The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt & the KPD

Part I: January to May 1920
Part II: June to the Fall of 1920
Part III: Erfurt and the DNVP

The KPD started its newspaper, Der Kommunist, in May 1919 for Erfurt readers. It drew support from "Spartkists", who had sided with the uprisings in early 1919, and local independent socialists who were disenchanted with the old socialist party, the SPD. The Communist's editors also addressed the perceived lower middle class and other groups, whom they thought they could mobilize for its politics. For much of their first year of political activity under the banners of Independent Socialism (represented in the Vorwaerts daily newspaper too) and Communism, people in Erfurt kept their activity to public demonstrations and repeatedly hoisting a red flag on the Rathaus (which the local DNVP's supporters did not like). However, in the midwinter and early spring many were actively preparing for the chance to take up arms for the Revolution. After their failure to instigate that Communist Revolution by exploiting the General Strike of the "March Days" (see Part I), local Communists turned to the First national republican parliamentary elections scheduled for June 1920. The records of this newspaper in the Erfurt municipal archives, unfortunately, ends in June 1920.

The call for a new struggle
At the beginning of 1920 in an article entitled, “New Year – New Struggle” (The Communist, Nr. 1, 3 January 1920), the editors sketched the current situation. For the majority of those comrades still living the past year of 1919 was a year of greatest disappointment, a year of horror and the most bitter physical and spiritual torture. […] What will the near future bring? That is the anxious question which moves millions of hearts and minds at the turn of the new year.

In the rearguard
On page 2, the editors carried Maxim Gorki's article, “What is the lower middle class person (Kleinbuerger)?” Gorki wrote: Life is known as the struggle of the lords for power and of the servants for freedom from the yoke of this power. The tempo of this struggle is accelerating more and more with the increasing feeling of personal worth and the consciousness of the unified class interests among the Volk masses.

The lower middle class wanted to live quietly and agreeably without actively participating in this struggle; its favorite position was a peaceful existence in the rearguard of the strongest army. The internally powerless lower middle class bows to the visibly raw power of its government. When, however, as we have seen and still see, the government begins to become criminal, then the lower middle class becomes capable of begging or even taking its part in power over the land, whereby it draws from the strength of the Volk and relies on the hands of the same for achieving its desires.


The Reaction
As word of a possible right wing military coup spread, the editors of the Communist carried the headlines, “The Reaction Marches” (The Communist, Nr. 13, 11 March 1920), “Monarchist demonstrations in Potsdam; closure of the officers school there”.


Pogroms?
On age 2, in their “Political Overview”, the Communist editors described “Pogrom exercises” for its readers. On January 13^th 42 proletarians were shot to death by the security police in front of the Reichstag. What has followed is the Reich’s state of emergency, the suppression of the revolutionary press and protective detention for hundreds of revolutionaries. The military-monarchical counterrevolution promptly drew consequences from this fact… […] The first result was the revolver shots that Mr. von Hirschfeld fired on Erzberger (Matthias Erzberger, The current German Reichs Financial Minister). The independent German judiciary deemed the attack on the life of one of the democratic government’s leaders worth 1.5 years imprisonment. The so called public opinion praised the young hero of the “Black Hundred” (Schwarzhunderttum) with the laurel leaf and the Juenglingsstirn (? An honor for youth?).


The March Days of 1920 (see Part I)


The Housing Emergency
On page 4, the editors wrote about the local housing situation in “From the Local Districts”; from their view, the housing crisis was increasingly threatening; millions of people did not have a chance of finding even the most modest roof for their heads.

Weapons
In “The Call to the First of May” (The Communist, Nr. 23, 29 April 1920), the Communist's editors sought to mobilize local people for its coming demonstration. Workers! Comrades! In May 1919 the White Guards closed the iron ring around revolutionary Muenchen. The Noske Regiment completed its victory run. The middle class Democracy created a new weapon for itself in these struggles against the Proletariat: the Reichs Army with its aristocratic (Junker) officers, the citizens’ defense units and the Freikorps. The proletariat is being disarmed. The middle class Democracy has realized itself as a government by the saber, as the dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie.

The Red Army Advance
In “Advance of the Red Army” (The Communist, Nr. 41, 22 May 1920), the editors reported from new actions on the front of the war between pro-Soviet and anti-Soviet forces in the Ukraine and Poland. In the area around Borissow a Polish airplane was shot down. In the area around Kiev our units are advancing. […] Northeast of Kiev the battle is on.

The frightening social crisis
In “To the Comrades of the District of Thueringen!” (The Communist, Nr. 46, 29 May 1920), the editors of the Communist sought to mobilize voters for the upcoming national elections. Party Comrades! Men and Women! […] At every opportunity it must be clearly and sharply emphasized that the victory of the Proletarian Revolution cannot be achieved through elections and parliamentary decrees. The insidious illusion must be destroyed that a social democratic majority in parliament can bring about Socialism or at least an amelioration of the increasingly frightening social crisis! Tell the Proletariat that our representatives should not go to parliament in order to whittle away the advantages of the Proletariat for the representatives of the Bourgeoisie. Our representatives in parliament have no other task there but to ruthlessly strip capitalism and its agents of their masks for the whole world to see and call the masses to struggle from the tribune of the parliament for the dictatorship of the councils (Raetediktatur)! […] Our solutions are no division of power with the Bourgeoisie! No weapons in the hands of the Bourgeoisie! All weapons in the hands of the Proletariat! All power to the councils of the working Volk in the city and on the land!

Only work can save us
In“Only Work Can Save Us!” (The Communist, Nr. 49, 2 June 1920) on page 2, the editors of the Communist invoked the memories of the recent past. Remember the 15,000 proletarians, whom Noske had slaughtered in the name of democracy! Choose Spartakus! […] Send no social traitor or pseudo revolutionary to parliament! Vote for the Communists!

Cooperation with Soviet Russia
In the lead up to the June national parliamentary elections, the editors of the Communist carried banners in the headers and footers of each of its pages such as, “Spartakus fights for the closest cooperation with Soviet Russia. Send Communists to Parliament!” (The Communist, Nr. 50, 3 June 1920).

The Women Warriors for Communism
In “Women as the Warriors for Communism” (The Communist, Nr. 51, 4 June 1920), the editors of the Communist foresaw a special role for women. […] As soon as working women join the advanced socialist warriors for Communism the danger of rumors and the intrigues of pastors and village leaders, which incite the masses against the hated Bolsheviks, will disappear.

Hangman's work and sending Black Troops to Poland
In “Support Troops for Poland on the Way through Germany” (The Communist, Nr. 59, 13 June 1920), the editors of the Communist wrote about the possible role of German railway workers in supporting the use of French colonial black troops for the fight against Communism in Poland, a possibility which the local middle class press had called a racial insult in the French occupation of the Ruhr. The withdrawal of colored troops from the Saarland is foreseen for the middle of June. The troops are designated to go to Poland. The Saarland will maintain a French occupying force. The troops must make their way through Germany. German railway workers will be designated to transport them. However, the same German Bourgeoisie, who has just staged a national indignation against the “black insult”, suggests an insulting hangman’s work for the German proletariat against its Russian brothers.

Housing crisis
In “Increasing Housing Misery” (The Communist, Nr. 60, 15 June 1920, p. 4.), the editors of the Communist invoked a problem that must have been persistent among some of its intended audience. From their editorial view, the problem would grow worse because the recent national decree for the removal of housing shortages had been declared inadmissible by a court in Hannover.

Democracy in Crisis
In the wake of the parliamentary election results (see Part II), the editors of the Communist published, “The Continuing Crisis of the Democracy” (The Communist, Nr. 64, 19 June 1920), and proclaimed, “The Dying Democracy” in its subheading. […] The Democracy should have brought salvation from all need, should have brought the war to a favorable conclusion, the glorious peaceful understanding, etc. – and the Volk masses, who have just awoken with dumb heads from the frenzy of a patriotic shroud, believed in it with almost religious conviction. Not only the workers, but the broad masses of the lower middle class and the farmers began to believe in the Democracy; even large sections of the Bourgeoisie saw in it its way out of all difficulties. […] Only a small group of advanced proletarians, who rallied around the Communists, opposed the belief in Democracy and fought it from the very beginning as the cover for the counter revolution. […] Since then things have fundamentally changed. The military power has gained control of the situation and from the excitement for the Democracy there is barely a hint left to feel.

The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt in 1920, Part II

Part I: January to May 1920
Part II: June to the Fall of 1920

The death of parliament

In “The stillborn parliament” (FP, Nr. 124, 10 June 1920) the Free Press (FP) reacted with dejection toward the results of the first national parliamentary elections (Note: the editors of the FP had surmised that the conservatives would take it on the chin for the Kapp-Putsch; so this was a significant disappointment). The editors wrote that the Central German Newspaper (Die Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (MZ)) was silently enjoying the “personal defeat” of the government (Note: the MZ was as a paper was only in its second year and carried the perspective of the middle class right, especially the conservative German National People’s Party (DNVP)). The editors parted with a shot: We can only tell them and their whole pack of capitalist, pious and obstinate servants (Trotzknechten) that they should not be happy about this ‘victory’ and this ‘defeat’. It will not last long. Then they will not have anything to say publicly, but at home they will sit and moan in their little rooms. Woe to us, we have won.

The results of the National Parliamentary Elections on 6 June 1920:

The German Democratic Party (DDP): 10% of those who voted (about 6400 people)

The German Volks Party (DVP): 18,9%

The German National Volk Party (DNVP): 20,5%

The Centre Party: 5,1%

The old Social Democratic Party (SPD): 6,8%

The Independent Socialist Democratic Party (USPD): 36,3%

The Communist Party (KPD): 2,6%

Guns

In “The handover of weapons” (MZ, Nr. 213, 14 August 1920), The DNVP wrote in to the editors of the MZ and addressed Erfurt’s president in regards to the National Law for the Disarmament of the People (Das Reichsgesetz ueber die Entwaffnung der Bevoelkerung from 7 August 1920). First, they argued, a general disarmament will not help the inner peace. The precondition must be an equal disarmament – to no one’s advantage or disadvantage. The political parties will accept the invitation to meet. As for the workers, it does not matter how many freely give up their weapons, but rather how many are subjected to terror. We know that the workers of Erfurt generally acted in a calm and composed way during the last unruly days (the March Days of 1920), but we have to add that from our perspective it was the military and political security measures that proved effective. May it remain as such. We want to hope so. One should not take it the wrong way, when we make use of the “democratic duty to mistrust” in this matter. Mr. President, investigate the conditions of the working classes to see how their leaders agitate them and lead them down the wrong path. Then we will be on your side.

[…] We want a strong government, and we will welcome it when the government makes its strength known, as currently in the words of the president. A demonstration on the street does not bring us great joy. However, we are determined to use this means as well, when we have no other and when the parades of the Proletariat are not in a kindly fashion stopped.

In that same day’s paper on page five, the MZ reported on “The weapons find in Erfurt”. There were five wagons full of countless weapons, machine guns, 98s and manufactured guns. There was one further wagon was loaded by the Moving Company Liefegang (Erfurt) and has a value estimated at 35,000 Reichsmark.

The August Days

“General Strike in Upper Silesia” (MZ, Nr. 218, 19 August 1920; Note: Upper Silesia was an ethnically mixed Polish and German region under Allied Occupation).

Second page: “New Battles in Kattowitz” (Note: a town in Upper Silesia); “Persecution of Jews in Warsaw”; “The Cholera in Petersburg”.

The Poles

In “The Poles are the Instigators!” (MZ, Nr. 219, 20 August 1920), the MZ carried a report on the causes of the unrest in Upper Silesia and the deployment of Italian troops there. According to the author, just as well as the Poles ordered a strike force into Rybnick in order to disperse the German public gatherings there, they could have followed another tactic in Kattowitz in order to force the confrontation between the Germans and the French military. The Poles are working with the assumption that these sorts of frictions have to worsen the relationship between the occupiers and the German population so much so that under the circumstances the results of the ballot (on the national question of Upper Silesia) will most likely be influenced too. Most certainly, it is without question the Poles who have an interest in the military support of the Western Allies. All of Upper Silesia is swarming with Warsaw’s agents, who are working day and night to ignite the politically tense atmosphere.

Another Workers’ Uprising

(TAZ, Nr. 220, 21 August 1920), In Duesseldorf, the Workers’ Council Republic was declared. One hundred men occupied the Rathaus and were requisitioning automobiles and bicycles in the city. From those who were doing well, money was being taken.

Black Murderers

In “Colored murderers in Germany” (TAZ, Nr. 220, 22 August 1920) the TAZ editors reported on a former milk handler and current court civil servant who were shot and robbed on the way home from the Ruhr region to Erfurt by two colored soldiers.

The Day of Sedan
In an article entitled, “Sedan”, Dr. W. A. Krannhals commemorated the decisive battle in the German wars of unification against the French on 2 September 1870, whereby Napoleon III became a prisoner of war to the Prussian army. (MZ, Nr. 232, 2 September 1920). For many nationalist Germans this was the most important, albeit unofficial, national holiday. Kaiser Wilhelm I refused to declare it an official holiday and saw Sedan more as an honor to the Prussian military. In the 1890s more and more Germans began to associate Sedan with the theme of unity. On 27 August 1919, the Weimar Republic declared that there would no longer be celebrations to commemorate the day of Sedan since it was not considered appropriate for the times (hence the Erfurters' scheduling of a celebration over a week later). Dr. Krannhals wrote: Today, 50 years ago, is the proudest day among the great years that the Reich gave us and Germany unity. Not with celebratory actions nor in great joy do we celebrate this day, but with worry, full of a thousand doubts. We celebrate this day because we cannot do anything else except in calm reflection and in the struggle to draw new strength from the meaning of this day for the most difficult and largest challenge that this Volk and Reich have faced.

[...] “Then the devil should be afraid, we do not want to fear,” so proclaimed Luther in faithful trust: “The hour will come, in which the wisdom and violence that pulses will go away. We will say, where are they now?” This trust, this belief in Sedan, this unshakable confidence in victory should flourish in us from this day marking Sedan, which we observe from the depth of our need. It should steel us to new strength and commemorate the great inheritance that we have to protect. It should let us become healthy and commemorate the holy strength that have grown in us out of our greatness, from Luther, from Bismarck and from Hindenburg. So do these three lead us in the depths of our hearts and everywhere where we stand, whether on the field of deeds; one day it will also mean for our enemies, who lure us with their wisdom: “Where are they now?” We, however, will then be able to celebrate a new Sedan, greater and more powerful, as the source from which new strength will flow to us, when we are unified and true. Unified, like our fathers were, who created the Reich for us, such that we are concerned that we must fight today in word and deed with our blood, with our spirit and with our strength! For that help us Sedan!

“Citizens’ Courage”

The Central German Newspaper (MZ, Nr. 243, 13 September 1920) published a letter from a woman in Erfurt about the commemoration of the Fatherland in early September on the steps and broad plaza of the cathedral:

What moves me to write is not the attempt by the demonstrators to disturb the Commemoration of the Fatherland on Sunday, 12 September, but rather the once again proven courage and pride of citizens. Dear German citizens, do things really have to get worse for you first, does the water first have to climb up around your throats, before you have the courage to commit yourself to resistance? How many participants did I see from my vantage point on the steps of the cathedral run away to save themselves? Secretly, quietly they disappeared and left the showplace to the youth, who bravely fought and defended their beautiful, new black, red and white flag. Women also showed their courage, their temperament not daunted by coercion. I witnessed many fists dancing on the backs of the demonstrators. Bad examples spoil good morals and it is always still better to show one’s feelings for the Fatherland this way than to stand cautiously to the side as, unfortunately, I saw among many of my fellow citizens do. They screamed at the officials with complaining looks, ‘this did not function either. The whole event is poorly organized.’ Think about it, dear citizens, the best organization does nothing when it is not supported with powerful deeds, if not one for all and all for one, if not driven by the determined will that we want to do something, we want to have our commemoration undisturbed. That could happen without division! […] If only you knew how strong you are, dear citizen (Buergersmann). Carry through with the task at hand. Don’t always stand there by the side with a wait and see attitude, distinguished appearance and misunderstood decency. It is the only way to impress upon the riff raff and rabble, which, naturally incited by a Jew, sang, whistled and screamed on the Wilhelm Plaza, let the International live and otherwise revealed themselves in other ways as uneducated children in need of punishment. One can only call it riff raff and rabble, then one could not imagine that a reasonable, thoughtful and decent worker would have something against it when our great past, our heroes' deeds and our dead whom we have to lament, are to be commemorated.

The Defenseless Old Ones

In the same edition, the MZ carried an article about the fictional conversation between the cathedral dome and the old veteran (of the late 19^th century wars of unification, “Der Dom und der alte Veteran”. It described the thousands who had just gathered there on the wide space of the plaza, standing densely packed to the corners, and just having dispersed through the side streets. The sun of a September Sunday streamed playfully over the obelisk that stood in the middle and the children played ball in their bright Sunday best. There was still a group of people talking, but otherwise the place was quiet.

[…] “I saw everything and heard everything,” said the Dome. “Everything. I understand exactly what is going on with you old warriors and truly, so deeply the German has not yet tread into the muck. Not yet so deeply. He cannot surpass himself anymore, such as he can be outdone by the worthlessness and shamefulness of his own people. […] we must have patience. The insanity must and will cease raging. To be sure, you will barely live to experience it. Well, I have gone on talking long enough; soon you will see the gloriosa (!?). There is only one thing I want to ask you: why did all of you thousands gathered here today with honorable intentions, why did you thousands from this society stand here on this plaza and let the scandal of a few stupid young men take place? Huh? It is not meant as an accusation against you. No. You old ones have become defenseless and powerless, But the others, where are they? […] Wake them up. And now, live well, old man, for better times.”

Two Different Socialist Voices

In an article in that same issue entitled, “Two Socialist Voices” (MZ, Nr. 244, 14 September 1920), the editors of the MZ found it remarkable what Erfurt’s Free Press, the moderate Socialist paper in town, had to say about the scandalous events on Sunday: It was a sad picture. So the ‘celebration’ degraded into a tumult. Given everything that happened, it has to be seen as fortunate that it ended mildly. Certainly, there were at time moments where the situation was dangerous and the serious encounters seemed unavoidable. A unit of the security police was alarmed, but did not engage itself. Reason still proved victorious - luckily. If it were to come to something extremely and unforeseeably unfortunate, then the wire pullers of the communist counter demonstration would have to carry the primary responsibility [...]. Finally, the FP asked, What had the communists achieved with their senseless actions? We want to say it without making it sound nice: they have only damaged the thing that they say they wish to represent. Their appearance was a very visibly instructive lesson against the Moscow system. Moreover, the whole socialist minded working class of Erfurt will most certainly suffer the consequences because the bourgeois masses will weld themselves more strongly together to a unified block, which will allow itself to be all the more easily misused for reactionary purposes. The Reaction itself will not be affected by this […]. It demonstrates a lack of political education and the most elementary democratic principles to disturb disagreeable events in this violent and provocative manner.

The editors of the MZ noted how the other Socialist paper, the Tribuene, put it differently and added that the Tribune's editors had voted for working with Moscow. They defended their communist brothers and talk in well known ways about "German National Agitators Convention" and "Punches for the 'Victims of the War'".

The Enemies of the Republic and Democracy

In “The Interrupted Memorial in Erfurt” (FP, Nr. 205, 13 September 1920), the editors of the Free Press called it a victory for the enemies of democracy. As they saw it, last Sunday was a day for the victory of the enemies of democracy in Erfurt. The reactionary parties, namely the national rightwing Bolsheviks, have “won”; the Communists have given them water for the millwheel for new attacks on the democratic republic. We have held the Communists responsible from our side for all kinds of follies both non political and political, in order to discredit them and lead us past the old “gentlemanly” times of the monarchical-military “order”. And the leftwing Bolsheviks, the communists, have “won”, because they have marred the democracy. Both are enemies of the Republic, enemies of the Democracy, and enemies of the Social Democracy! When will the day come in Erfurt, on which the cool, thinking working classes make an end of the irresponsible communist heroes of riot, the greatest enemy of the calm upward development of the German working class? Workers, comrades! Prevent the uprisings from left and right! Long live the free democracy!

A Dangerous Pell-mell

In its coverage of “The Commemoration of the Fatherland” (TAZ, Nr. 243, 13 September 1920), the editors of the more moderate middle class TAZ emphasized how the memorial on Sunday at noon on the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Plaza was open for every member of the German Volk, without injury to any feeling or political view. Unfortunately, a few hundred people with red flags and the usual placards assembled, in order, as they had already threatened, to disturb the festivity. In the pile tumbled a large number of young men well known from similar opportunities. The whole pile of protesters disappeared at any rate in the excited mass, which wanted to celebrate despite all attempts at disturbance. The usual cheers for the International were answered with hand clapping and patriotic songs. […] there was a dangerous pell-mell on the steps of the Dome and a storm of demonstrators toward a black-white-red flag of a Veterans’ Association. In spite of all that, the memorial’s program was fully carried out. There were male choirs. Pastor Mueller greeted the veterans of 1870/71. The writer Gustav Schroer spoke on the spirit of love in which the entire people must unify themselves. To which those of another mind howled […] the sign of leftwing radical agitation.

The Police Report on the Disturbances

In “The Folks Festival” (MZ, Nr. 244, 14 September 1920), the MZ carried a report from the police of Erfurt on their security measures. The Organization of Revolutionary Railroad Workers and the International Federation of War Wounded, known by their placards and red flag, attached themselves at the end of the line of the associations. The police tried through negotiations with the leaders to make sure that they wished to peacefully participate in the festivities or intended to cause a disturbance. In that moment, the security chains fell and the whole mass poured onto and up the dome steps. […] The police tried to maintain order and calm those yelling. […] In order to counter any rumors from hence forward, it is also noted that the police did not observe or receive any reports about any injuries of a serious nature.

The Life Line & Personality

In an article entitled, “About the Reformation Celebration” (TAZ, Nr. 291, 31 October 1920), Pastor Huettenrauch from Klosterlausnitz wrote: for the second time since the collapse (of Germany), October 31^st had come to our Volk, which could still not raise itself up from its deep fall. Do you know why you have not found the strength to rise up? […] You wanted to bring about the new ordering of your life through laws and decrees. That is the wrong way. Then the rebirth of a Volk depends not on measures, but rather on people, from the quality of the personalities that are bound by success and ruin to the whole Volk. The quality of the personalities depends on the spiritual strength which they possess. […] Whoever takes religion away from the people rips the life line out of them.

Anti-Semitism

In “The Order to Murder Jews” (FP, Nr. 253, 8 November 1920), the editors of the FP commented on German National (DNVP) educators. In Munich there was an assassination attempt against Dr. Hirschfeld by German National younglings; the youth are trying to infect political opponents with the motivation to murder. The Dresdner DNVP supports the assassination attempt.

The "micro-histories" of fear: Erfurt in 1920

Introduction:
In this post I want to present my research on the public record of fear in Erfurt from the first half of 1920. In a post that follows, I want to present the second half of my findings for that year, highlighting a gathering of Erfurt’s citizenry for the commemoration of the nation that September and in a final post, I want to discuss the theoretical, historiographical and archival significance of this research in relation to my larger project. Part II: June to the Fall of 1920

A Year of Hope:
1920 began as a year of hope for Germany’s national leadership and the local Erfurt papers published their wishes for the New Year. The first national elections were scheduled for that June, but the rightwing Kapp Putsch in Berlin would lead to renewed Putsch attempts from the right and left across Germany. In nearby Gotha, the radical socialists and communists had taken control of the city only to be violently crushed by the military and paramilitary organizations made up of Great War veterans, local Buerger and fresh young men. Meanwhile, those local political and military leaders turned Erfurt into a militarized zone of barbwire and armed checkpoints, but called for restraint on all sides of the political spectrum as reports came in of excessively violent clashes. Most strikingly, there was a working coalition of moderate voices in Erfurt. The moderate socialist editors of the Free Press (FP), who supported more democratic and social reform and inter-party political cooperation, would claim victory by the end of March for the Republic because of the cooperative efforts of the town magistrate, police, military, moderate socialists, railroad and postal workers, middle class Democratic and Catholic leaders. However, they could not control more radical efforts from people on the extreme sides of the political spectrum, who wanted to undermine this cooperation and eliminate their political enemies. That spring, local papers continued to report on political acts of terror in the vicinity from all sides. As for local "everyday" voices, I found a few including a letter from a young engineer asking the local government to explain the excessive use of force by groups acting in its name.

Fear in 1920
Among the periodical highlights on fear in the first half of 1920:

The veiled threat from Erfurt’s civil servants:

In January, the civil servant association (Erfurter Beamten) held a public meeting at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz in front of the cathedrals. They claimed that they could physically feel how much the current government (the Weimar Republic) had troubled them and they demanded “reasonable” measures to deal with Germany’s economic problems. They saw themselves as the group which had saved this republic’s young life and hinted at withdrawing their support if they did not get their way.

Profiteering:

In response to the reports about the activity of “Wucher” in the region the government of Thuringia had passed a new law to combat the problem of profiteering (The Thueringer Allgemeiner Zeitung (TAZ), Nr. 1, 1 January 1920). In the spring articles on the history of “Wucher” in Thuringia would appear in the TAZ

Educating children in the wake of trauma:

In March, a group of teachers wrote into the TAZ (Nr. 63, 3 March 1920) with their concerns about the moral effects of the Great War and the use of force in the home and school on Germany’s children. They believed the Great War had tortured (zerquaelten) and broken the German people. So these teachers asked readers not to hold their children responsible for the past and resort to outdated physical forms of punishment.

The wounded nation and the duty of women:

In March, Dorothea Hartenstein wrote in the TAZ (Nr. 68, 8 March 1920) that it was the first duty of German women to cultivate a national feeling and Germans should focus on binding their own wounds and healing the German people before they should or could deal with the pains of other peoples.

The anarchy and chaos of Independent Socialism and Communism:

The FP (Nr. 59, 10 March 1920) saw the rise of an independent socialist government in Gotha as leading to anarchy rather than Bolshevism. Just the fact that the independent socialist (USPD) government in Gotha had declared war against the German nation demonstrated that the independent socialist leadership either had no qualms or the minds of sparrows. Their forms of politics continued to provoke other segments of the population, especially their declaration on religion. Moreover their elimination of the teachers’ council and its replacement with a directory was an assassination of democracy.

The lack of adequate housing:

The local communist paper, The Kommunist (Nr. 13, 11 March 1920), reported on capitalistic and communist housing politics. This author claimed that the housing crisis in Germany was growing more and more threatening. Millions of people did not have a chance of finding even the most modest roof for over their heads.

Economic Emergency:

In an article entitled, “A Declaration of the Middle Class” (der Mittelstand, the TAZ, Nr. 72, 12 March 1920), a gathering of the specialty trade shops, craft workers and house owners met in the gymnasium at the Catholic citizens’ school (Buergerschule). Senator H. Beythien spoke about Germany’s economic need. He recalled the days of economic prosperity before the war, but he also noted how difficult it was for the middle classes against big business. He described the current national government’s politics as an enemy of middle class interests, which robbed the virtuous and industrious elements in society of every initiative. It was a forced form of economy instead of a free one. The possibility of unfolding all of one’s own personal virtue could make Germany great and strong again. Dr. Seeman, the Syndikus for Erfurt’s Chamber of Craft Workers, described the results of the 9^th of November 1918 as detrimental (unheilvolle); only the interests of the workers were represented, which he reiterated, was a threat to the middle class. The business leader Meydig added that socialization was a danger for property owners.

Anti-Semitism:

In response to the increasing reports of anonymous defaming and threatening letters directed at Jewish Germans in the region the FP (Nr. 62, 13 March 1920; see also FP, Nr. 59, 10 March 1920) carried the writing of Hans von Weher from a publication called Onionfish (Der Zwiebelfisch). According to von Weher, the anonymous actions of Anti-Semites were the signs of their cowardness and underhandedness. Anti-Semites, from Weher’s perspective, were either political ignorant people who were just born that way, or if they understood politics, then they were demagogues who were using Anti-Semitism to conduct business. The FP believed that a recent assassination attempt on a prominent Jewish German in Baden-Baden was a sign that the old All German Union (Alldeutscher Bund) was actively inciting young people to attack Germans of the Jewish religion.

Heat for homes and energy for industry:

Most of the newspapers reported on the rising prices for brown coal and the concerns over home heating in the cold months. The FP (The Free Press, a local moderate socialist newspaper, Nr. 62, 13. March 1920) believed that there were more local roots to the lack of coal such as the distribution problems in Halle, and suggested balanced reporting in response to public accusations, like those of the German Brown Coal Industry Association in Halle pointed at the French Occupation and the Weimar Republic.

The home and family are in danger!

Fliers from the “March Days” of left and rightwing uprisings found in the Erfurt City Archive records of the Freikorps made statements like this: “Mothers, Women, Girls! Foreign elements without a fatherland have succeeded through (?) agitation and foreign phrases to shroud the reason of a part of the German people and distract them from the path of duty. True men of German blood have barely escaped the hell of war and must now take up the war against terror, murder and (Notzucht), against erroneous teachings. These are the Citizens’ Defense Units. Without paying heed to the shameless insults and lies of foreign agitators, voluntary bands are doing their duty, which is doubly difficult because they must defend the German homeland, mothers and children against members of the German people fanaticized by paid agents and spies. Your home, German women, and also your happiness, German girls, are in danger. Therefore, do your part too in the great task of liberation: talk to your man whose name you carry, to the father of your children, your fiancé, whose home you eventually want to guard. Talk to your friends, who would support you in times of danger and need, so that they too do their part and report to the Citizens Defense Units!”

The Call to all Order-loving Men
In another flier: The outrageous Terror of the last few days immediately demands the most aggressive defense, if it should not lead to the complete destruction of the economic life and property of the individual. For the support of the Professional Defenses (Berufswehren) the “Ordnungshilfe” (Order Support) has been created (StVAE, 1-2/120-14, Bl.2)

Copy for Reproduction and Distribution!
The labor unions associated with the German Civil Servants Union declare that they will only support an order of government that is based on the currently binding constitution because of the oath that the civil servants have taken on the basis of the constitution. (Deutschen Beamtenbund) (StVAE, 1-2/120-14, Bl.4)

District Commander's Order from 15 March 1920
As district commander of Erfurt, I am letting it be known that under my command: the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 21 and the Security Police will under all circumstances maintain calm and order regardless an older or newly built government.

The wish of the Fatherland must be that honorable and capable men from the old government and all parties should lead us.

[…] To Point 4a: The ban on gatherings of political parties will be suspended. For this all further gatherings should be officially registered with the Land Councils and the local Police authorities and subject to my authority. Signed Von Selle (StVAE, 1-2/120-14, Bl. 5)

Message to the Reichswehr

Brigade 11 in Cassel, 16 March 1920: The Proletariat strives for control through the call for the Councils Republic, Action Committees or Executive Council, and is trying to remove troops, security and citizens’ defense units. (StVAE, 1-2/120-14, Bl. 14)

Herr Oberbuergermeister!

Yesterday evening at 6:35 it was still daylight. I wanted to make my way from the Schloss Bridge accompanied by a colleague to Schloss Street past the main checkpoint.

[…] I afterwards confirmed: the three men from the Security Police fired without even the slightest grounds to do it. No one stood. Everything went further. No one wanted to in anyway harm the three men, the whole public was well clothed and did not look like Spartakus;, many women were there as well. All persons were far removed from the Security Police, every man immediately followed their command. It was completely unmistakable that this involved harmless people who did not know that the Anger (one of the major Erfurter plazas) was cordoned off. Why then this shooting?

I ask you earnestly, Herr Oberbuergermeister, to do everything in your power to protect your fellow citizens from such infringements. […] Besides this danger for the body and life of innocents there is, however, something else to consider: that the Green Police (Green uniforms were for the State Police *must check) have made themselves more and more unloved so that they are making a name for themselves not only among the politically most radical circles but also already in the whole citizenry as a raw, bloodthirsty Soldateska.

Robert Jacki

Teacher at the Building Trade School.
Prussian Government Building Master, Lieutenant in the Reserves of the 7^th Baden Infantry Regiment.

Member of the Technical Emergency Support (StVAE, 1-2/120-14, Bl. 31)

The threat to democracy and the call for its defense:

At the end of March and in response to voices from the right that democracy in Germany was bankrupt, the FP claimed that moderates across the political spectrum, including the railway and postal worker unions, old socialists and middle class democrats and Catholics had successfully defended the democracy during the “March Days”, but new support was needed to build democracy. Despite the warnings from some that such actions would result in democracy becoming terror and dictatorship, democracy’s proponents could not shy away from removing reactionary and rightwing elements from the military and civil service. (Nr. 64, 26 March 1920).

Terror from the right and left:

Newspapers reported on continuing terror from the right and the left in the region. The FP kept a daily column on the “civil war in Thuringia”. They reported a communist attack on the palace guard in Gotha from nearby Weissenfels and Zeitz (Nr. 65, 27 March 1920). In another article entitled, “The White Terror in Thuringia” (Nr. 67, 30 March 1920) the FP graphically described a middle class self defense force’s extralegal execution of 16 workers in neighboring Soemmerda.

In another article, “What will happen with the Self Defense Force in Soemmerda?” (Nr. 84, 21 April 1920), the FP cited an order from the German national government that the local citizens’ self-defense forces were supposed to disband themselves, but no one was obeying that order in Erfurt. The article’s author reported that the citizens’ defense force in nearby Soemmerda was still armed and holding training exercises. They were also maintaining a watch over local workers’ homes, preventing those workers from returning home. Those workers were afraid to return home because of the reports that the citizens’ defense forces had shot workers whom they claimed had tried to escape. The FP’s author saw as immediate danger for the republic in both left and rightwing paramilitary units and demanded the immediate disarmament of the citizens’ defense units.

Rebirth, Life and Freedom:

In its lead article on Easter the FP (Nr. 70, 3 April 1920), the authors wanted their readers to believe that everything had been rejuvenated. Countless voices, according to the authors, announced daily the joyful message of rejuvenation and life and liberation from the power of winter and bandits.

The end of small farms:

In April, the TAZ (Nr. 101, 21. April 1920) reported that 500 farmers convened in Weimar. The head of the meeting, the mayor of Legefeld, spoke about the sad situation of the fatherland and claimed that as long as the national government was in the hands of socialists, there could be no national rejuvenation. The head of the Thuringian Farmers Union (Landbund) claimed that there was a stark contrast between what the national government promised and what they did. The streets were under the control of the lowest elements of the masses (the Poebel). Meanwhile, the middle classes slept and had learned nothing. The only weapon that the individual had in this situation was the ballot. There was still a major division between large and small farm owners. It looked like most small farm owners would lose possession of their farms within three to four generations given the current and approaching tax laws. Despite their differences, farmers had to mobilize their voters. The speaker told those present that they had to be conscious of themselves. He reminded that that there were 46,000 organized farmers in Thuringia. There were 3.5 million farmers in all of Germany. They commanded over a million votes in and could take 100 seats in the national parliament.

Money and inflation:

The FP reported optimistically at the beginning of April that the value of money appeared to be rising, which would consequently mean lower prices (Nr. 74, 9 April 1920). However, at the end of the month, the FP was explaining the nature of inflation for its readers and demanding the organization of economic production instead of increasing prices as the solution among individual producers (Nr. 88, 26 April 1920).

The middle classes:

The TAZ (Nr. 106, 27 April 1920) also carried the announcement for the founding of a middle class union. According to the article the middle class had two tasks. One task was to avoid Germany’s political and economic catastrophe and the second task was to defend against the socialist assault, which mobilized workers with the slogan “Against the middle classes”. The author claimed that these were the wishes of all segments of the middle classes: industry, trade, house owners, farmers, civil servants, white collar workers and craftsmen. The Middle Class Union was an organization for the whole middle class and above all parties with the goal of forming a political block against the rising tide of socialism.

Black troops in Germany:

In May the TAZ (Nr. 111, May 1920) reproduced an article from the Syndikalist newspaper with the title, “Black Troops in Elsass”. The author wrote, “that if the government deemed it necessary that we must have foreign troops on German territory, then we would prefer to have French troops rather than half wild soldiers, who come from all other parts of the world and who are incapable of communicating with us. We will no longer accept black troops in our land!”

The Red Danger in the East:

The MZ (Nr. 136, 29 May 1920) carried an article about the “Red Danger in the East”, in which the author expressed the fear that Poland, the last bastion against the spring flood of Bolshevism, would fall. Germany had very little strength to oppose the Red Army and Germany’s enemies had broken the weapons for their own self defense. The German national government continued to look at the whole thing, as it always did, through rose colored glasses.

New rumors of a leftwing uprising:

In that same issue, the MZ reported on the latest rumors of possible uprisings. The author cited reports from Berlin and Munich that the leftwing headquarters were in Halle and Remscheid. Moreover, there was a plan to start small uprisings in cities like Hamburg and Berlin in order to draw the military into a conflict, which in turn would start a rightwing uprising that the communists would use to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Buchenwald

The word means "beech forest" in German. It was here, overlooking Weimar, Germany (about 15 minutes by train from Erfurt) that the Nazis built the prison facilities, forced labor and death camp of Buchenwald. The town of Weimar is known as one of the centers of German culture with familiar names to some like Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche and Bauhaus. The SS built the camp in the early 1930s to hold political prisoners. During the Night of Broken Glass action, between November 1938 and February 1939, the SS imprisoned hundreds of Jewish men from the region, killing 650 people and telling those remaining to leave (See Thuringian State archival records in Weimar and Gotha). During the war the Nazis also imprisoned Russian soldiers, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals. A local company from Erfurt, Topf and Sons, developed the crematoria and ventilation systems for the SS death ovens. It is said that on a clear day, Topfs' engineers could see the chimney smoke from their drafting room windows in Erfurt. After the war, former prisoners began commemorating their experiences on site (there is little left of the original camp buildings). The Soviet and GDR officials used this place as an opportunity to articulate their propaganda and political myth of Antifascist resistance to Nazism. On the ridgline overlooking the valley, they erected a monumental structure. If you are interested in seeing some of these photos, please click here.
For more information on Buchenwald, please see the link in English to the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.

Magdeburg

After working in the Archives for the Church Province of Saxony today , I took a walk from the eastern part of the city to the Elbe and back. If you are interested, please click here.

Nuremberg

Gruss Gott
and Servus!
When you hear those words, you know you have entered another region of Germany. I have spent the last week in Nuremberg and I am headed to a conference on fear in Stuttgart. I will be back here in Nuremberg next week for more work in the Protestant and municipal archives.

As I walk out of the main train station and find my way across the roads to one of the gates, I remember walking around here eight years ago with my friend Jo. As I kept walking, I quickly recalled what I had learned about the old city of Nuremberg, a "free" city in the Holy Roman Empire, the home of Albrecht Duerer, fabled markets and crafts.

I turned left and followed the wall down the Frauentor street until I found the hostel. Further down, this street is known for its red lights. People would later tell me that this area is one of the seedier parts of Nuremberg. The people at the front desk gave me a map and the password for the front door. They told me I was in the “wrong room”, meaning, I had a bed on the second floor in a six-person, mixed gender room. There I found Jenna lazing on her bed. She had just arrived a little before me. We went downstairs and found our way to the “common room”, which has a kitchen, dining area, computer station and lounge with almost all of the amenities.

At the front desk, “they” (I never got to know these people by name) told me that there were at least seventy beds and forty people in residence. As I would find out, most travelers get to Nuernberg on their way out. Every one is passing through. They had been on the road for several weeks, visiting several countries and bigger cities like Prag, Berlin, Vienna and Paris. Nuremberg sounds like a second thought for some. The kitchen serves as a room for recuperation, it seems. I can hear the life of the road in their voices, their feelings of exhaustion and hacking coughs from weeks of beer, cigarettes and living from one bed to the next.

With David Emory’s question still in the back of my mind about the people I meet, here are a few sketches of the people whom I have met at the “Lette ‘m sleep” hostel in the Frauentormauer 42.

My roommates:

Jenna was the first person whom I met in our six person room and the first to leave for home. She just finished college and decided to take a year off to figure out what to do with her life. She is from Toronto, Canada and has been traveling for several weeks across France, Holland and Germany. She is still young but very spiritual. She was interested in talking about Christianity with the Spanish-speaking boys following her around, but they did not seem as interested in that.

Tania arrived toward evening. She is from Ulm, Germany and is in Nuremberg for an eleven-day internship at a doctor’s office that specializes in alternative medical practices like massage therapy and reiki. Jenna and I decided to hang out with Tania in the smoke-filled kitchen. Tania ended up asking us when we were born for an astrological reading of our lives and futures, but I could not give an exact time. So Tania left me hanging, unable to tell me more precisely what she could see in her reading. However, she did get both Jenna and me to talk about our lives, where and when we were born (know the exact time of your birth?), our families and friends, our desires and our foibles.

Other people began hanging out that night in the kitchen too.

Sylvia is from Tapei, Taiwan. She is actually working at the hostel for two months doing odd jobs, but what she really wants to do is study English literature and drama and maybe go back into stage set design and lighting.

Julia is another young woman from Canada. She is a student at Simon Frazer University in Vancouver and also interested in traveling Europe on her own.

Michael and Mark walked in with thick southeastern English accents. They are from near Canterbury, on the last legs of their trip, low on money and looking for the next beer. They told us to check out the Matisse sketches at the nearby national museum. I noticed Michael keeping his own book of sketches of things he had scene. It looked like portraits of people. Mark was friendly, but tended to say less. As I would learn, Mark tended to stay out much later coming back in the middle of the night or early morning. He would slam the door when he came in, strip down to his underwear, take a swig from his water bottle and climb up into bed.

Margaret arrived yesterday. She is from Indiana (originally Connecticut) and a die hard Quaker. Margaret is a double major in German studies and chemistry. She has a sharp mind and likes to lay things right out on the table: her staunch pacifism, her analysis of US foreign policy, the comparisons of US and Germany cultures and feelings like freedom, security and nationalism. She likes to get right to the point and tells you what she likes and dislikes. Her mother studied journalism and philosophy. She describes her father as a clever man who runs a junkyard. Like several others here, she wanted to experience travel on her own and she hopes to conduct research for a pharmaceutical company some day.

I had noticed Amadeo earlier in the day sitting in the corner of the lounge. He overheard me that night talking about my research from that day at the city archives and wanted to know more. He is much older than the rest of us and hails from New York City. He worked at the World Trade Center for over ten years and is interested in how Germans have responded to war. He pointed out an interesting comparison: building the new Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan and reconstructing Nuremberg after the Second World War. He mentioned that he has been traveling all his life. He made a trip one and a half times around the world when he was my age. He expressed an empty sense about New York since 9/11 and I concurred. We quickly found common ground in Beth Israel Medical center in lower Manhattan. His children and I were born around the same time there when my mother worked there as a young doctor fresh from the Philippines. It is a small world in some ways, we said. It is. It is. Amadeo loves visiting museums and cultural sites. He is making his first trip into former East Germany. He is on his way to Weimar to visit Goethe and Schiller’s old haunts before his final stop in Dresden. I told him to stop in Erfurt since it is on the way and only ten minutes from Weimar.

Nahiro is one of the more interesting characters I met. I saw him later on the second night waiting around in the kitchen and lounge. We started talking with him over coffee and tea. His father was born in Bamberg (also in Franconia and not far from Nuremberg). His mother is from Venezuela where Nahiro grew up for most of his life. When he was eleven, he lived for several years in his father’s home town. His German grandfather became an important figure in his life there. His grandfather was a shoemaker in Bamberg and received severe head injuries and trauma in the Second World War.

Nahiro was also interested in what I studied. He wanted to know what I thought about the Jews and whether or not it was possible that they were “guilty” themselves. Most people, he noted while looking around the room, would be very upset to hear such a question. I was a bit shocked. He recalled another recent case from German television about one German writer who wants people to also remember the good side of the Third Reich. He recalled his grandfather’s stories about Jews and wanted to know what I thought. His grandfather's tales did not sound good, but he never offered me anything concrete. He asked me, “Do Jews control the world?” and he claimed to not know much about this history. So I told him in packaged lecture form what I know about the history of Jews in Germany, the waves of anti-Semitism over a long period of time, centered around things like the plagues and Christian celebrations (particularly Easter), claims of poisoned wells and ritual murder, the history of emancipation from above at the beginning of the 19th century, the history of assimilation and the construction of the pseudo-scientific racial paradigm of Aryan and Jew. I also told him that his question reminds me of the one hundred year old propaganda piece, The 300 Wise Men of Zion and who knows, how many older conspiracies (I also made a mental note of his grandfather's profession; craftsmen and small business owners in this region were known for their anti-Semitism and their eventual support of Nazism). I pointed out that historians believe that particular story to be a Russian construction. When I hear such things, I suggested to him that such a story about a people or a person often has a malicious intention behind it. I was struck by how much this idea of a powerful group stuck in his mind and concerned about this old myth's staying power. There was no doubt, we concurred, that the “MAN” is made up of many different groups of elites, crossing ethnic and racial lines. There is no doubt, he added, that what the Nazis did was wrong or what Isreal does in its current politics is another question. Such questions and discussions some times make it hard to see what is really going on and how people think. How do these old ghosts still haunt us?

Nahiro told me he was in Nuremberg for an appointment. He had to check in with his Moroccan contacts late that evening about tomorrow morning’s sale of unsold shoes from the Adidas warehouse down the block. He helps the Moroccans sell them around the world. We talked about the current dictatorship in Venezuela and we talked about the emergence of the image of the Muslim as a terrorist. We compared economic and social development in Germany. It is not hard to see, given the way things stand between currencies like the pound, euro, the Canadian dollar and our own. From Nahiro’s view, the US economy has been “abgewirtschaftet”, as if we have really wrecked it through our thinking it is every one for his or her own sake. He likes what the Germans are doing with their economy and what he calls a social form of policy making. He also likes the European Union’s chances for becoming mighty again. I told him I could not view the US so monolithically and cited interesting developments in different regions. He had to get going and promised to see me in the morning, but he is gone now too and I never got to come back to some of those things he brought up.

In the archives I met many nice and helpful people. One in particular stands out. At the city archive, the archivists directed me to a man typing away in the corner of the little glass-walled reading room. Matthias Braun looks a bit older. I could see it in his eyes. He grew up in Nuremberg his whole life and is writing his dissertation at one of the local universities on an important figure in the local Nazi movement in the 1920 named Liebel. Matthias went over all of the available literature with me and pulled out title after title from his computer. He was interested in my project and what I have been finding in the records of Nuremberg’s individuals, its pastors, rabbis, politicians, children, businessmen, lawyers, First World War veterans, etc. I will see him on my return trip in a week and have more to say about much of my work.

But it has gotten to the point where I have seen the week’s third wave of travelers come through. I don’t know their names, but I hear their stories around the table in the lounge while I make my dinner. There is an Australian girl whom the other guys deem an elder at the age of 22. There is an English kid with a Mohawk and American soldier on leave from Iraq. They are all gathered around him, asking questions, and he is showing them his home made video collections, talking about war and the Iraqis. He misses his friends back in Iraq and he says he is one of the few in his outfit who really want to be over there. He says he wants to get back into the fight. A curly headed kid enters the room with a guitar and another group has landed on their last legs.

One last set of notes on Nuremberg:

Before I left for Stuttgart an older gentleman came to stay with us in the “wrong room”. He coughed all night and snored keeping Tania and me from sleeping. In the morning I was leaving. I let him know that the train engineers were striking again. I found out that he is from Mexico City and traveling around doing a little “business”. I helped him set up his laptop for wireless and told him about my dissertation. Then wished him safe journeys and made my way to the station to try and catch a train to Stuttgart. When I returned on Sunday, Tania told me that she had a talk with him. She told him that his sleeping habits disturbed her. He apologized. Later on, she noticed that some of her toiletries were missing and she suspected “Opa” (grandfather) as she called him.

Finally, I met a man on my way back through Nuremberg. After I had finished talking with him, I felt like I found myself standing in front of a similar self. Last night in the kitchen I met Stephan Guenther from Quebec. He had bought this huge piece of salmon for four Euros and he was preparing it for dinner while Sylvia and I looked on. He worked as an engineer for about five years at a hydroelectric power station. He was just a few steps away from the house with the white picket fence, as he put it, when he decided that after millions of years of evolution sitting in front of a computer at a desk everyday could not be the final goal for him or anyone else. So he quit his job and drove his car west across the United States. When that car broke down on the highway leading into Denver with his cousin along for the ride, he knew that he had reached one of those moments of trial, citing Joseph Campbell’s work on mythology. Stephan felt like he had found himself at a moment of trial like that first stage of ancient “heroes”. Having passed those trials, Stephen asserted, we are capable of anything. Not surprisingly, he has been reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in his travels.

Since that US trip, Stephen packed his things and took his bike across the Atlantic. He has been traveling all over Germany by bike for the past few months, but now that the weather has turned colder, Nuremberg is probably his last stop before heading back to Canada. He began to realize that it was time to return when he found himself in a cold downpour in northern Bavaria. As it began to snow, he took shelter at a little peasant shrine to the Blessed Virgin Maria and awoke in the morning to an older woman asking him if he was ok. He also mentioned that when he reached Nuremberg and walked around the former Nazi Party Grounds and “DokuCenter”, he felt like he had reached the end of this adventure in his life and the beginning of something new.

Guenther’s thoughts on Germany are also interesting. He wanted to know why so many people are fascinated with Germany and I offered my own opinions about our fascination with the history, the war and even more narrowly, Nazi technologies, the SS, power, violence and fear. Guenther has been to Europe before and traveled through Italy and France. He thought about Germany, but he found excuses for not going. Finally, he decided that he needed to travel through Germany to make peace with his father and his own life. When Stephan was young, his father recalled his own teenage years to his son. He was born in part of the Second German Reich. He told his son about being pushed out of what became Polish territory after the Second World War into East Germany, then West Germany, and eventually Quebec. Beyond those memories though, his father never went much further. His father is part of the “Vertriebene” generation, those that were pushed from their homes in the wake of Nazi racial war in Eastern and Central Europe. His father is also part of that "silent" generation of German parents (see a newly released book related to this subject by Sabine Bode, Die deutsche Krankheit - German Angst). Stephen mentioned that his father and aunts never said much, but he was aware that they communicated a tremendous amount through their non-verbals. Stephen also became very aware of the feeling of difference growing up in Quebec. He just did things differently or noticed other children doing things in very similar ways that were different from his own. He believes that this is the result of the cultural imprint that his father and aunts gave him as a young person and that this is carried over into the third generation, as Stephen claims to see its mark in the behavior of his nephew. It was while traveling through Germany that Guenther felt that he was similar to Germans in terms of cultural traits and behavior. He recognizes plants that his aunt used to tend back home in Quebec (but cannot find anywhere else in Canada) and he thinks he understands why his nephew picks black berries that most people pass over for blueberries or strawberries. After a week of traveling, though, he felt alone here. He even went to the movies that lonely night in Dresden and chose the film Du bist nicht allein (“You are not alone”). Perhaps ironically, the German language remains a barrier to this part of Stephan’s life. He feels like he has found part of his psychological mirror in this place, but he is also ready to return to that other home in his life. Before he left, he told me to go back to the Philippines someday. He feels that there is another important part of me to revisit and see in a new light.