Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
It is evident that the orderliness of Berlin is enforced orderliness
and not voluntary orderliness. Both pedestrians and drivers of all
sorts of vehicles, take all that is theirs and as much more as
possible. There is none of the give and take, and innate love of fair
play and instinctive wish to give the other fellow a chance, so
noticeable in London streets, whether on the sidewalks or in the
roadway. There is a general chip-on-the-shoulder attitude in Prussia,
which may be said, I think not unfairly, to be evident in all ranks,
from their recent foreign diplomacy, down to the pedestrians and
drivers.
Many people whom I have met, not only foreigners but Germans from
other parts of Germany, are loud in their denunciations of the
Berliners. "Frech" and "roh" are words often used about them. There is
a surly malice of speech and manner among the working classes, that
seems to indicate a wish to atone for political impotence, by braggart
impudence to those whom they regard as superior. When we played horse
as children, we champed the wooden bit, shied, and balked and kicked,
and the worse we behaved the more spirited horses we thought
ourselves. There is a certain social and political radicalism verging
upon anarchy, which plays at life in much the same way, with no better
reason, and with little better result. Shying, balking, and kicking,
and champing the political bit, are only spirited to the childish.
Their awkward and annoying attentions to women alone on the streets;
their staring and gaping; their rudeness in pushing and shoving; the
general underbred look, the slouching gait, the country-store clothes,
hats, and boots; the fearful and wonderful combinations of raiment;
the sweetbread complexions, as of men under-exercised and not
sufficiently aired and scrubbed; their stiff courtesy to one another
when they recognize acquaintances with hat-sweeping bows; their fierce
gobbling in the restaurants; their lack of small services and
attentions to their own women when they go about in public with them;
their selfish disregard of others in public places, their giving and
taking of hats, coats, sticks, and umbrellas at the garde-robes of the
theatres, for example; their habit of straggling about in the middle
of the streets, like the chickens and geese on a country road: all
these things I have noted too, but I must admit the surprising
personal conclusion that I have grown to like the people. A good pair
of shoulders and an engaging smile go far to mitigate these nuisances.
It makes for good sense in this matter of criticism always to bear in
mind that delicious piece of humor of the psalmist: "Let the righteous
rather smite me friendly; and reprove me. But let not their precious
balms break my head." The "precious balms" of the lofty and righteous
critic are not of much value when they merely break heads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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