THE

WAR
AND THE
FUTURE
Jn Jddress
BY
Thomas Mann
THOMAS MANN IS CONSULTANT IN GERMANIC LIERTURE I
THE LIBRRY OF CONCRESS AND THE FOLLOWNG IS THE TEXT
OF AN ADRESS DELIVERED BY DR. MANN IN THE COLIGE
AUDITORUM I THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ON THE EVENING
OF OCTOBER 13, 19-3
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN'
N
OWADAYS, it is not a eay but a rater oppreive
situation to stad upon a platfor behind the
speaker's dek and see the eye of an audience tured
toward you with inquir ad expectancy. I say
"now," but this situation which may be natural for the ma
of action ad masperuaion, for the politicia and pary
ma, ha in truth always been strange and inappropriate for
the atist, the poet, the musician of ideas and words, a situa
tion in which he ha never felt quite at home for he become,
to a certain extent, untrue to his own nature. The clement of
strangene and uneaine lie, for him, in the ver nature of
the task, in speaking, in committing himself, teaching, in stat
ing convictions and defending opinions. For te artist, the poet,
i one who absorbs al the movement and itellectual tcnd
encie, al the curent and spirtua content of the time and
allows them to act upon him; he is afected by all of them,
diget them all mentally, give them for and in this way
mae ''isua the tota cultura picture of his time for his con
temporary world and for posterity. He doe not preach nor
propagandize; he give things a plastic reaity, indiferent to
nothing; but committed to no cause except that of freedom,
of ironical objectivity. He doe not speak himlf; he let other
spea ad even when he is not a dramatist, his conditions are
thos of the drama, of Shakepeare, wherein the peron who
happens to be speaking is aways right. To speak on his ow
reponsibility is foreign to him, burdensme ad aaring. He
i, of neceity, a diaectical nature and knows the truth that
le in Goethe's words: "So bald man spricht, beginnt man
schon zu irren" [a soon a a ma speas, error begin]. He
agree with Turgeniev, who said: "When I decribe a man
and say that he ha a pointed noe, a long chin and white
hair, or red cheek, or long teeth, or that he is croseyed, or
that his eye have this color and that epreion, it canot be
contradicted. It is a cheerful reality. There is noting to be said
against it. But when I defend an opinion, a contradictor one
ca immediately be raisd against it. It ca aways b asailed;
te opposite can also be defended, ad I must not only tae
into account that I will meet with exter contradiction to my
one-sided position but I abo have the contadiction in mylf
interally, ad, in denyng this when comitting myf to one
point of view, I renounce my freedom."
That is tre, ad yet there are moment, htorica condi
tions, in which it would prove to be weak, egoistic and wholy
untimely to insit upon one's freedom o criticism ad t shy
away from a confeion of faith. I mea THOSE moment ad
THOSE historical conditions in which Freedom itself, by which
the freedom of the atist als exist, is endangered. It i r
actionary, uncrpulous, ad suicida, ad the intellectua un
derine his own existence, if through his need for freedom,
he plays into the hads of the enemie ad asns of freedom.
The enemie are only too happy if mind consider nothing
but the ironical attitude worthy of itlf, if it depise the
distinction between good and evil, ad consider te preoccu
pation wit ideas such a freedom, tth, justice a "bour
geois." In certain conditions it is the duty of the intellectua
to renounce his freedom-for the sae of freedom. It is his
duty to fnd the courage to afr idea over which the in
tellectual snob tink that he ca shrug hs shoulder. I have
bad the eperience in America when speing on democracy
ad my belief in it, that sme high-brow jouraist who
wanted to ear his critical spur, would say that I had ex
presed "middle-clas idea." He wa epreing a false ad
reactionar concept of the banal, a misonception with which
I had already become al to well acquanted in Europe. I
a thinking of Paris at a time when I wa discusing Briad
and his liberal European struggle to maintan the peace, with
member of the "bourgeoisie" who were already strongly in
fected wit facism. "But, my dear friend" they would say,
"Que voulez-vous avec votre Briad? That is the wort bana
ity, d'une trivialite insupportable." What the high-brow jour
nalist wa characterizing with "middle clas-idea" is actually
nothing else than the liberal tadition. It is the complex of
idea of freedom and proge , of humanitarianim, of civiliza
tion-in shor, the clam of reaon to dominate the dynacs
of nature, of istict, of blod, of the unconscious, the primi
tive spontaeity of life. Now it is by no means natural for the
arist, for any human being who stands in any relationship to
the creative, to be eteraly taking of reaon like sme leared
as . He ver well knows the imporance to life of the sub
rational and super-rational power of instinct and dream; ad
he is not at al inclined to over-rate the intellect a the guide
and moulder of life. He is far !rom being an enemy of i
stinct. He recognize that the recoil from the rationaism of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centurie wa historically and
intellectually justifed, wa inevitable and nece ar, but it wa
cras and immoderate; and if one had the imagination to
foreee how the irrationa, the dark dynamics, the glorifcation
of instinct, te worhip of blood and impulse, the "will to
power" and "Clan vital" and "myth a cri de bataille," and
the justifcation of violence-how all thee idea would look,
when translated from the intellectual sphere, where they were
ver intereting and facinating, to the sphere of reality, of
politics-if one had imagination enough to foreee this, the
deire speedily evaporated to sit upon this side of the boat,
where all and sundr, anyway, down to the lat petty scribbler
and beer-hall demagogue were to be found. It is a terrible
spectacle when irationalism become popular. One feels that
disaster is imminent, a disaster such a the one-sided over
vauation of reaon could never bring about. The over-valua
tion of rean can b comical in it optimistic pedantry and
can be made to lok ridiculous by the deeper power of life.
But it doe not evoke catatrophe. That is brought about ony
by the enthronement of anti-reaon. At a certain period when
facism took over politically in Geray and Itay, when
nationalism becae the focus and universal expresion of al
thee tendencie, I wa convinced that nothing but war and
general detruction could be the fnal outcome of the irationa
istic orgy, and that in short order. What semed neces ar wa
the memor of other value, of the idea of democracy, of
humaity, of peace, and of human freedom and dignity. It
wa tis side of human nature that needed our help. There
i not the sightet dager that rean will ever gain complete
acendancy, tat there could ever be to much reaon on
earth. There is no danger that people will sme day become
emotionles angels, which, to be sure, would be ver dull. But
that they should become beats, which a a matter of fact
would be a little too intereting, that, a we have seen, ca
readily happen. This tendency is much stronger in huma
beings than the anemic angelic one, and it is only necesar,
tuough genera glorifcation of instincts to set free the evi
one which arc always ready to appropriate such a glorifcation
to themselve, in order to bring the betial tendencie into
tiumphant acendancy. It is easy and self-indulgent to throw
oneelf on the side of nature against the mind, that is to say
on the side which in any cae is always the stronger. Simple
generosity and a slight sense of humane reponsibility should
decide us to protect and noursh the poor litte name of mind
and reaon upon earth that it may shine and wa us a little
better.
Freedcm and justice have long ceased to be banal; they
ac vita; and to thin of tem a boring, simply means a
acceptance of te facistic psudo-revolutionar fraud that
violence ad mas-decepton ac te lat word ad most
up-to-date. The better mind kows that te really new thing
i the world which the living spirit is called upon to sere is
something totally diferent, naely, a social democracy and a
humanism which, instead of being caught in a cowardly rela
tvism, have the courage once more to distinguish between
good and evil.
That is what the European people did. They refused to
submit to evi, to Hitler's New Order, to slavery. Ad I
should like to take this opportunity to say a word in honor
of this now deeply depresed part of the eah. It may well
be that we Europeans will only play the par of "Graecul"
i the Roman world of power that wil aise out of this wa,
whose capitals will be Wagon, London, ad Moscow;
but tis diminutive role should not decreae our justifable
pride i our old homelad. How much eaier, how much
le aduous would it have been for te Europea people i
tey had accepted Hiter's infaous New Order; i tey had
reconciled theslve to slavery; if they had, a it i caled,
"collaborated" with Nai Geray. They have not done s,
not a single one of them. Yc;" of the most bruta terrorism, of
mayrdom ad executions have not succeeded in breaking
their will to reist. On the contrar, the reistace ha only
gown stronge and the mot outrageous of al the Nai lie i
that of a united Europe defending its holiet psions against
the invaion of foreigner; the foreigner against whom thee
holiet pOeions must be defended are they, the Nais, and
no one else. Only a corrupt upper-crust, a treanous gang for
whom nothing is holy but money ad advatage, is collaborat
ing with tem. The people have refused collaboration and, a
the victor of the Allie is more clearly outlined, the more con
fdent doe the opposition to oppresion bcome. Seven million
people have been deported to enforced labr; almot a million
have been executed and murdered; ten thousand more are im
prned in the hell of thl mnrlntration camp. Notwithstand
ing, the uneven, the heroic battle continue. I say: all honor
to the people of Europe. They are fghting our batte. The
a our allie and they decne to be treated as our allie.
Slowly, very slowly, freedom is drawing ncar, yet their tenacity
is indomitable. They deere our confdence; tey should b
allowed to have teir way, to clean out the power who have
betrayed them and led them into miser. They deere to b
spoken to in a frank and friendly way s that their belief may
not be shaken that the liberator ae really coming a liberator
and not to submit them to the power of the old, decayed, ad
depised order.
But in speaing of Europe, I canot omit my ow countr,
ad I take for granted that you wish to hea from me abut
tis problem, about it relationship to the world, abut how it
could pos ibly have got into te condition in which we fnd it
today; the quetion of the common reponsibility of te Ger
man people for the misdeed of the Nais. The ae painfu
and complicated matter- perience which one ca sacely
communicate in words to thoe, who in the te live aongst
their own people, in complete hanony wit them, i unshak
able fat i te cause of t people, ad who ae ptted
7
t fght enthusiacaly for that cause. This perfecty natural
god fortune is denied us emigrC, not s the enthusiam and
the strggle for this cause. We a battle. But it is our detiny
to car on t battle against our own land and it aims, of
whose corptne we ae convinced; against the land whose
speech is the spiritual material in which we work, againt the
land in whose culture we are roted, whose tradition we carr
on, and whose ladscape and atmosphere shoud be our natura
shelter.
You will say to me: "We are all fghting for the sae caus,
te cause of humaity. There is no distinction between you
and us." Certainly, but it is your good fortune to be able to
identify yourelve with the cause of your people, of your
fghting force, of your goverment; and when you see the
smbol of American sovereigty, the Star ad Stripe, you
arc perhaps not naively patriotic enough that your heart beat
with pride in your throat and that you break into loud hurahs,
but you lok upon this emblem with a feeling of home, with
sympathy and confdence, with calm pride and heartfelt hope,
while we-. You ca scarcely conceive the feelings wit
which we look upon the preent national emblem of Geray,
the swatika. We do not look upon it, we look away. We would
rather lok at the ground or at the sky, for the sight of te
sbol under which our people arc fghting for their existence,
or rather delude themselve that they are fghting for tat
existence, make us physially sick. You do not know how
horrbly strange, how detetable, how shocking it is for us to
see the swatika-oramented entance to a Geran consulate
or embas y. Now I have this experience only in the cinema;
but when I lived in ZUrch I often cae into the neighborhood
of the hou of the Germa repreentative with the ominous
fag upon it, and I confe that I aways made a wide detour
a one would about a cave of horor, an outpot of murderous
barbarism, extending into the realm of a friendly civilization
under whoe protection I lived. Geray-a great name, a
word which car e with it hundreds of homely ad repected,
pleaant ad proud as ciation. And now, t word, a name
of teror and of deadly wildere , into which even our drea
do not dare to transpor u. Whenever I read that sme un
happy peron has been "taken to Germany," a recendy the
party leader from Milan who had signed the ati-facist
manifeto, or a Romain Rollad who is said t have died in
a Geran concentraton cap, cold shudder r up ad
down my back. To be "taken to Germany," that is the wont.
To be sure, Muslini ha as been taken to Geray, but I
doubt whether even he is happy under Hider's protection.
What a abnoral, morbid condition, my friends, abnora
ad morbid for anyone, but epecially for t wrter, the bearer
of a spiritual tradition, when h o countr become the
most hostile, the most s foreig lad! Ad now I w t
think not only of us out here i eile, I fnally w to remem
ber a those people who ae stil tere, the Germa ma,
and to think of the cruel compulsion which detiy ha forced
upon the Geran spirit. Believe me, for may there the father
land ha become a strage a it h for us; a "inner emiga
tion" of millions is there awaiting the end just as we. They
await t end, that is the end of the wa, and there can be only
ONE end. The people in Geray in spite of their stragled
isolaton, are well awae of it, and yet they long for it, in spite
of their natura patriotism, in spite of their national conscience.
The ever preent propaganda ha deeply imprs upon their
consciousne the pretended peranently detructve reult of
a Gera defeat, s that in one part of their being they cannot
a\oid fearing that defeat more than aything e in the world.
And yet there is one thing which many of them fear more tha
a Geran defeat, that is a Geran \ictory; some only oc
caionally, at moments which they themselve regard a crim
inal, but other with complete clarity ad peraenty
although with pangs of conscience, too. Imagine that you
were forced, with all your wishe and hope to oppose an
Aerica victor as a great miforune for the entire world;
if you can imagine that, you can place yourself in the position
of thee people. This attitude ha become the detiny of un
counted Germans and I can't help feeling that t drtiny is
of a paricular ad uncommonly tragic nature. I know that
other nations, too, have been put ito the pition of wishig
9
for the defeat of their goverent for tei ow sake ad for
the sake of the general future. But I mus insist that in view of
the all-togreat credulousne and the deire for loyalty in the
Gera character the dilemma in this cae is epecially acute,
and I cannot reist a feeling of deepet reentment against tho
who have forced the Geran patriotis into such a position.
Tee people have been deluded ad sduced into crime
tat cr to High Heaven. They have begun to atone for them
and they will atone even more severely. It cannot be otherise;
comon morality or, i you wish, divine justice demands it.
But we out here, who saw disaster coming, we who ahead of
our compatriot intoxicated by a fraudulent revoluton, ahead
of all the ret of the world, were convinced that the Nai rule
could never bring anything except war, detrction, ad cata
tophe, we see no great diference between that which the
scoundrels have done to us and what they have done to our
people at home. We hate te corrpter and wt long fur t1e
day which rids the world of them. But with very few excep
tion we are far from being victim of a wretched emigrant
hatred against our ow land and we do not deire the detrc
ton of our people. We canot deny teir responsibility, for
smehow ma is reponsible for his being ad doing; but we
are rather inclined to speak of an historic cure, a dark detny
and aberation than of crime ad guilt.
The cae of Geray is for that rean such a confusing and
complicated one because in it good and evil, the beautiful and
the detetable arc combined and blended in a singular way.
For example, the great artistic peronaity of Richard Wagner
ha often been mentioned in connection with the phenomenon
of national socialism, ad Mr. A. Hider's preference for his ar
ha been
p
ointed out, a preference aga:nst which one would
like to protect Wagner and whlch, neverheles, is not without
signifcance and instructive meaning. The Wagerian a revo
lution, though upon an incomparably higher plane, wa a phe
nomenon related to the nationa scialist revolution. It cannot
be denied that a work such the the "Ring of the Nibelung" is
fundaentally directed against the whole moder culture ad
civilization in the for in which they were dominat since thr
10
Renaisance, and that this work in it mixture of prmitivenes
ad futurity addree itelf to a non-existent world of a cas
le folk. The reistance, the indignation, which it aroused were
directed much lesagainst the revolutionar aspect of it for,
or because it broke with the laws of operatic a, from which
it obviously diverged. The opposition arose from a totaly dif
ferent source. The Geran Goethe disciple, who knew his
"Faust" by hear gave utterance to a angr ad contemptu
ous protet, a well-founded protet. It cae from the still ex
isting cultivated world of Geran clasicism with which t
work wa a tota break. The cultivated Geran burgher
laughed at the Wagalawaia ad al the alliteration busines a
barbarous nonsense, which can readily be undertood. The
extraordinar, one can say the plaetar, succs with which
eventualy this art met in the modem world, the world of the
interationa bourgeoiit, Lhauk to certan snua, nerous,
and intellectual stimuli, was a paradox. For we must not forget
that it wa meat for a totaly diferent public than the capi
talistic burgher world, namely, for the romatic "Volk" whch
is aso the ideal of nationa sciaism.
The Wagner revolution wa a archaic ore in which re
actionar ad futuristic element were mingled in the most
peculiar way. He is always intereted in te Ur-epic, the orgi
nal ad utost siplicity, the pre-conventiona and pre-socia.
Ony this se t him a theme suitable for ar: his work i
the Gera contribution to the monumenta ar of the nine
teenth century which took the for in other nations, primarily,
of great social-poetical novels-Dickens, Thackeray, Tolstoy,
Dostoicvsk, Balzac, Zola. Thee monumenta work that reveal
a similar tendency toward moral grandeur were, pa excel
lence, the European nneteent centur, the literary world of
socia critique. The Gera manifetation of this greatnes
knows nothing of society and doe not want to know it. For
the scia is not musica and altogeter not suitable for artistc
productions. The only suitable theme for ar ae the mythica
ad purely human one, the unhistorical, timeles Ur-poet
of nature and of the hea; ad out of thee depths the Gera
spirit teate perhaps the great

t ad most beautiful tg
II
that the centur ha to ofer. The non-scial Ur-poetr is in
fact Genany"s own special myh, it typica and fundamental
national nature, which diferentiate it from the other Euro
pean national minds and t. Between Zola ad Wagner,
between the symbolic naturalim of te Rougon-Maquar
novels and Wager's a there are many simiaritie. I am not
thining ony of the "leiuotif." But the eential and typica
national diference lie in the social mentality of the French
ma ad the mythical Ur-poetical quaity of the Genan
world. The complicated quetion: "What is Gn ?" r
ceive perhap it bet answer in the fonulation of this difer
ence. The Geran mentality is eentially indiferent to scial
and political quetions. This sphere is utterly foreign to iL
This is not to be undertood merely negatively but we ca
actually speak of a vacuu, of a lack, of a defciency, and it
is probably tre that in time when the scial problem i
dominat, when the idea of scial and economic equality, of a
juster economc order is felt by ever alert conciousne a the
most vital and urgent problem-that under such circum
stance, this defciency which is often s fitful, doe not make
the happiet impreion ad leads to disharony with the gen
e wil of the world. Faced with inediatc problem, t de
fciency leads to attempt at slution that a evaive a carr
te imprint of a mythical substitute for te genuinely scia.
It is not difcult to recognize in secalled nationa socialism, a
mythical substitute of this sr. Translated from political ter
minolog into the pychological, national scialism means: "I
do not want the scial at all. I wat the folk fair-tale." But in
the politca ream, the fair-tale become a murderous lie.
Ladie ad Gentlemen, it is honible and humiliating to
behold the civilized world obliged to fght to the death againt
the political y distorted lie of an ag ve folk fair-tale, which
in it earlier spiritual purity had given the world s much that
wa beautiful. In forer time, it wa innocent ad idealstic,
but this idealism began to be ashaed of itself and becae
jealous of the world and of reality. "Gerany is Halet" it
u to be said. "Tatenar und gcdankenreich," [lacking in
deeds ad rch in tought], HOlderl cal ed it; but it pre-
12
fered to b rch in deeds, even in mdeeds, ad por in
thought. "Deutchlad, Deutchland iber alle, that mea the
end of German philosophy," Nietche aered. This jealousy
of the world and reaity, wa nothing but jealous of political
acton. And because this wa s foreig to the Gera mnd,
politic were undertood a a realm of ablute cyncism and
Machiavellianism. The Gerans were encouraged in this in
tepretaton by the appearance of Bismarck, who, though not
without a ceran afnity to the type of the at wa a man
of violence who openly depised the ideologica. Gera
liberals, who existed after all, conidered him atavistc ad
reactonar. Ad yet, becaus of h "reis," he wa admired
a a political genius, although he wa by no meas a bruta
a the Geras undero h to be, for Bisack had
a keen appreciation of the imporace of moral imponder
able. But, to his Germa fellow-citizen, ever moral em
bellishment and justifcaton of powe politcs seeed pure
hycrisy, ad never would a pot-Bismarckian Geran have
been able to say, as Cardinal Maning did, "Politic is a pa
of moral." Ultimately, hypocrisy is a compliment to virtue.
It implie te recognition of moral stadads in principle.
Tere is a diference whether the Ten Commandments a
not kept, a i the cae the world over, or whether tey are
dropped ofcialy and solemnly. The Geran, when he want
to be politcal, tnks that all moraity and humanity mut b
throw overboard. A Frenchma said: "When a German
wishe to be graceful, he jumps out of te window." He doe
t1e same thng when he waU tu b plitica. He thins that
for this purpose he must de-humanie himeU. We do well to
see in natonal socialism an exaple of this jumping out of
te window, an eaggerated over-compensation of the Gerat
lack of politcal talent.
Doe thi prove that the Geran chaacter is fundaentally
related to natonl socialism ad that thi Geran nature is
iherently unchangeable? There may b sme parial trut in
this, but one must not forget how many humane ad, in the
bet sn, democratic tendencie were active in Gera life-
tendencie which it ha had i common with te great world
13
of Occidental Christia civiization ad which were away op
posed to nationalitic barbaism. We mut not forget that te
Hiter part never got a real majority of vote ad that it cae
to absolute power only by intrigue and terror, by coup d'Ctat.
At the beginning of the preent war, there were more tha two
hundred thousand people in Gera concentation cap, to
say nothing of the may tens of thousad of victim of t
system who were torured to death in Nai caps ad Getapo
cella. Even today anouncement appea i the Gena pres
of executons of scalled nationa traitor whoe rea number
we do not know as only limited number ae publhed for pur
pose of intimidation, It is often sad that Gera yout ha
been hopeles ly corrupted by national scialism, but event tat
took place in the Univerity of Munich, which created such a
str in America, prove that now, at lat, after the experience
of years, Gera youth is ready to put it head on te eecu
tioner's block out of conviction tat national scialism i a
shaeful aberation and that Hiter i te corupter of Ger
may and of Europe. For the sae of jutice thee things must
be put into the other side of the scale. Not that Geray ad
the German people should b relieved of gt ad of reponi
bilit. Looked at from a moral, pedagogical point of view,
after the appalling pride, the inexcusable superiority itoxca
tion in which the country ha lved for may yea, it fal at
frt, cannot be too deep; ad, after al that ha happened, it
doe not become us emigrat to advise the victor a t how
Gerany should be treated. That te comon future should
not be too heavily burdened by their decision i the hope of
liberal America. Neither Genay nor the Geran people
should be sterized or detroyed. What should be detroyed i
that fata power combination, the world theatening as cia
tion of the Junkers, the ary generals, ad heavy indus.
The Geran people should not be prevented but shoud b
helped to shatter forever the domination of thee group; t
put through the aready overdue agraian refor, i shor, to
bring about the real, the honet, te purifying revolution which
alone can rehabilitate Germay i the eye of the world, of h
tory, ad in it own eye, ad open for her a pat ito te
'4
futre-for this future, for the new world of unty ad cooper
aton for which we hope the Gera spirt is by no means his
toricaly unprepaed ad unft. We should b psychologist
enough to recogze that this montous Geran attempt at
world dominaton, which we now see ending catatrophically,
is notng but a distorted and unfortunate epreion of tat
univeraism innate in the Geran chaacter which forerly
had a much higher, purer, ad nobler for and which won the
sypathy and admiation of the world for this importat peo
ple. Power politc corrpted t unveraism ad tured it
into evi, for whenever unveraism become power politic
then humaity mut a and defend it liberty. Let us trst
tat Gera univeralism wil again fnd the way to it old
place of honor, that it w forever renounce te waton a
bition of world conquet ad that it w agan prove itelf a
world sympathy, world undertadi
g
, open-mdedne, ad
spiritua enrichment of te world.
Wisdom i the treatent of the defeated opponent is deir
able i only because of a feeling of shared guit. The world
deocracie, which in 1918 were in possion of unlimited
power, failed to do aything to prevent the caamity in which
we ae living today. The pacifcation of the world through re
fors ad the satsfaction of huma need for justice which
now preoccupy te whole world, could have been realized at
that time. This would have prevented the ris of the dictator
ad the whole dynaic exploive philosphy of hate; but
facism, of which national sciai is a peculiar vaation, is
not a specialty of Geray. It is a sickn of the time, which
is everhere at home and from which no countr i free.
Never could the regime of violence and fraud in Itay and
Gerany have maintained themselve even for a month, had
they not met with a ver genera ad disgraceful sypathy
from the economicaly leading casand, therefore, from the
goverent of the democratc countrie.
I cerainly would funk a examination in Maism. But
athough I know that faism has its ideologcal side and must
be undertood as a fatal, caamitous reaction agast te
ratonalistic humanism of te nineteenth centur, I must admit
15
that I a visuaize it a a politca-economc movement a
counter-revolution pur sang. A such it is a attempt of all the
old social and economic reactionaia tu suppres te people
and their aspiration for happine , to prevent all scial prog
res by attachig to it the frightening nae of Bolshevism. In
the eye of Weter, conative capitalis, faism wa
(rakly a bulwark against Bolshevism ad agant everything
that they wished to aa under this nae, epecialy since the
Genan purge of June 1934, in which everthing that wa
socialstc in natona sm wa detroyed ad the old
power combination of Juner, an y ad industr wa saved.
Th bloody act wa cleverly aimed t gan interationa sup
port of the Nai regime. For it demontrated to the Wet that
a chage of power had taen place in Genay but not a ro
lution that threatened the existing economic system. It in
dicated that focim meat "order" in te etablished sn
of the word. There wa a litte disgust with te atocitie com
mitted, but no inclnation to mae the regime interally im
pos ible by diplomatc ilation, a reut which at that time
could have been eaiy achieved. Here wa the curiou phe
nomenon of a s-cal ed "revolution," which had the support
troughout the word of ever reactiona, of ever "ComitC
de forge," of al enemie of freedom and of scia progre,
a well a of te aristocracy, of ay "Faubourg St. Genain,"
of sciety people, of the nobility, of royaist generas, ad of
that part of the Catholc Church which see in Christanity,
above al things, hierarchy, humiity, and devout adherece to
the existing order.
Field Marhal Goering is the pernifction-the ver
volunous pernifcation-f this power complex of the
Junker, the militar, ad industr, a groteue mixture of te
"mie gloriosus" bedecked with medals, and the big busine
man. He is the mater of the Genan Europea industria
monopoly since the subjection of Europe, which came into be
ing by undenining te mora reistance of the democratic
pwer ad with the aid of a ver genera suseptibility to the
fascist bacillus. The people are living or perishing in impotent
revolt aganst the new order. Whatever "colaboration" et
16
i te collabration of the rich, of the buines -a-uual people
all over F.uror. Thr proper; they mae profts; buy in the
black market; caoue at Monte Calo, while the people ae
starving ad become the sacrifce of Geray's planed con
spiracy to weaken and to ruin them morally and physical y.
I repeat: in the eye of Weter conserative capitalism,
faism wa simply the bulwak againt Bolsheism ad against
everthing which was undertood by the word. Every abomi
nation which facism perpetrated interally wa accepted with
out the realization that it extera correlate wa war. Perhaps
there wa no objection even to that. In France, for example,
war and defeat were te mean of overthrowing the Republic
and of bringing about the "nationa," or facist revolution.
The fa ocist regime were braced by the foreign pwer, for in
te wildet chaos, in disregard of justice and detruction of
culture, they profesed to see order, beauty and security
security not for the people but from the people, security
againt alscial progres . With a semblance of justice the dic
tator could shout: "What do thee people mea? Why are
they suddenly makng war on us? Were they not openly or
secrety our protector and abettor? They placed us in the
saddle ad secured us in it by fnancing us, praising us, fatter
ing us: the ofered us on a platter the exteral succese wit
which we annihiated our interal oppositon. Surely the
don't mean it. They have no intention of detroying facism.
Secretly, they w to preere it. They ae fghting half
heatedly with indistinct a, te indecision of their wils i
our protection. To be sure, they are slowly getting the upper
had on the battlefeld but, if only we continue the wa a
long a psible, the inner diference between the Alie w
come to an open break ad we shall proft by it. We sha
play the Eat againt the Wet ad avoid a unconditional
surender."
They are mistaken and their hope wil be crshed .. Cer
tainly there are diference of ideolog and world policy b
tween Rusia and it ale but this wa i aongt other
thig a means of conciliating thee diference- a conciliation
between scialism ad democracy upn which re the hope
,,
of the world. They arc united in the battle agant huma
degradation which is what the conquet of te world by
facism would mea. They ae united in the battle for freedom
and justice. But a war for freedom ad jutce can only be
waged with the people and for the people, and we sincerely
hope that the sae thing will not happen tat happened after
the war with Napoleon. Those war were called "wa of
freedom" a long a they lated, ad the people, wit their
deire for freedom, were needed to do the fghtng; but after
wards ttey were interpreted a "war of liberation only from
foreign oppres ion" s that te people might be robbed of the
iternal revolutionary fruit of victor.
At that time, in the year 1813, the prince and the gover
ment were not fghting so much against Napoleon a aganst
the revolution, whose sword-beaer the Emperor wa, but the
people were given to undertand that they were fghting for
freedom, and [ wonder whether you do not feel, a I do, the
abomination of tis deceit.
In this connection, let me make a short remark abut the
idea of democracy. Democracy is of coure in the frt line a
claim, a demand of majority for justice and equal right. It
i a justifed demand from below. But in my eye it is even
more beautiful if it is good will, generosity ad love coming
from the top down. I do not consider it ver demoratic i
little :.Ir. Smith or little Mr. Jone slaps Beethoven on the
back and shout: "How arc you, old man!" That is not de
mocracy but tactles nes ad a lack of feeling for diference.
But when Beethoven sings: "Be embraced, ye millions, t
kis to all the world"-that i democracy. For he could say:
"I a a great genius ad something quite special, but the
people are a mob; I a much to proud and particular t
embrace them." Intead he calls them a his brother ad
children of one Father in Heaven, who is a his own. That
is democracy in it highet fon, fa removed from demagog
and a fattering woing of te mas . I have always subcribed
t t kind of demoracy; but that is eacty the rean why
I feel deeply that there is nothing more abominable ta
decepton of the masad btaya of te people. My un-
happiet year were those, when in the nae of a false peace,
of appeaement, the people were sld out to facism. The
sacrifce of Czechoslovakia at the Munich conference wa the
most horrible and humiliating political experience of my life,
and not only I felt so, but al decent people throughout the
world.
In March 1932, a year before I left Gerany, I delivered
a lecture in honor of Goethe's centenar at the Prusian Acad
emy of Ars in Berlin, a speech which closed with the words:
"The credit \vhich histor today still grant to a free republic,
to a democratic society, this rather short-ten credit, ret
upon the still maintained faith that what its power lusty
enemie pretend to b able to do, namely, to lead the state
and it economy over into a new world, democracy a can
do." This warng, which at that time, was meant for the
citizens of te Geran republic, could today be directed
towad the citizens of the entire Occidental world. If democ
racy ha not the courage in this world and afterard to rely
upon the popular force, to sc in it a real war of the people
ad strive toward a new, a freer, and a juster world, the world
of socia democracy; if, on the other hand, unmindful of it
own re,olutionar traditions, it allie itelf with the power
of the old order, a has-been order, to avoid at any price what
it calls anarchy, to subdue ever revolutionar tendency; ten
the faith of the European people who have been oppresed by
facism, will be exhausted and all of them, Gerany frt, will
tum toward the power of the East in whose socialism te idea
of individual freedom no longer ha any place.
You perceive, Ladie and Gentemen, that I do not visualize
a ideal for humaity, a sciaism in which the idea of equality
completely outweighs that of freedom. So I hardly can be
regarded a a chapion of communism. Nevertheles, I cannot
help feeling that the paic fea of the Weter world of the
term communism, this fea by which the faist have s long
maintaed themselve, is smewhat supertitiol. and chidish
ad one of the greatet follie of our epoch. Communim i
today the bogeya of the burgeoisie, exacty a scia
democracy wa i Genay in 1880. Under Bismarck s
19
cialism was the sum of all sam-culottish detruction and dis
slution, of chaotic anarchy. I can still hea our school princi
pal shout at some naughty boys who had defaced table ad
benche with their pocket knive: "You have behaved like
social democrats!" Today he would say: "like communist!"
for the social democrat ha in the meantime become a
thoroughly repectable person whom nobody fear.
Pleae understand me correctly. Communism is a sharply
circumscribed political economic progra founded upon the
dictatorhip of one clas, the proletariat, bor of the historica
materialism of the nineteenth centur: in this for it is the
product of a particular period and subjected to the change of
time. But a a vision it is much older and contans at the same
time clement that belong only to a future world. It is older
because already the religious movements of the late Middle
Age had an ccatological communist character; even then the
eath, water, air, wild gae, fshe, and birds were to be com
mon property, the lords were to work for their daily bread, ad
all burdens and ta.e were to be done away with. In this sense,
communism is older than Ma ad the nineteenth centur.
But it belong to te future in a much a te world that wil
be when we are gone, whose outline are beginning to emerge
and in which our children and grandchildren will live, can
scarcely be imagined without certain communistc traitthat
means, without the fundaental idea of common rght of
ownerhip ad enjoyment of earthly good, without a progre
sive equalization of clasdiference, without the right to work
and the duty to work for all. A countr of America's coura
geous progrcs ivity which ha never denied it origin in the
pioneer spirit, give us premonition of this coming world in it
equalitarianism and in it feeling that work disgrace nobdy.
The common poses ion of opportunitie for enjoyment and edu
cation are largely achieved. The whole world smoke the sae
cigarette, eat the same ice crea, see the sae movie, hear
the same music on the radio; even the diference in clothing i
disappearing more and more, and the college student who ea
h way through college, which wouJd have been very much
bneat his clasdigity in Europe, i here a commonplace.
2
Why do I mention this? Becaus I a peruaded wz MUST
NO BE AFR, we mut not fea word spok like "commu
n." For our fea i the surce of courage to our eneme.
Social chage a like development in music. For the lay
ma's e new music is wild, lawles cacophony, the dislu
ton of al retat, the end of a tgs. It is rejected until
the ea can catch up ad become accustomed to the new. To
day it is scacely believable that Mozat at frt seemed turgid,
ad haonicay extavagant, that Verdi i compason with
Donizetti wa terrbly difcult, Beetoven unendurably bizare,
Wagner crazily futuristic, Mahler an icomprehenible noise.
In ever intace, the huma ea caught up slowly, for people
need muic, ad they lea to feel a music whatever the mu
sicia produce, not deliberately, not reckles y but bau
he JUUST, bcause the Zeitgeist ad historica development
prbe it.
The sae thig tae place i te scia feld. The education
of te e coreponds to the education of a organ which ca
b called the scial concience. What tasforation and mod
ifcations, have taen place since te day when muraenae were
fed the feh of living slave, ad aga sice the beginning of
the industrial epoch. Private property is undoubtedly something
fundaentaly human. But even within our own lifetime, how
chaged is the concept of property right! It ha become
weaened and limited i not underined through inhertance
laws ad taation which in some ca approach confscaton.
Individual freedom which is cloly related to property rights
wa forced to adjust itself to the collectve demad ad,
trough the coure of year, made this change amost imper
ceptibly. The idea of freedom, once revolution itelf, realized
i the sovereignty of national state, is experiencing cer
modifcations, that is a new equilibrium is being sought, be
teen the two fundaenta idea of modem deocracy, free
dom and equaity. The one is slowly modifed by the other.
The svereigty of national state is being caled upon to make
sacrifce in favor of the common good. Common good, com
munity-there you have the rot of the frghtening word by
mea of which Hitler made h conquet. I haven't the slight-
et doubt that the world and everyday life are moving, nolen
volens, toward a scial structure for which the cphithct "com
munistic" i a relatively adequate ter, a communal for of
life, of mutual dependence ad reponsibilit, of common
right to the enjoyent of earthly goods, a a reult of the
ever closer relationship of the world, it contaction, it inti
macy reulting from technical progs a world wherei each
ad everone ha a right to live ad whose administration i
everone's concer.
Do not imagine that what I am saying means tat I a i
favor only of the new and the untried. By that I would become
unfaithful to myself. Never is the atist only the protagonist
and prophet of the new but als the heir and repoitory of the
old. Always he bring forth the new out of tradition. Just a I
am fa from denying the vaue of the bourgeois epoch to
which the larget part of my penonal life belong, jut s a
I aware that the demads of the time and the problems of the
coming peace are not merely of a revolutionar but a of a
constructive, ye, of a retorative nature. Ever and again,
historical upheaval such a we a now experiencing is in
evitably followed by a movement of retoration. The need to
reeablish is a imperative a the demand for renewal. What
need to be reetablished more than aything e ae the com
mandments of religion, of Christianity, which ha\e been trod
underfoot by a false revolution. From thee commandment
must be derived the fundamental law under which the peoplc
of the future will live together and to which a will have to
pay reverence. No real pacifcation of the world, no coopera
tion of the people for the common good and for huma prog
re will be psible unle such a baic law is otablished,
which notwithstading nationa diverit ad libey must b
valid for all and recogized by all a a Magna Carta of huma
right, guarateeing the individual his security in justice, his
inviolability, his right to work ad to the enjoyment of life.
For such a univeral bais, may the American Bil of Rght
sere a a model.
I blieve, Ladie and Gentlemen, that out of the sufering
ad struggle of our difcult perod of transition, a wholly new
ad more emotional interet in humaity and it fate, in it
eceptonal poiton between the realm of nature and mind,
in it myster and it detiny will emerge, a humanistic im
puls which even now is alive and active in the bet hear and
minds. This new humaism will have a diferent character, a
diferent color and tone tha te earlier related movement.
This new humasm will have endured to much to be satis
fed with an optimistic naivetC and the deire to see huma
life through roy glas. It will lack a bombat. It will b
awae of te tragedy of a human life witout letting that
awarenC detroy it courage and will. It will not disavow it
religious tait, for in te idea of huma dignity, of the value
of the individual sul, hwanism tracends into the religious.
Concept like freedom, truth, justce, belong to a tra
biological sphere, the sphere of the Ablute, to te religious
sphere. Optmism and pesimism ae empty words to this
humanism. They cancel each other in the deterination to
preere the honor of man, in te paths of sympathy and duty.
It s to me that witout such a patho a the bais of a
thinking and doing, the structure of a better, happier world,
the world community that we wish to achieve out of the
prent struggle, will be iposible. The defense of rean
agant blood and instinct doe not imply that it creative
pwer should b overetimated. Creative alone is feeling
gided by rean, is an ever active love.
23
Pbled by T Lbr o Cog
Wugon, 1944
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