Rebuilding Britain: A Survey of Problems of Reconstruction After the World WarHopkinson, Alfred, Sir
History
Rebuilding Britain: A Survey of Problems of Reconstruction After the World War
Hopkinson, Alfred, Sir
Reconstruction (1914-1939) -- Great Britain
Nor for years to come will many of the men of younger age risk the
chance of contact with those who were responsible for or committed such
crimes as they have witnessed from the day when German troops first
entered Belgium four years ago to the sinking of the last hospital ship
or last murder of wounded men and of nurses under the shadow of the Red
Cross.
But a new generation will follow us who may find and may accept a
welcome from a younger German race who had no part in the sins against
humanity committed by the Germans of to-day. Some, indeed, of that
younger race will have learned from their own fathers who suffered for
them, to detest those crimes.
For another generation of Englishmen it may be possible once again to
find even in Germany something to enjoy and to admire. They may watch
from the Schlossgarten at Heidelberg the sun go down beyond the Rhine
over Alsace, then again united to France; they may wander again in
friendly talk with some forester under the pines of the Schwarzwald and
listen to the singing of the familiar Volkslieder--Tannenbaum or Haiden
Roeslein--by a people who have a natural gift for song; they may in
Nuremberg again look with delight on the marvels in stone wrought by its
craftsmen or seek out the hidden meanings in the mystic art of Albrecht
Duerer; perhaps be whirled along in the Isar "rolling rapidly" through
the baths of Munich or plunge in the crystal depths of the Koenig See;
from the highlands of Bavaria they may lift up their eyes to the long
ranges of the snowy Alps of Tyrol, and, as the decennial cycle comes
round and the reverent peasants re-enact the sacred drama, may make
their pilgrimage to Ammergau and share the thrill passing along the
crowded benches when the children's voices are heard, and they enter,
waving their palm branches, that those who watch their beautiful
counterfeit may recall, with imagination vivid like a child's, another
procession of joyous children, nineteen hundred years ago.
The rest of mankind would be the poorer if it were cut off for ever from
some of the things which Germany has given and might again give to the
world in the realm of thought--in science and literature--and in music;
things which have added and may again add to the knowledge and to the
beauty of life. But let there be no mistake. Such a future is possible
only if the powers which are dominant in Germany are utterly destroyed;
but that is not enough, there must be a regeneration of the German
people. The alternative for Germany must be either exclusion from
intercourse with the rest of mankind save those who desire to share in
her crimes, and who will also share in her outlawry, or a change of
spirit and of purpose in the nation. If such a change comes, we "dare be
known to think" that the renewal of friendly relations with the German
people is an object we desire to attain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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