Basic HTML Version
PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 27, 1984
Germans. One said: ..• "Their state is 35 years old. Their policy
has always been to maintain it as a separate German state; they
want to delineate it clearly from West Germany as well as their
Eastern neighbors.
So they need history, German history, on
their own home ground."
Some West German intellectuals fear that the East Germans are
laying the groundwork for a claim that they, and not the Federal
Republic, are the legitimate heirs of German history.
West
German historians also are wrestling with the problem of German
history and new books are frequent.
If or when German unity comes about, this revival of militaristic Prussian
history in the East could have a part in restoring a sense of history to
Germany as a whole. It fits in with the plea by Melvyn Krauss (PGR, 3/16/84
p. 11} for Europe's military spirit to become important once again and for
"people of daring, spirit and imagination" to come forth. Germany once
again will play the key role in defending Western (Catholic} civilization
in Europe.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau