588
PARTISAN REVIEW
something Philip has said, a reference perhaps to the Schoen who
flew a bomber for the German Air Force, or is there another Schoen,
a Nazi major, about whom Cecilia has yet to hear.... Professor
Eisenach makes a passionate drunken speech, his eyes damp and his
voice trembling, in Wilhelmian Germany and yet again in the 1930s
the Church freely acquiesced to the State, and did the
intelligentsia
protest? Not at all. Never. A disgraceful history of abnegation, a dis–
graceful history of.... There must be worship, and gods, and
devils, and sacrifice; when there are untroubled times it is the peace
of apathy and impotence, young men and women indistinguishable
from one another in hair style, costume, behavior ... it is all
a wait–
ing for the end.
The others listen to the Professor's rambling speech
with barely concealed impatience. Then August brings up the sub–
ject of the East, addressing the Americans (but Philip especially):
Does their country feel sorry for the East Germans?- is their special
sympathy for the East Germans?
If
so they are fools and must be Det–
ter informed, for the East Germans went from Hitler to Stalin with
ease-
"It is all the same to them! The same!"
At this Rudolph stammers
in protest; and August accuses him of being a traitor and a fool; and
Philip, sucking on his pipe, expelling a thin gray cloud of aromatic
smoke, assures the table that he himself feels no sympathy for the
East Germans, his sympathy is solely for the West Germans, am–
nesiac for so many years, and made to be on perpetual trial in the
world's eyes . .. made to feel shame for being German . Indeed,
words like "shame" and "guilt" strike the ear, Philip says, as distinctly
hypocritical. Is German "shame" indigenous, for instance, or a mat–
ter of import? And "guilt"... ?
Several of the Germans propose a toast to Philip, in German,
but Professor Eisenach demands to know if Dr. Schoen is mocking
them? What can such sympathy mean?
"But Professor, we are foolish to question sympathy, from any
quarter!" Frau Lutz says chidingly.
"You carried it off quite well," Philip tells Cecilia quietly on
their way back to the Hotel Zur Birke. His voice is just perceptibly
slurred; there is a slight drag to his heels. But clearly he is in high
spirits- a good deal of his soul has been restored .
Cecilia doesn't ask what he means. She says, "And so did you. "
But Philip, keyed up, nervous, isn't ready to end the day, the
long festive celebratory evening. He finds his hotel room depressing,
as he has said several times, would Cecilia care to have a final drink,
a nightcap, at that Rathskeller up the street. .. ? Philip is pale,
