man, who had been arguing for so many years, in print and radio, for friendly cooperation between the two peoples, to have to stand by and watch over the last six years, as selfish and other urges drove an ever thicker wedge between Germany and the USA. His position in Washington became increasingly difficult and on the day after Pearl Harbor, even though there was still peace between Germany and the USA, he was torn from his bed at night and arrested by Roosevelt's secret police. It was May 1942 before he was allowed to see his home again.

Wenn wir erkennen wollen, was Roosevelts politische Schachzüge für uns bedeuten, so müssen wir schließlich wissen, wer diese Schachfiguren sind, mit denen er spielt und was dahinter steht, sowohl sowohl politisch wie wirtschaftlich, aber auch menschlich und charakterlich.
Das vorliegende Buch soll den Versuch machen, zu diesem Studium einige Beiträge zu liefern. ,,Worüber man in Amerika spricht" [...] soll den deutschen Leser von vornherein darüber berühigen, daß es sich bei diesem Buch nicht um Darlegung hochpolitischer Thesen handelt, auch nicht um ein Quellenwerk über die offiziellen Reden und Akte Roosevelts und seiner Trabanten, auch nicht um tendenziöse Agitation gegen das amerikanische Volk, mit dem wir uns durch die Schuld seines derzeitigen Präsidenten leider im Krieg befinden, sondern um möglichst objektive Betrachtungen über das amerikanische Volk von einem Deutschen, der sehr vieles in Amerika sehr gern mochte und manches sogar bewunderte und der herzlich wünscht, daß unsere beiden Völker eines Tages wieder miteinander in Frieden leben und sich gegenseitig ergänzen können.

Translation: If we are to recognise what Roosevelt's political chess moves mean for us we need to know who these chess figures are with whom he plays and what lies behind the game; politics as much as economics, but also people and characters.
This book is intended to make various contributions towards this study. The title Worüber man in Amerika spricht [...same as the series of radio lectures...] should reassure the reader from the start that this book is not a collection of high-political theses, nor source material such as official speeches or documents from Roosevelt or his staff, nor tendentious agitation against the American people, with whom we are unfortunately at war due to the actions of their current President. Rather it consists of the most objective possible observations, made about the American people by a German who found many aspects of America he liked very much, even some that he admired, and who dearly wishes that one day our two peoples could live in peace again and complement each other.

Kurt G. Sell and his radio series

A few days of internet searches haven't turned up all that much about Sell or his series of radio reports but I did find mentions in two books and an essay (see the links section at the end of this post). The following information is from these three sources and don't necessarily count as verified facts:

Sell lived from 1884 to 1949. He returned to Germany as part of an exchange of German and American diplomats in 1942. A radio series called either Wovon or Woran man in Amerika spricht ran every second Friday from 20.00 to 20.15, starting in September 1931. The US National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) had a "German Hour" every second Sunday, consisting of programmes from the Reichs-Rundfunkgesellschaft (RRG) and in return they offered reports from Sell, who was working for the Wolff Büro (WTB - similar organisation to Reuters) in New York. In one source he's described as Consul, in another as a former diplomat. Some of his work was funded by the Vereinigte Presseabteilung der Reichsregierung (the centralised government press office of the Weimar Republic).

The purpose of Sell's reports seems to have been to provide background information about recent events in the USA, covering subjects such as economics, society, general life, politics and sport and Sell is described as Germany's first foreign correspondent in the USA. The series seems to have be fairly popular, although one person complained that you could get more detailed, up to date information from good newspapers.

German news agencies under investigation

We can get an impression of the man and the world he worked in by looking at some of his colleagues and superiors, who certainly seem to have been in a precarious position, caught between the German and American political and press systems. For example, Sell crops up in a biography of diplomat Hans-Heinrich Dieckhoff. According to the extract, Dieckhoff found that a report from "Washington DNB boss" Sell played down American attitudes too much, and so he tried to suppress it by sending it to the authorities, rather than to the newspapers:

Im Gegensatz zu Dieckhoff hatte Sell nicht nur die Ansicht vertreten, ,,daß Roosevelt [bei der kommenden Präsidentschaftswahl 1940] nicht wieder kandidieren wird", sondern zudem gemeldet, daß das amerikanische Volk ,,trotz teilweise sehr scharfen Kriik an Deutschland, bisher jedenfalls fest entschlossen "sei, nicht aktiv am Krieg teilzunehmen". (p.201)

Translation: In contrast to Dieckhoff, Sell not only expressed the opinion "that Roosevelt wouldn't stand for office again [in the upcoming 1940 presidential election]", but also reported that the American people, "despite occasionally very sharp criticism of Germany, have however so far completely made up their minds not to take part actively in the war"

Another important lead on Sell's life and situation comes from the foreword to Worüber man in Amerika spricht, which ends with the following:

Wir danken Herrn Dr. Joseph Hunck, den von 1933 bis zur Internierung im Dezember 1941 als deutscher Schriftleiter in New York tätig war.

Translation: Our thanks go to Dr. Joseph Hunck, who was worked as a German editor in New York from 1933 until his detention in 1941.

A search for the good Dr. Hunck brought me to an archive whose existence was a very pleasant suprise: Investigation Of Un-American Propaganda Activities In The United States Special Committee On Un-American Activities. Amongst the very varied interview transcripts (including one attempting to establish whether a Russian publishing house was paying royalties to Stalin) are several letters and telegrams concerning the Transocean News Service. The following extracts give an impression of their daily business, problems with anti-German sentiment in the US, and their hiring policies. (There were many typos in the original document, most of which I've corrected.)

"Exhibit No. 125 is a letter from Manfred Zapp to the Depeschen-Bureau Europapress in Frankfurt, Germany, suggesting to this organization that he, Zapp, could furnish his publication with news from the United States":

Dear Mr. Nuesgen: Yesterday I received through the Press Attache in the German Embassy in Washington your letter of January 15th addressed to him in which you request him to name a suitable racially pure German editor who could regularly furnish you articles and fillers from the United States.
Inasmuch as there are, unfortunately, only very few German editors in America who are not occupied 150 percent of their time, it is difficult to find an editor who would be available for this work. However, I have made great efforts in this direction. For the duration of the illness of Mr. Tonn, I have asked Dr. Joseph Hunck, who also works in our office here, to send you monthly two articles and one letter with fillers. Dr. Hunck will be glad to take this for the duration of the illness of Dr. Tonn. I have also discussed the matter with Tonn, who is leaving New York today in order to recuperate further in Florida. For the next two months it will be impossible to count on a return of Mr. Tonn.
I assume that you will handle the payments in the same manner as heretofore, and that you will transmit 150 Marks per month to Frau Hertha Hunck, Wilhelm Raabestrasse 12, Hamburg-Grossflottbeck instead of Mr. Tonn. I hope that this will serve you.
With kind regards and Heil Hitler!

"Exhibit No, 128 is a communication from Kreutzenstein to Mr. Tonn, under date of September 27, 1939."

The State Department is taking it upon itself to scare our American people away from us, and does not even stop at threats. Various people who have been recommended to me by Transocean, United Press and others refuse only a few hours later to work for us. Some of them opened up right away and said that one had scared them, and later on I learned through the United Press that Dorcy Fisher and McDermott of the Press Division of the State Department took particular delight in enlightening the people with what a "dangerous" enterprise they had become tied up and that soon it would go tough on them. Mr. Von Strempel is of the opinion that after the experiences which Mr. Sell allegedly already has made, that it would be better for us to have a female secretary for the office, who would also service the teletype while I move on the outside. I have another man in prospect for the beginning of next week but it is highly probable that before that time he will take it on the lam [sic]. By the way, there is a bullmarket for journalists with a little experience, and everybody is turning up their noses when I talk of $30. Just for that reason alone I had preferred to teach somebody the ropes so that afterwards I could be sure of him."

There's a full list of employees of the Transocean News Service but Sell's name does not appear. There are a few mentions of a "Kurt", including one where he speculates about American public opinion (which could be linked to the Dieckhoff argument) but there are rather a lot of "Kurts" mentioned in the archives.

And..?

Why am I so interested in this book that I've spent a few weeks of my life scouring the internet for all traces of it's author? Simply because it's a great source to sharpen my history skills on. It's a cultural guide to America, written by a man who spent years in the country and professes a great admiration for it, but who was arrested, imprisoned and shipped off home when the two countries went to war against one another. On the other hand, many sections of the book are strongly influenced by aspects of Nazi ideology. Over the next few weeks I'll post extracts from the book, grouped into rough themes, and (time permitting) discuss to what extent Sell was writing as a man of 1930s America, a supporter of the Nazi regime, or a man trying to get his book approved by the censors in 1940s Germany.

Obviously, any relevant information which is flung my way would be gratefully received.

Happy Limbo!

2009-03-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

(This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, Violetta Crisis.)

Yes, Limbo.

Welcome to those weird two weeks when it's too late to wish people a happy new year (in this case because it's already been very unhappy indeed) but new calendars and diaries still aren't half price. Now seems to be an appropriate time to present another fleamarket find - the Jung Siegfried Kalender from 1927.

This little magazine has nothing to do with the mythical Siegfried beyond the stylish dragon slaughter on the cover. Around that time, “Siegfried” seems to have been a by-word for plucky, patriotic youngsters. I haven’t found reference online to the calendar yet but there are annuals of a regular children's magazine with the title Jung-Siegfried on offer.

One interesting point about all things Nibelungen between the wars, particularly Wagner’s use of the older Norse myths to create his Ring Cycle, is that they were so bound up with German nationalism that they became an important step in the assimilation process of middle-class Jewish families. Apparently, names such as Siegfried, Sigmund, Siegbert etc. were given so often to Jewish children that non-Jewish parents started to avoid them. There are certainly a fair few Siegfrieds on the WW1 memorial in the Jewish cemetery at Ohlsdorf, Hamburg.

Jewish war memorial, Ohlsdorf Cemetery, Hamburg

What the Jung Siegfried calendar does contain is short stories (from fairy tales to accounts of arctic exploration), poems, saying and brain teasers, beautifully illustrated with a selection of shadow pictures. It’s written in the typical, slightly suffocating, “learn with father” style (imagine “watch with mother” delivered through a pipe and clipped moustache).

Here's the index:

And here's a double-page spread from January to April and the first page of a fairy tale. It was difficult to choose my favourite illustration but the stag beetle tipped it in the end:

I'll try to get some translations up once the clump of half-written posts has been flushed out of my braintubes.

English Life and Thought

2009-03-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, Violetta Crisis.

I bought a wonderful book at the Schanze Flea-market a a few weeks ago; Learning English: English Life and Thought, by Dr. Karl Eckermann. It’s “Ein kulturkundliches Lesebuch” (a cultural-studies reader) from 1927 and a rather interesting insight into language teaching in Germany between the wars.

It’s written in the traditional children’s book style: quite conversational, very paternal and 100% steadfast in its view of the world, a bit like going on an educational forest walk with a great uncle (in an age when that didn’t suggest anything untoward). It also has that enthusiastic praise of modernity which is so wonderful to look back on 80 years later. Like this passage, in the chapter, “From Berlin to London by Air”:

Our machine rises gently, in spite of a violent west wind. I am not nervous, and I am not sick. We are gliding along with the utmost comfort. Some one says: We are going too slowly,- so I put out my hand to see. The wind bends my fingers back till I fear it will break them. We are really shooting through the air - though we do not notice it.
We are flying against the wind. The pilot has a difficult trip before him. Yet he takes the trouble to write down for me on a card the names of the chief places we pass. I wish I could write as good a hand at my desk as he does in this storm, holding on to his steering wheel. (p.93)

On the one hand, I’m glad that the ‘machines’ no longer have windows you can open. On the other hand, personal service seems to have gone downhill since then.

Dr.Eckermann seems to have a genuine love of England, its customs and history. But he also strikes me as one of the inter-war xenophiles who enthusiastically adopted the some of the more negative aspects of their subject’s character (see Houston Stewart Chamberlain). The chapters on Scotland and Ireland are terrible - this is very much a book in praise of England, not Britain. He includes a passage from Andrew Carnegie, entitled “Why Scotchmen succeed”:

Scotch children are reared right: they are fortunate in being born poor. They have as a guide and model their father, and for their nurse, seamstress, cook and saint, their mother. Oh, how I pity the boy who is born the son of a millionaire! (p.63)

The rest of the passage talks about Scottish pride and other virtues (apparently this theme was also very popular in language textbooks in the late 1930s) but any positive effect is immediately negated by the three “Englishman, Irishman, Scotchman” jokes which follow. And there’s worse to come in “A letter about Ireland”, from a fictional tourist to his friend:

Mr. Mackinder himself is of Scotch descent, and I hear him very often speak of the Irish and especially of the Irish peasants with an undertone of contempt. "If the Irish peasant", Mr Mackinder once said to me, "is so poor, it is in most cases his own fault. It is true, he is clever and witty, but he is awfully backward as regards the tilling of the soil, the use of tools [...] He does not send his children to school, under the pretence that they have no decent clothes to put on [...]". Well, at first I thought Mr. Mackinder's words too sharp, but when I saw the first real old Irish village, I found them true. (p.67)

Again, the passage is followed by a couple of anecdotes, this time about the Irish "reputation for an apt retort". Not only does this show how normal this kind of contempt must have been at the time, it's scary to think that this probably formed countless German children's lasting opinion of Scotland and Ireland. Little wonder that the inferiority complex of both countries has proven difficult to shake off, despite being completely unfounded.

For the sake of completeness, here's the title page and a section from the glossary at the back:

Links

If you're interested in the history of language teaching in Germany, this essay gives an interesting overview, complete with some amusing example English dialogue from the early 19th century: "Drink, pray, my love, it grows late and we have half a mile to make."

More from Andrew Carnegie here

Tatty Jackets

Holocaust Memorial Day: Thoughts and Complications

Snippets - Seaside Fun in 1830s Lytham

History Misremembered

Cuttings - Lancaster - June 1811

Cuttings - Wrexham, April 1894 - Part III

Cuttings - Wrexham, 1894 - Part II

Cuttings - Wrexham, 1894 - Part 1

On the cliquishness of minorities

Sehr geehrter Herr Hitler...

Find the fifth pig

America's Tragedy: Third Reich Perceptions of the United States

"No time for dissatisfaction": Thomas G. Masaryk on suicide

England's Mask has Fallen - Index

"That's England!" Cover and index

On leprosy, salmon, and Irish gluttony

On a people's failure to ripen

Kurt G. Sell on "the great melting-pot"

"the most worthy-to-be-visited of all historicoromanticalbeautyspotagglomerations"

Categorising the Americans

American women - the view from the Third Reich

Meanwhile...

A Nazi-Era History of Hamburg

Trivia: Greater Britain

"A progressive people, such as we are"

"Little Folks in England"

England: The Robber State (I)

Schmidt: Lehrbuch der Englischen Sprache

"Pleasant English" for unpleasant times

A German's view of America in 1943

(This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, Violetta Crisis.)

Links for the lazy:

The book's stated aims

Kurt G. Sell and his radio series

German news agencies under investigation

And..?

Links:

Happy Limbo!

English Life and Thought

This post originally appeared on one of my other blogs, Violetta Crisis.