important sense it is they who representnthe real spirit of end-century Germany.nIt is easy to explain this apparentnGreen hypocrisy as the BavariannChancellor Franz Josef Strauss does:n”A rose is Green before it is red.”nStrauss, whose real chance of becomingnWest German chancellor a fewnyears ago provoked fear and loathingnverging on hysteria in all the bestnGerman circles, is widely considered anrelic of nationalism if not of Nazism.nYet Strauss also makes sweeter dealsnwith the Gommunistic East than anynother West German leader except thenformer Socialist chancellor, WillynBrandt.n”Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meinernBrust” (Two souls dwell, alas!nwithin my breast), lamented the greatestnGerman poet, Johann WolfgangnGoethe (1749-1832). Much hasnchanged since Goethe’s days, but thatnfierce ambivalence has not changed.nAs Sauzay explains, the most stridentnGerman opponents of all authority, ofnall defense, and of every form of violencenexerted for one’s own protection,ncould easily fall into a violent frenzynand possibly outdo Nazism. ThenAmerican nuclear umbrella is widelynacclaimed as the only force that hasnmade 40-odd years of uneasy peacenpossible for Europe. Sauzay’s analysisnleads one to suspect that it is only thenoverwhelming Soviet presence onntheir borders that inhibits Germansnfrom once again combining phenomenalnenergy with unpredictable fantasynto produce a product the nature andncolor of which no one can imagine butnthe terrible intensity of which wouldnbe only too familiar. It makes no sensento predict a revival of Nazism. But itnprobably would have made no sense,nin 1924, to predict its rise in the firstnplace. Let there be no misunderstanding:nNeither Mme. Sauzay nor thisnreviewer predicts a new Nazism. Butnthere is a fear that something couldncome, idealishc, noble in sentiment,nself-righteous and pharisaical in itsncondemnation of all the evils of lessernand more mongrel nations, that couldncreate another inferno.nThe Swiss, on Germany’s southernnborder, and particularly the GermanspeakingnSwiss, who share many of thenmost typically German virtues andnvices, look on the Germans with anmixture of superciliousness and superÂÂnstitious awe. After all, the Germansnfollowed Hitier, the Swiss did not—innlarge part thanks to the firmness ofntheir French-speaking General HenrinGuisan. The Swiss were far too wisenfor that. At the same time, all thenSwiss—but particularly the Germanspeakersnwith their variety of peculiarnAllemanic dialects — have placednthemselves in a kind of golden mountainnghetto and realize that if thenGermans are morally their inferiors,nthey themselves are cultural parasitesnon Germany. They buy and borrownculture from everywhere, but theyngraft it onto Germanic roots. ThenSwiss have feelings of inferiority to andncontempt for the Germans that resemblenthose of Germans toward the rest ofnthe West, and especially towards thenUnited States. The French, amongnwhom the most brilliantiy perceptivenanalyst to date is Brigitte Sauzay, neitherndisdain nor venerate theirnGerman neighbors: but they wonder,nin both senses of the word. The Swissnexpect nothing good to come out ofnGermany; the French expect somethingnastonishing and do not knownwhether it will be good or evil.nMme. Sauzay evokes the revival ofnLutheranism in postwar Germany andnsees it exemplified — although in ansecularized form—in Green enthusiasm.nThe 18th-century Enlightenmentnwas antireligious in France andnEngland but religious in Germany,nwhich created quite a different spiritualnclimate and quite different spiritualntensions. Mme. Sauzay has correctlynobserved that even the antiauthoritariannprotest movements,nwhich are anti-Ghristian in so much ofnthe world, are strangely religious innGermany. One omission in her incisivenanalysis lies in her underestimationnof the strength of the Evangelicalnrenewal—not political religion, butnChristian renewal. This has not yetnbeen discovered by the media, but it isnthere—as the Evangelical or Fundamentalistnrenaissance was there in thenUnited States long before the mediannoticed Jerry Falwell. Evangelicalismnin Germany differs from that in thenUnited States in that it consists almostnentirely of piety, very littie of politics.nMme. Sauzay reminds us that wenmust expect something big from Germany,nalthough she cannot say what.nShe warns us that it could suddenlynturn nasty—the Green bud could producena black flower. She is correct tontell us to expect something, and alsonwhen she says that whatever it is, itnwill not be what we are looking for.nThe German top, full of energy, continuesnto spin, and it can move innalmost any direction—right or left, ornperhaps even “just right.”nHarold O.J. Brown is pastor of thenEvangelische Kirchgemeinde in Klosters,nSwitzerland, and a contributingneditor to Chronicles.nLetter From NewnYorknby Richard KostelanetznAsk Dr. GrantsnnnHow do I get a grant?nYou first must get an application.nForget about those grants for whichnyou cannot apply, such as MacArthurnFellowships, which are essentially designednfor people already known,nwhich is to say celebrities, or incipientncelebrities.nOnce you get the application, readnits guidelines carefully to make surenyou qualify and, if you do, then tonorganize your presentation. If youndon’t understand something in thenguidelines, call or write the grantingnagency’s administrators, who are requirednto give advice to applicants.nShould you find them unhelpful orndiscouraging, you can either assumenthey want to save your time, or suspectnthat they are trying to lessen the competition,nrather than increase it, innorder to channel available funds tonapplicants who are administratively favored.nAdministrators, it should not benforgotten, are supposed only to administer,nnot to choose. The selection ofnwinners is the responsibility of eithernthe funding agency’s board or an adnhoc panel convened for a particularncompetition.nApplication forms fall into twongroups: those for individuals and thosenfor organizations. The former are customarilynsimple, no more than twonpages in length, requiring minimalninformation: name, birthday, birthplace,ncurrent address and telephonenAPRIL 1987/35n
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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