The End of the Affair

Though Germany is indubitably the most solid and most stable society on the Continent, it is beginning to show the psychological and political stresses of a nation that, 21 years after the end of the war, is still being denied its sovereignty. While no European nation can match Germany’s adaptability, traces of a new, or rather old, ressentiment are again noticeable in this country. The NPD, cause of all the fuss and sweat in Liberal editorial offices throughout the world, got less than 8 per cent of the Bavarian vote—which is about as much as other forlorn, embittered, slightly ludicrous little groups of professional Teutons have mustered, without interruption, since 1945. But, this time, they are unified in something that begins to look like a political party. And it is indeed advisable to investigate which wind of history has blown the dry leaves together.

The unifying force, I am afraid, was anti-Americanism. I know the type of people who form the NPD from innumerable encounters in innumerable debates throughout the country. They are about as neo-Nazi as Senator Javits is neo-socialist—which means to say, a little, but not much. Though one hears fewer anti-Semitic remarks in Munich beer cellars probably than in New York’s Racquet Tennis & Club, Nazism remains an important question in Germany. And how could it not? Of the thirty million Germans who were organized Nazis until 1945, about fifteen million are still alive, not all of whom could have been mere opportunists. At least 10 per cent must have been true believers. There must then be one or two million Germans still alive who were at least formerly convinced Nazis. Occasionally, I meet such Germans in my lecture audiences: acidulous, gloomy people, scarred by rancor and frustration, incapable of a smile. And some such people, no doubt, can be found in the NPD. But they signify nothing. They are barely tolerated.

WS

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William S. Schlamm

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Though Germany is indubitably the most solid and most stable society on the Continent, it is beginning to show the psychological and political stresses of a nation that, 21 years after the end of the war, is still being denied its sovereignty. While no European nation can match Germany’s adaptability, traces of a new, or rather old, ressentiment are again noticeable in this country. The NPD, cause of all the fuss and sweat in Liberal editorial offices throughout the world, got less than 8 per cent of the Bavarian vote—which is about as much as other forlorn, embittered, slightly ludicrous little groups of professional Teutons have mustered, without interruption, since 1945. But, this time, they are unified in something that begins to look like a political party. And it is indeed advisable to investigate which wind of history has blown the dry leaves together.

The unifying force, I am afraid, was anti-Americanism. I know the type of people who form the NPD from innumerable encounters in innumerable debates throughout the country. They are about as neo-Nazi as Senator Javits is neo-socialist—which means to say, a little, but not much. Though one hears fewer anti-Semitic remarks in Munich beer cellars probably than in New York’s Racquet Tennis & Club, Nazism remains an important question in Germany. And how could it not? Of the thirty million Germans who were organized Nazis until 1945, about fifteen million are still alive, not all of whom could have been mere opportunists. At least 10 per cent must have been true believers. There must then be one or two million Germans still alive who were at least formerly convinced Nazis. Occasionally, I meet such Germans in my lecture audiences: acidulous, gloomy people, scarred by rancor and frustration, incapable of a smile. And some such people, no doubt, can be found in the NPD. But they signify nothing. They are barely tolerated.