Sir, I was in Hanover about two years ago, just when the Nazi movement was gaining strength and ╥knocking at the gates╙ of Prussia. My time was spent for the most part in respectable middle-class quarters among intelligent and sober men, and the last thing which one would have expected of them was their secret but sincere love of Hitler and his aims. Their enthusiasm was rather painful to see, for the more Brƒning╒s Socialist Government forced them to hide it the more obviously did it appear for a brief instant in the sight of a triangular flag, decorated with the Swastika and hung in the house of a more daring friend, or of the legend ╥Heil Hitler╙ scrawled on the wall in chalk. The older men were naturally reticent about their enthusiasm and refused to speak of it in the presence of the younger generation, realising the danger that a rash word would have on the boys╒ minds. The younger men, among whom I spent a great deal of time, were less secretive, and their attachment to Hitler was pathetic in its blindness and devotion. The crux of the whole matter seemed to be that the orderly and comfortable German mind was left without a hub or a pivot on which it could turn in happy, willing obedience. Hitler was the one man whom the respectable German could pick out as a responsible leader who would restore the country to her former high position in world affairs.
Several times I tried to find out from various adherents of Hitler╒s what exactly they thought that Hitler would do. As I have said, the older men would talk very rarely about National Socialism, and when they did speak their words were shrouded in what was no doubt prophetic obscurity. The clearest view of his policy which I could get was this ╤ and here I must admit that this was quite unofficial and may have been the product of one overripe imagination: Hitler on getting into power would refuse to pay any more of the German war debt; this no doubt would rouse France to action, but even if that Power marched in and occupied the Ruhr she would not dare to advance farther because of England╒s interest in the balance of power on the Continent, and meanwhile Germany would be able to put into her beggared industries the money which previously had been pouring out of the country in war-debt payment. This was the substance of Hitler╒s intentions, as they were reported to me: how far it was true I cannot say.
At the same time (I gathered) Hitler was clever enough to realise that he must have some more immediately, some more striking and romantic, appeal to make to German National sentiment if he was to rouse the fever of enthusiasm which was vital to his daring coup d╒Ätat. So he set up the old Aunt Sally ╤ the Jews. They could be painted as ╥the enemy within the gates╙: their very lack of a home country made them seem despicable in true German eyes. Above all, the Jew was a more present and less dangerous objective for attack than the Frenchman.
If we are to understand the real force which welded these two hatreds together and turned them in a mass of active venom against the unlucky Jew, we must grasp one salient characteristic of the German character ╤ romanticism. The importance of the romantic element in German character cannot be over-emphasised. The tendency to build quite unearthly castles in the air is a prominent feature of German philosophy: its influence on literature is obvious. A modern manifestation of it appears in the German youth hostel movement to-day. It is this essential spirit of romance which, I feel, has been turned into its present crazy channel by Hitler the Strong Man, Hitler the Saviour of a Ruined Germany.
Moderation and sober judgment have been thrown to the winds for the moment, but gradually sanity will return, halting and shamefaced, seeking to shift the blame for its excesses against German Jewry to the shoulders of the inevitable ╥irresponsible persons.╙ I can only hope that that return to sanity will be swift, for the sake of the Germans whom I love, to whom I wish every success in their economic and political recovery.
