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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 8, 1983
PAGE 12
The future...will probably be decided, once again, by Germany's
decisions. And Germany is, as it always was, a mutable, Proteus
like, unpredictable country, particularly dangerous when it's
unhappy.
It is for this very reason that the title of Mr. Barzini's book in the Ger
man-language edition is translated as "The Fate of Europe is in the Hands of
Germany."
Oeutschtum also persists in East Germany, despite 38 years of Communist
rule.
In an article in the April 25, 1983 NEW REPUBLIC, author Nick
Eberstadt, after a trip into the German Democratic Republic, took note of
the national character of Germans living there.
Why do Slavs living under Communism lose themselves in alcohol
when Germans do not? Why does Communist Germany makes its trains
run on time and fill its stores with high quality {if eccentric}
consumer goods when its fraternal allies [the u.s.s.R. and other
East Bloc countries] cannot seem to do so? Perhaps the answer
has something to do with what it means to be German.
Idealists and philanthropists in our country currently resist the
notion that there is such'a thing as national character. Well
meaning though this may be, they are closing their eyes in the
face of the obvious. For all the great variety ·that people may
embody, there is a German national essence. To consider oneself
German is to b�pulled by powerful tides.
Even if one talks to East Germans about pleasantries, the subject
� the reunification of the Germanys invariably, almost obsess
ively, comes �-
In the Federal Republic of Germany, op1n1on
polls indicate that only 8 percent of the public believes the
Germanys will be reunited before the end of the century; in East
Germany there are no polls, but the fraction can hardly be much
higher. Yet private conversations here are full of talk about a
reunion of the German Volk. What such talk implies is that East
Germans are prepared te>wait out their present government. They
seem prepared to out wait it, moreover, not as individuals, but
as a people. The implications of this attitude are profound for
It cannot but affect the soviet Union's assessment of the feasi
ETlity of aetente, anc:r-In a larger sense, of prospects""""!or long
term peace 1q Europe.
Dream of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" Has Never Died
The pope is fanning the flames of Catholic fervor in Eastern Europe--where,
under persecution, it has survived, in fact, thrived. He hopes to re
animate Western European cultures from a solid base in the East. Poland is
absolutely essential to this process. But the Poles could never be the
nation to lead Europe politically. That will of necessity fall on Ger
many's shoulders. In his book, GERMANS, author George Bailey describes the
pivotal role of the German nation in history, asking first an intriguing
question.
Can we be sure that history has written finis to what was perhaps
the grandest design ever conceived by man: the Holy Roman Empire?