STEPHEN SPENDER'S EUROPEAN WITNESS

Thesis: In Stephen Spendler’s account of the German city of Cologne, he describes a city and a people devastated by the war and struggling to make any sort of recovery
I. Few buildings remain habitable, most are empty
II. Thousands walk through the rubble that used to be the “hub of the Rhineland, with a great shopping center, acres of plate-glass, restaurants, a massive business street”
III. “The external destruction is so great that it cannot be healed and the surrounding life of the rest of the country cannot flow into and resuscitate the city”
IV. The people do not resemble residents, merely wanderers
V. The unscathed cathedral gives the city hope
VI. The destruction is a remarkable achievements of modern society in cooperation between several nations
VII. The city, held together by numerous civilizations for centuries, has died

Perry Document- Violence and Xenophobia in Germany- Joachim Krautz

This is Wills Brooks' work not mine.

• Economic growth of Federal Republic of Germany brings in foreign workers (from Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, etc.)



• Immigrants very quickly make up a sizable portion of the population.



• Resentment leads to backlash of native Germans, racial and xenophobic attacks, neo-nazi groups



• Petrol bomb attacks by skinhead, new age fascists/nationalists occur against outsiders



• Nationalism of any sort was looked down upon in the 60s,, 70s, and early 80s



• East Germany had more patriotism and excessive nationalism due to the discontinuity the government had with the 3rd Reich.



• Provided fertile ground when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, attracted conservatives to National Socialism



• Leaders of Neo-Nazi groups threaten "foreignization," encouraging over perception of immigrant numbers



• West Germans held resentment about ex-Communist Eastern counterparts



• Insidious beliefs and concepts extend to non-affiliated Germans, causing drastic misconceptions about numbers of foreigners



• Right Wing exaggerates problems caused by immigration, level much criticism at the Turks due to their cultural differences



• Unemployment and dissatisfaction again give converts to the radical right wing



• Right wing extremism hurts big business, measures are taken by business to make a good foreign image for Germany



• Xenophobic, rascist and eugenic ideas remain in Germany



• To solve problems, pragmatic action must be taken to solve real problems

By Myles Anderson

Hannah Vogt: The Burden of Guilt (1961)

- Written during a resurgence of anti-semitism when German teachers began to teach the history of Naziism again

- she believed that trust could only be reestablish if Germans faced the passedthrough self-examination adn repudiation

Excerpt from the conclusion of The Burden of Guilt

- a nation must learn from its past, esp. Germany

- Greeks new that if people in a nation stopped being free and ruling themselves, a tyrrant would take over

1. all people should be educated and participate in politics

- lack of political participation allowed Hitler to gain power

- People must be patient with steady progress, not hope for sudden miracles

- people must constantly control the power of those in charge

- parties should seek maximum cohesion

- a respected opposition party is necessary

- law must be based on justice

- international politics should be balanced and consistant

1. Hitler had made and broken treaties without care

2. He had also thought that force was the only useful method for international politics

- they have to deel with the challenge of reunifying Germany after Hitler split it

- they need to regain the trust of other countries

- although they can never get rid of the past, they can shape a peaceful and prosperous future

- they should respect human life and remember the dead who suffered because of Germany's past actions

1. they should not try to minimize these crimes

- they must welcome those Jews who were beginning to return to Germany at that time

By Myles Anderson

Hannah Vogt: The Burden of Guilt (1961)

- Written during a resurgence of anti-semitism when German teachers began to teach the history of Naziism again

- she believed that trust could only be reestablish if Germans faced the passedthrough self-examination adn repudiation

Excerpt from the conclusion of The Burden of Guilt

- a nation must learn from its past, esp. Germany

- Greeks new that if people in a nation stopped being free and ruling themselves, a tyrrant would take over

1. all people should be educated and participate in politics

- lack of political participation allowed Hitler to gain power

- People must be patient with steady progress, not hope for sudden miracles

- people must constantly control the power of those in charge

- parties should seek maximum cohesion

- a respected opposition party is necessary

- law must be based on justice

- international politics should be balanced and consistant

1. Hitler had made and broken treaties without care

2. He had also thought that force was the only useful method for international politics

- they have to deel with the challenge of reunifying Germany after Hitler split it

- they need to regain the trust of other countries

- although they can never get rid of the past, they can shape a peaceful and prosperous future

- they should respect human life and remember the dead who suffered because of Germany's past actions

1. they should not try to minimize these crimes

- they must welcome those Jews who were beginning to return to Germany at that time

Enoch Powell- Bringing the Immigration Issue to the Center of Politics

During the late 1960’s, a great political issue in Great Britain became the influx of immigrants from old colonies. Enoch Powell was the leading spokesman of those in favor of suspending immigration and assisting in re-immigration. He delivered the following speech in Birmingham (UK) in 1968 against the Race Relations Bill:

· Anecdote of a man approached Powell and told him that this country was not worthy of his children

· In fifteen or twenty years from 1968 there will be 3.5 million Commonwealth immigrants and their descendents

· How can this be stopped/reduced? Stopping further inflow and promoting maximum outflow

· It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre

· There is nothing wrong with coming to study in Great Britain then leading the ways back to the old Commonwealth countries, like many doctors do, but this is not immigration

· Families should not be divided, but they will be able to reunited in their native countries with re-immigration

· Every citizen in GB is equal before the law, so the influx of immigrants causes an unequal distribution of first and second class citizens

· The Race Relations Bill will make it illegal to discriminate by color, race, or ethnicity

· However, this bill is only going to bring in more immigration, taking away the rights of original British citizens and increasing the population past its given equilibrium point

Jorg Haiger, "Multiculturalism and Love of One's Country"

(This is Maclin Davis' work. He is having difficulties with the Blog so I am posting
this for him.)

1. Comparisons and similiarities and the racial assimilation of multiculturalism
2. If one looks around the world, he'll find negative results of inclusion of other races within a nation. (civil unrest usually, violent quests for national independence- Eastern Europe) or the haphazardness of a "melting pot" society- United States
3. Say "Yes" to starting a family; this institution will cause less need for a nation to spur on independence to bolster its economy and keep the country less stagnant
4. Austria as a nation should be hospitable to others, but it is by no means a hub for all downtrodden peoples of Europe to come seeking for shelter, as no nation should be
5. The 12 points system in Austria ("Austria first"), laws very restrictive of "foreigners" and xenophobic in thinking their presence in a nation is in itself a seditious act.

European Witness- Devastation and Demoralization from WW2

Thesis: Stephen Spender paints a sad picture of the demoralized German people under Allied occupation shortly after the end of the war.

• There was not a single house left in Cologne; standing walls but gutted interiors


• Only three hundred habitable buildings left.


• Thousands of people trudge all day long, who once lived prosperously only a few years ago, but no more.


• Cologne used to be the heart of the Rhineland with shopping centers, restaurants, theaters, etc.


• The Destruction of Germany is different than the worst that has happened in England


• People are scarred there, but not destroyed, it will heal


• The external destruction is so great that it cannot be healed and the surrounding life of the rest of the country cannot flow and revive the city.


• The people are parasites sucking a dead carcass, just trying to survive


• They are like a tribe of wanderers that has discovered a ruined city


• The city smells and looks like a corpse


• One feels haunted by the ghost of tremendous noise from explosions


• The undamaged cathedral amidst the rubble retains Cologne's character.


• The destruction is a discouragement to everyone living and working in Germany


• The city is dead and the people only inhabit the cellars like rats


• So much progress of civilization is destroyed.


• The destruction of the city itself is a reproach to the people who go on living there.