Through the Eyes of Foreigners

It is often extremely enlightening to read about one's own country through the perspective of foreign writers - especially writers who actually traveled through the land and interacted with people.  Thus one of the most perceptive books about the United States was written by a Frenchman: Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.  The literary historian Oliver Lubrich had the idea of compiling texts from non-German writers who traveled or lived in Germany during the NS period and wrote about their experiences.  The result is a highly interesting book: Reisen ins Reich 1933 bis 1945.  The pieces are fragments of diaries and books by foreigners covering the period from the exuberant early days of the Third Reich to the destruction of Berlin.  Nearly one-half of the pieces were originally in English, so non-German readers will want to use the useful index at the end to locate the original texts.  The writers approach Germany from many different political perspectives.  Most were skeptical or even hostile towards the Nazi experiment to begin with.  A few - such as the French writer Jacques Chardonne were  die-hard Nazi sympathizers to the end; and others - such as the American writer Thomas Wolfe,in one of the most moving pieces - were initially very supportive but over time became bitterly disillusioned. 

A real eye-opener to American readers are the accounts of Martha Dodd, the adventurous daughter of the US ambassador to Germany.  This fearless young woman flirted with Hitler and had fun with attractive young Nazi officials as well as young men in the Soviet diplomatic corps (she later collaborated with the Soviets).  Her observations are always sharp and perceptive.

The most interesting pieces in Reisen ins Reich deal with  chance encounters or everyday interaction with ordinary Germans. Thus the French writer Denis de Rougemont describes his experience attending a Nazi rally in Frankfurt in 1936 where thousands waited patiently for four hours for the appearance of the Führer, or Howard Smith reads the faces of Berliners on the subway.  Incidentally, the contributions of Smith and William Shirer were very interesting in that they described the total apathy of Berliners to the announcements concerning the war effort.  Smith's account of how the Nazi command used spin and deception in its efforts to manipulate the foreign press corps is also fascinating.  Journalists of the stature of Smith and Shirer are sorely missed today. 

The most disturbing accounts involve the persecution of Jews.  Virginia Woolf writes of driving through a viciously anti-Semitic Germany where people take time out from tormenting Jews to play with her pet monkey.  A number of the writers, including the American reporter Harry Flannery, write about the concentration camps, so it could hardly have been a secret.  The short piece by Maria Leitner about her visit to the locked and dusty Heine room in Düsseldorf is a poignant reminder of what Germany lost.

The Danish writer Karen Blixen brings her deep knowledge of Africa to the fore in her analysis of Nazism.  In a passage that has an uncanny foreshadowing of today's geopolitical situation she compares the fanaticism of Nazi ideology to Islamic theology.

The last contributions are gripping and surreal eyewitness accounts of the firebombing  and the final battle for Berlin, and are by themselves worth the price of the book.

Lubrich has an insightful introduction and provides context for each piece with a brief discussion of each writer and what they were doing in Germany at the time.  For anyone interested in the history of Germany during the Nazi period this book is a must-read. 

Comments

[Steven Schuyler]

Thanks for the reference to this title. I wasn't familiar with it, but will pick it up now. It brings to mind an old prejudice of mine, one to which you allude in your intro to this report: we see our own country and culture much more clearly when we are lucky enough to lived in a foreign land for a while. I only wish our current leaders had spent even a few months outside of our US boundaries. Perhaps our foreign policy would be more than just the bumper sticker "Don't mess with Texas."