Watching on the Rhine

by Violet R. Markham

III

One outstanding impression which I have carried away from political meetings in Germany is the easy life of a German parliamentary candidate. So far as I could judge, these happy individuals saunter through a campaign with relative ease and leisure. Instead of a hectic evening spent in rushing from one meeting to another, candidates sit for hours listening to one another’s oratory. The absence of heckling and questions makes the delivery of long political treatises, which are but mildly challenged, a simple task. There are of course exceptions, and some meetings, notably Socialist ones, announce a “discussion,” at which feeling runs high. But the average German audience is very long-suffering, and tolerates bores and speeches of inordinate length which would empty an English gathering. The whole spirit of a German meeting is hostile to interruptions. I have heard a man who interjected a harmless remark torn to pieces by the speaker, with the obvious approval of the audience.

All of which is perhaps a mark of the political inexperience of the people and that despairing German habit of taking for granted what is told them. Nowhere more than in Germany does one thank heaven for the intractability and argumentativeness of the British democracy. Intellectual docility lies at the root of many German crimes, and along the path of criticism probably lies the way of political regeneration.

Liberal and Conservative principles are much the same all the world over, and the German political parties which embody them are easy to recognize whatever their names. But the clerical element which cuts across political life in Catholic Germany has no parallel in English politics, and produces some curious eddies in the stream. The Zentrum, the orthodox Catholic Party, cannot be reproached with clericalism in the bad sense of the word. German Catholicism includes mildly Socialistic elements, and the Zentrum joined with the Social Democrats in forming the present Government. It is largely a working-class party, and stands for what we should call moderate Liberal views. But at the same time it is grounded in principles of religious education and that religious view of the State to which modern democratic feeling is increasingly hostile. Joint makers of the Coalition, no two parties at the moment abuse each other more heartily than the Zentrum and the Majority Socialists. Despite its present influence, it is difficult, therefore, to judge what the future holds for the Zentrum. Meanwhile, a certain section of zealots and intriguers have broken away from the original Catholic Party to form the Christliche Volkspartei. The seceders declare that by holding any traffic with the Social Democrats the Zentrum has been faithless to the first principles of religious education. It was incumbent on them, therefore, however heart-breaking the task, to withdraw the hem of their garments from the accursed thing and stand for Christian fundamentals in their original purity. Behind all of which professions lurks a very pretty intrigue.

I was favourably impressed at a Zentrum meeting both by the audience and the speakers. I came away feeling that they were decent people holding moderate views with honesty and a certain liberality of view. Unlike the Deutschnationale and the Volkspartei, they do not desire the destruction of the Republic, while paying it perfunctory lip-service. One speaker, a priest, declared emphatically against any restoration of the monarchy, and his remarks were received with cheers. The capitalist element was clearly unrepresented on the platform. The body of the hall was filled with the same working-class element largely represented in the crowds which flock on Sunday mornings to Cologne Cathedral. The Zentrum is a strong party, and whatever electoral successes it may win at the polls are not likely to be hostile to social reform on cautious lines.

Very different is the position as regards the seceding body, that of the Christliche Volkspartei. I attended a meeting of the new party, and fell among proceedings which were refreshingly lively. It was a curious audience, generally speaking on a plane just above working-class level, but including more well-to-do and moneyed interests. They were not a pleasant set of people. Some looked fanatics; others undiluted scamps. A large number of women were present who cheered with great vigour. Enthusiasm was boundless, but was countered at the back of the hall by very definite opposition.

When the speakers and candidates took their place on the platform, cheers greeted the appearance of a sinister-looking priest with intrigue written all over him. This was the celebrated Father Kastert, whose political activities of late have made no small stir in the Rhineland. The various candidates got to work, and I have never heard texts and Christian ideals hurled about a platform with such vigour, and, according to English standards, with such entire lack of reserve. Several of the speakers, judging by their appearance, might have engaged in shady commerce, which made their declamations about the supreme importance of religious education the more interesting.

Shortly after the meeting began, a blind gentleman, venerable in appearance and with a large white beard, was shepherded with ostentatious care on to the platform. I suspected a trophy, judging by the exaggerated marks of respect with which he was received by Father Kastert and his friends. He was, in fact, a leading supporter of the Zentrum, who had seceded to the new party. The old gentleman was propped up, and when he began to speak, despite his tottering steps and shaking hands, proved a veritable Bull of Bashan. The Sermon on the Mount and the Temptation in the Wilderness formed part of a political pot-pourri mixed up with the misdeeds of the Social Democrats. I was sitting by chance among a nest of zealots, who greeted these remarks with hysterical applause. A youth, still wearing field grey, suddenly jumped up in emphatic protest. General uproar resulted. “Aus mit dem Kerl!” shouted several ladies round me. My spirits rose at the prospect of seeing some one turned out with German thoroughness, but the young man thought better of it, and sat down again hastily. The chairman rang his bell, and after a time the meeting proceeded. Among this curious company of hypocrites applauding principles clearly remote from their practice I was struck by one working-man candidate, who spoke with obvious sincerity as well as simplicity. No workman, he said, could look for joy in his work unless that work were grounded in Christ. Christ was the root, Christ was the foundation, Christ was the workman’s stay and support. Happily in England we do not discuss the Founder of Christianity on political platforms after the manner of this meeting. But in this solitary case the note of sincerity rang true, and I was grateful for it.

The candidates said their say, and then the real “turn” of the evening began with a lengthy discourse from Father Kastert. Father Kastert, despite all disclaimers to the contrary, is regarded as the protagonist of the Rhineland Republic, a matter about which there are many mutterings and murmurings in the Occupied Area. As such he is an object of abhorrence to all patriotic Germans. Various elements enter into the Rhineland Republic intrigue. The annexationist party in France are naturally in favour of it; good Catholics are told that self-determination for the Rhineland means getting rid of Prussian Protestant officials; clericals are promised more power in a State dominated by clerical influences; greedy financiers are heartened by the prospect of escaping any way from the full burdens of the indemnity. Every decent German looks on the movement as one of supreme treachery to the Fatherland in its hour of defeat and overthrow, and on Father Kastert as the arch-traitor.

That Father Kastert and his following are violently assailed is only natural. His lengthy speech on this occasion took the form of an apologia. His visit to General Mangin was only concerned with securing a greater measure of liberty for the Rhineland during the Occupation, and in hastening the close of the Occupation itself; away with the abominable lie that he was in French pay and serving French ends; all that he sought was to free the Rhineland from the Jewish influences rampant both in Prussia and Berlin and to secure the fullest measure of self-determination. On the whole the Father, though like all priests a good speaker, proved less of a personality than I expected. I am quite unable to judge how far the charges brought against him are just. The Christliche Volkspartei is the political instrument formed by him for carrying out his projects, whatever they may be. Father Kastert would appear to draw his support from singularly unworthy elements in German public life; people who are ready to traffic with the enemies of yesterday for the sake of such bread-and-butter advantages as may be obtained from the intercourse. A bad peace opens the door to intrigues of many kinds. But the security of Europe or France is not to be achieved by buffer states of the type contemplated by the supporters of the Rhineland Republic.

The French Chauvinists who air schemes for the annexation of the left bank of the Rhine are mischievous people. It is hard to believe that one French person endowed with a grain of good sense could lend an ear to so mad a proposal. Where Germany failed ignominiously in Alsace-Lorraine, the French are hardly likely to succeed in the Rhineland. But foolish talk of this character tends very appreciably to exasperate and embitter German public opinion, and brings new elements of hatred and unrest into a situation which was bad enough already. Many Germans are convinced that France intends to spring some annexationist coup upon them, and is only waiting for an opportunity to strike again. Suspicions of this kind destroy any hope of improved relations between the two countries. Goodwill can be at the best a plant of very slow and painful growth between the nations. Intrigue makes its existence impossible. The Rhine is German to the core in race, language, and sentiment. Even a whisper as to the possibility of detaching it from the rest of the country is a premium on a fresh outbreak of anger and exasperation. The unhappy situation existing in the Saar Basin may have its compensations if it provides an anti-annexationist moral too strong to be disregarded.