Prescription for Germany

Like everybody else, scientists have been brooding about the problem of what to do with Germany. Like everybody else, they have various opinions. But one group of them has produced a plan to submit to the State Department. Its ambitious aim: to change "the German character."

Diagnosis. Gathered together by Richard M. Brickner, author of Is Germany Incurable?, the 30 eminent consultants include Freudian Psychoanalyst Franz Alexander, Anthropologist Margaret Mead, Psychiatrist Adolf Meyer, Psychologist Gardner Murphy, Physician Alvan L. Barach. After long pondering, they concluded that the German people have been suffering (for more than a century) from a bad case of "psychocultural aggressiveness."

Symptoms. How did the German people get that way? The scientists' answer: German traditions and institutions have bred into the individual German an aggressive concern about his "status" or position. In the family, the father has long been absolute master, sternly dominating his wife and children. Business, the professions, politics and education have likewise been ruled by an authoritarian system in which, to assert and defend his status, a German bullies his inferiors, kowtows to his superiors. "The German alternately commands and scrapes." Unlike Americans and Englishmen, who consider it unsporting to exert their full strength against weaker opponents, Germans are traditionally most brutal and ruthless toward their inferiors. In their relations with other nations, they have been alternately arrogant and afflicted with a persecution complex, a condition resembling paranoia.

Uprooting. From this diagnosis, the group deduced that it would be useless merely to preach democracy to the German people: they are emotionally incapable of understanding the democratic principles of give & take and cooperation among equals. Suggesting a "stern" peace rather than a "hard" one, they proposed a complete uprooting of the institutions which have been the sources of Germany's infection.

Many a scientist who disagrees with the blanket diagnosis may nonetheless agree with most of the group's proposals. Items:

P: Total defeat of the Wehrmacht, "for over a century ... the sinew of German pride." This operation, now accomplished, lays a psychological basis for a cure.

P: Stern trial and punishment, not only of the top Nazis but to "extend down vertically into the population for a certain distance." To be executed: all high Nazi and Gestapo officials, Gauleiters, members of the Army High Command who helped to mistreat occupied countries, lesser officials who zealously carried out Nazi policies. To be imprisoned for life: all smaller fry who acted with "singular cruelty." To be interned, exiled or held in labor battalions: all incurable antidemocrats.

P: Abolition, for perhaps two generations, of Germany's sovereignty.

P: Decentralization (but not dismemberment) of German government, industry, schools, cultural institutions (e.g., music festivals, sports, etc.).

P: Allied administration for an indefinite period of all German international communications (radio, shipping, aviation, etc.).

P: A buildup of the prestige of German women, who should be given the chief role in handling relief and education.

P: A long-term program to train the German people in the advantages of democracy by education, economic planning, political reform. Trustworthy Germans should be found to lead these reforms. A genuine German revolution should be encouraged.

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