THE "GERMAN PROBLEM"
97
the sweet recollections of a time of extraordinary activity and power
of destruction enjoyed by the individual.
It is true that the situation in Germany lent itself more readily
than anywhere else to the breaking of all traditions. This is connected
with the late development of the Germans as a nation, their unfor–
tunate political history and lack of any kind of democratic experience.
It is more closely connected with the fact that the post-war situation
of inflation and unemployment-without which the destructive power
of the
Fronterlebnis
might have remained a temporary phenomenon–
took hold of more people in Germany and affected them more pro–
foundly than elsewhere.
But though it may have been easier to break European traditions
and standards in Germany, it is still true that these had to be broken,
so that it was not any German tradition as such but the violation of
all traditions which brought about Nazism. How strongly Nazism ap–
pealed to the veterans of the last war in all countries is shown by the
almost universal influence it wielded in all veteran organizations of
Europe. The veterans were the first sympathizers, and the first steps
the Nazis took in the field of foreign relations were frequently calcu–
lated to arouse those "comrades-in-arms" beyond the frontiers who
were sure to understand their language and to be moved by like emo–
tions and a like desire for destruction.
This is the only tangible psychological meaning of the "German
problem." The real trouble lies not in the German national character
but rather in the disintegration of this character, or at least in the
fact that it no longer plays any role in German politics. It is as much
a thing of the past as German militarism or nationalism. It will not
be possible to revive it by copying out mottoes from old books or even
by adopting extreme political measures. But a greater trouble still is
this, that the man who has replaced
the German-namely
the type
who in sensing the danger of utter destruction decides to tum himself
into a destroying force-is not confined to Germany alone. The Noth–
ing from which.Nazism sprang could be defined in less mystical terms
as the vacuum resulting from an almost simultaneous breakdown of
Europe's social and political structures. Restoration is so violently
opposed by the European resistance movements precisely because they
know that the very same vacuum would thus be produced, a vacuum
of which they live in mortal fear even though by now they have
learned that it is the "lesser evil" to fascism. The tremendous psy–
chological appeal exercised by Nazism was not so much due to its
false promises as to its frank recognition of this vacuum. Its immense
lies fitted the vacuum; these _lies were psychologically efficient because
