Elections in Wonderland

A weird notion is rampant in Germany; that the Germans, having gone through the Black Mass of Nazism, have thereby attained a dispensation from all future discomforts of history. Itisasif the Germans (whose recovery from Nazism is much more profound and final than those abroad care to believe) were converted to a political version of their ancient Quietism whereby motion, any motion, is considered evil; and the pleasantly tepid climate of prosperity, the only natural circumstance of national existence. Even in Italy, where straight pursuit of happiness remains, in a downright comical fashion, the only proclaimed goal of personal or national politics, a Churchillian appeal to Blood, Sweat and Tears still has a chance, if only because of its rhetorical handsomeness. But the Germans are unshakably persuaded that the status quo is the natural state of man; and the status quo simply equals the current rate of income, employment, and national indignity. Only in this context is it possible to begin to understand the otherwise incomprehensible political attitude of this quite extraordinary people.

In a few weeks (on September 19, to be exact) the Germans will elect their Bundestag, and there is not a ripple of political agitation in the land. Not that these elections are unimportant, or that the Germans deny their importance. At issue, domestically, is whether the Social Democrats shall be given power. The vital foreign policy decision facing the West Germans is whether Germany will accept the Ulbricht regime as “the second German state.” No German elections, ever, were more important. And all Germans know it. But they remain comfortably petrified, profoundly convinced that nothing must, and therefore nothing will, change.

WS

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William S. Schlamm

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A weird notion is rampant in Germany; that the Germans, having gone through the Black Mass of Nazism, have thereby attained a dispensation from all future discomforts of history. Itisasif the Germans (whose recovery from Nazism is much more profound and final than those abroad care to believe) were converted to a political version of their ancient Quietism whereby motion, any motion, is considered evil; and the pleasantly tepid climate of prosperity, the only natural circumstance of national existence. Even in Italy, where straight pursuit of happiness remains, in a downright comical fashion, the only proclaimed goal of personal or national politics, a Churchillian appeal to Blood, Sweat and Tears still has a chance, if only because of its rhetorical handsomeness. But the Germans are unshakably persuaded that the status quo is the natural state of man; and the status quo simply equals the current rate of income, employment, and national indignity. Only in this context is it possible to begin to understand the otherwise incomprehensible political attitude of this quite extraordinary people.

In a few weeks (on September 19, to be exact) the Germans will elect their Bundestag, and there is not a ripple of political agitation in the land. Not that these elections are unimportant, or that the Germans deny their importance. At issue, domestically, is whether the Social Democrats shall be given power. The vital foreign policy decision facing the West Germans is whether Germany will accept the Ulbricht regime as “the second German state.” No German elections, ever, were more important. And all Germans know it. But they remain comfortably petrified, profoundly convinced that nothing must, and therefore nothing will, change.