German Leaders Of The Nazi Era/Goebbels

NOTE: I really liked the suggestion by one of the readers to do this, and, to keep some balance, I've decided to also do some important Allied leaders in the near future.

Part One/B "Joseph Goebbels"

Joseph Goebbels (also "Göbbels, but less frequently) was from the Rhineland in western Germany. He became an important part of Hitler's march to power and to the consolidation and expansion of that power once Hitler was in office. Highly intelligent, he understood personality and psychology, and this made him a very dangerous man. He was a little guy, only like five feet in height, and he had a deformity in his one foot/lower leg, which caused him to wear a special brace, although he still walked with a slight limp. Some have attributed Goebbels militaristic behavior to his handicap.* Hitler sent him to Berlin in the earlier days of his rise to power to win converts to the growing Nazi Party and to combat the "red" influence in Berlin; that is, to defeat the Communists in Berlin, and street battles between the two groups were not uncommon. Goebbels loved movies and film making. Not long after Hitler became chancellor, he appointed Goebbels to be the head of the new "Propaganda Ministry." In this new position, Goebbels came to control every aspect of news read or heard by the German people. He used films to influence the public, putting a "Nazi touch" on movies about famous Germans, like Bismarck and Frederick the Great. He and his wife, Magda, had six children, and he had the family portrayed in newsreels as the exemplary family for Germans.** Interestingly however, Goebbels liked the ladies, especially some of the actresses he came into contact with because of the German film industry. He got into hot water due to an affair with a Czech actress, Lida Baarova, in the mid 1930s, which brought a reprimand from none other than Hitler himself, who ordered the affair ended; after all, Hitler was spouting off about how bad the Czechs were, and here his own Propaganda Minister was involved with one. While he didn't like it and threatened to resign, Goebbels followed Hitler's order.

Goebbels was also responsible for much of the open Nazi persecution of Germany's Jews, including the infamous "Night of the Broken Glass" ("Kristallnacht"), when many Jewish businesses and religious institutions were ransacked or burned, and many Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. During the war, Goebbels helped keep Germans fighting to the bitter end with his appeals to German patriotism and with a major dose of fear, both of Nazi informants and of Germany's enemies. His famous speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, just a couple of weeks after the German surrender at Stalingrad, created a frenzy among his listeners present at the arena and those listening on the radio, especially after the intense build up to the question he asked the audience, "Do you want total war?" Those in attendance answered with a resounding "Ja!" (The Allies and Soviets responded with bombs and victories.) Late in 1944, Hitler put Goebbels in charge of the "Volkssturm," the equivalent of the German home defense, consisting of older men and young boys. As the Soviets stormed into Berlin in April 1945, Goebbels and his family (they lived in Berlin) moved into Hitler's bunker. Some reports say that Hitler wanted Goebbels to take his family and leave Berlin for safety, and that, upset to the point of tears by Hitler's order, Goebbels refused to go. Goebbels may have been intelligent, but he didn't use his intellect when it came to Nazi nonsense, and he and his wife poisoned all six of their children, before then taking their own lives not long after their "master," Hitler, had committed suicide ("Selbstmord").*** The Soviets found the bodies and displayed them for cameras.****

I had intended to combine Goebbels and Martin Bormann into one article, but Bormann will be in the next article, perhaps with Albert Speer.

* This makes him similar to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany during World War One, who had been born with a deformity of his one arm/hand. The Kaiser loved military matters, and his militarism may well have been the result of his handicap, but please don't think that every person with a physical handicap is apt to want to start a war or turn into a Nazi.

** His wife had been married previously, and she had one son by that marriage, who survived the war.

*** Literally "self murder," and you can see the similarity of the words to their English counterparts.

**** Goebbels and his wife were partially burned, per his order. The children were found separately, and unburned.

WORD HISTORY:
Swelter-This is another word of uncertain origin, but with a presence in Old Germanic, as "sweltanan," which passed the word onto its offspring, English; actually more specifically, to the Germanic dialects which evolved into English. Its meaning in Old Germanic was "to die." In Old English it was "sweltan," also meaning "to die," but later a variation, "swelten," meant "to be faint with heat, to be overcome by heat." Later this became "swelteren," before the modern version, which has retained the notion of "oppressive heat," but not really the "fainting" part. Icelandic has "svelta," which means "to starve, or to starve someone;" Swedish has "svälta," also with that meaning, so in North Germanic, the word took the "to die" meaning in the direction of "starving to death,"^ while English, a West Germanic language, took the direction of "fainting from the heat," perhaps from the idea that a person who "faints" appears to be dead. Other Germanic languages once had forms of the word too (Old High German had "swelzan," for instance, and it also meant "to die"), but apparently they have died out (no pun intended), just as the old form and the "die" meaning died out in English. German has been prone to tacking prefixes on to many old base words, and they may still have a form of the word, but a bit disguised, and I'm "almost" certain I've encountered it in German before.

^ Danish and Norwegian both have "sulte," for "starve" (both are North Germanic languages), but whether these are related to "swelter," I cannot say for certain.

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era: "Göring"

"Political Leaders" Part One/A "Göring"

I'm doing this in response to a suggestion by a regular reader. The information on each of these leaders is from memory (unless otherwise noted), and comes from the many books and articles I've read over many, many years, plus from documentaries I've seen during that period, which is now closing in on five decades. As I so often note here, if something interests you, please check online sources for more information, or, better yet, go to your local library and see what books and articles they have on the subject of interest to you. I've simply picked out a few of the top German leaders from the Nazi era, and there were many more, but it is always important to remember about that time, that Hitler was THE final authority on EVERYTHING. The whole Nazi system was built around him, and he continued to assume more and more power over the years. While Hitler is seen as the all powerful dictator, he was not much of an administrator, being somewhat lazy, by many accounts, especially in the prewar years. He preferred to set out "themes" then taken by his underlings, who translated their interpretations of these themes into actions. That is likely the reason why no direct order has ever been found with Hitler's signature on it, directing the extermination of Europe's Jews. He did however talk about such, even publicly, as he did in a speech to the Reichstag just months before the war began in 1939. In that speech, he said that if war came to Europe, it would not result in the victory of "Jewry" ("Judentum"), but instead it would result in the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe ("die Vernichtung der jüdische Rasse in Europa).* It can't be much clearer than that, so don't buy the nonsense from Hitler apologists who say he knew nothing of the death camps and mass executions of Jews.

Hermann Göring (also: Goering, but less common)-Göring was a genuine hero as an ace pilot in World War One. He was highly decorated, and in fact, he became the commander of the same unit of the famous Baron von Richthofen, popularly known as "The Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron," in German), not long after the Baron's death. Since his name was quite familiar to the German public, there's no question that Göring's joining the Nazi Party gave it a certain credibility. Göring became the president of the Reichstag (parliament), and he became the head of the revived German Luftwaffe (airforce) under Hitler. If you compare pictures of Göring from World War One with those taken through the years thereafter, you can see he lived a pretty good life, as his waist line expanded tremendously. He loved the benefits of power, and when German forces occupied various countries, but especially France, he grabbed many great works of art for himself.

Severely wounded in the thigh during the attempted Nazi takeover of Germany in 1923, Göring became addicted to the morphine used to ease his pain, and his addiction was a chronic problem throughout the rest of his life, with periods where he kicked the habit, and periods where he returned to drug use. Göring's jovial personality was popular with the German people, seemingly even when the severe air raids began during World War Two, and, as head of the Luftwaffe, he bore responsibility to protect Germany from Allied bombers. Early in the war, Göring "supposedly" said something to the effect, "You can call me 'Meier' if any bombs are dropped on _______."** It wasn't long before Germans began referring to him as "Herr Meier," so there must be some truth about Göring's statement. Göring must also bear a good deal of the blame for the eventual surrender of German forces at Stalingrad, as he assured Hitler shortly after the Red Army surrounded the Germans there, that the Luftwaffe could supply the army inside Stalingrad, something that did not happen. While Hitler may have kept the army there anyway, Göring's assertion certainly solidified Hitler's position of not permitting his forces to breakout of the encirclement. Hitler publicly named Göring as his successor on September 1, 1939 (the day of the German invasion of Poland). Göring is really a mixture of political leader AND military leader, and he was first a general, then Hitler promoted him to field marshal, then to a special rank created only for Göring, "Reichsmarshall" ("Marshal of the Reich").

In the waning days of the war, with the Russians advancing inside Berlin and Hitler hidden deeply away in his bunker beneath the German capitol, Göring, who was in southern Germany, sent a message to Hitler asking about succeeding him. In the message, Göring noted that he realized that Hitler may not have had the ability to respond under the circumstances, and that if he, Göring, didn't receive an answer within so many hours (I just forget the time Göring used), that he would assume Hitler was incapacitated in some way, and that he, Göring, would assume the role as Hitler's successor, as Hitler had ordered in 1939. Göring's message was entirely proper, and according to accounts from survivors who were in the bunker, Hitler seems to have seen it as such, AT FIRST. Hitler's deputy, Martin Bormann, however, supported by Joseph Goebbels,*** Hitler's propaganda chief and personal foe of Göring, told Hitler that Göring's message was an ultimatum, and that Göring was trying to seize power. Ah, excuse me. Helllllllooooooo!!! Seize power of what? A destroyed nation on its knees? It just shows how nuts these guys really were. Hitler exploded and ordered Göring to be stripped of all ranks and offices. He also ordered Göring's execution. With the Russians only blocks away, Hitler was still consumed by such nonsense. The execution order was never carried out, and Göring was captured by American troops. He was put on trial at Nuremberg and mounted a defiant defense. Interestingly, Göring was in the midst of a drug bout when captured, and Allied doctors not only cleaned up his "habit," but reduced his huge hulk to a more manageable size. With a clear mind, this all served Göring well during the trial, as he was shown to be highly intelligent, but his crafty defense didn't save him, and he was condemned to "death by hanging" ("Tod durch den Strang, " literally "death through the rope," and "Strang" is indeed closely related to English "string"). Just a couple of hours before the sentence was to be carried out, Göring took poison and died in his cell. There have been many theories as to how Göring got the poison, and if interested, that might be something you will want to check on, as an American officer at the prison is one of the possible people involved.

Finally, during episodes of drug use, Göring's behavior was reported at times to be bizarre, and many people who knew him commented or wrote about such after the war. Some devout supporters denied many of the scandalous stories about Göring, but I believe there is more than a little basis of truth to most of them; not everyone could have been lying. While I mentioned Göring's jovial personality, it MUST be noted, he could be absolutely RUTHLESS, at times. To his credit, he did try to stop the war from breaking out in 1939, just prior to the invasion of Poland. In my opinion, he was enjoying power too much. He didn't want to jeopardize all the fun by a war that could, and eventually did, end badly (obviously, from his point of view).

* For the entire passage, see "Hitler-Reden und Proklamationen" ("Hitler-Speeches and Proclamations") Band (Volume) II, page 1058, from Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on January 30, 1939.

** It is tough to pin down the exact quote of Göring, and I left the space blank, because some say he mentioned Berlin, others the Ruhr (the major industrial region of Germany), and still others, Germany.

*** Goebbels and Bormann will be covered in Part One/B of this series.

WORD HISTORY:
Singe-This word for "to lightly burn around the edges or tips of something, often hair," has an uncertain origin. It "may" be a Germanic invention, or perhaps more specifically a West Germanic invention (English, German, Low German, Dutch and Frisian are West Germanic), and some believe it is actually related to "sing;" the connection being the sort of "hissing" sound made when something is singed, but I'm not completely sold on that, but don't laugh, words take on meanings in strange, even comic, ways at times. Anyway, West Germanic had "sangjanan," which meant "to burn, scorch." This led to Old English "sengan" (also spelled "sencgan"), which had the "lightly burn" meaning first noted above. Later it was spelled "sengen," before the modern version. German has "sengen," Dutch has "zengen," both also meaning "to singe, to scorch." Frisian had a form, "sendza," but apparently it died out. Icelandic once had "sangr," which also meant "burned," but was this a borrowing from West Germanic? (Icelandic is North Germanic) Or is this a tie to Old Germanic? By the way, "singeing," with the "e" intact, while it looks odd, is the proper spelling, in order to distinguish it from "singing."

"Patton:" Just A Great Movie

"Patton" is just one of the greatest "personality" pictures ever made, played to the hilt by actor George C. Scott. Scott's portrayal is so intense, I cannot to this day, over forty years after the release of the picture, hear or see something about the real General Patton without thinking of George C. Scott. If I remember correctly, I went to see the movie three times during its original release. The writers worked many of General Patton's own words into the picture,* "salty" language and all, and the movie certainly captures the nutty instability, fanaticism, brilliance, showmanship and ego problems of the famous general's personality. It begins with his command of American troops in North Africa during the last stages of the war there to defeat Rommel. While he sees the German field marshal as a worthy opponent, whose defeat can enhance his own career, he also develops an enduring rivalry with another man of similar ego problems, British General (later Field Marshal) Montgomery, "Monty," during this period of the war. Rommel, played by German actor Karl Michael Vogler, and Montgomery, played by British actor Michael Bates, are two "obsessions" which drive Patton throughout the war.

The writers also took the interesting angle of providing insight into Patton's personality by showing how the German military viewed Patton, and there are numerous scenes at German military headquarters at various points during the war, where top generals try to keep tabs on Patton. Much of their information comes from an army intelligence captain (a fictional character used by the writers) who tells them how Patton is a military historian who believes in reincarnation (which he did). The captain calculates Patton's future moves through this information, such as the invasion of the Italian island of Sicily. Historically, the decision to invade Sicily was made far above Patton's command, by the Allied political leaders, with input from the military, but it was not Patton's decision. If you follow the movie closely enough, it does not claim that Sicily was Patton's decision, but it simply tries to show how the Germans began to obsess over Patton's movements, and how they attributed many major decisions to him, since they saw Patton as the "best commander" the Allies had.

The movie then takes the viewer into the campaign in Sicily, where Patton drives his army to great military exploits, often with great casualties. His reputation is tarnished by his unstable temperament which is put into the spotlight by his slapping of a shell shocked soldier in a hospital. He then threatens to shoot the soldier himself. The Germans think this whole episode is a ruse to cover what they believe is Patton's real mission, the command of the Allied forces assembling for the invasion of German-occupied France. They so respect Patton, they cannot believe his slapping of a soldier would keep the Allies from giving "their best general" the top command. Herein is one of Patton's historical legacies; he fights to free people from the Nazis, yet his love of war and his tactics, ruthless at times, are similar to those of the Nazis. The fact that the German military was so respectful and fearful of Patton has only served Patton's critics as proof of his Nazi-like similarities. That is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

The movie takes the action to France, where Patton, deprived of the top command, is given command of an army that will lead the breakthrough effort in Normandy. The Allied advance has been held in relative check by the Germans, under none other than Field Marshal Rommel. With Montgomery also present in France, Patton and Monty race to see who can get to Germany first and secure a German surrender. Patton's inability to control his temper, and his statements to the press, keeps him in hot water throughout the movie (and in real life), including AFTER the war, when he said the Allies should then have gone to war with Soviet Russia, even rearming the just defeated German troops to do so.

If you have never seen this picture, please do so! If you haven't seen it for years, see it again. It is readily available on DVD. It is a war picture, but it is really about Patton first and foremost, and George C. Scott is unforgettable in the title role. For those learning German or for those wanting to practice their understanding of German, the film has several scenes in German (with English subtitles); likewise, there is a bit of French, too.

* General Omar Bradley, Patton's close associate during the war (sometimes being his subordinate and sometimes his superior), was a consultant for the film, and author Ladislas Farago's book "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph" provided much of the material for the script. Bradley, also a highly successful American commander during World War Two, had a very different personality compared to Patton, and the two, while friends, often clashed over matters. Bradley is portrayed in the movie by Karl Malden, who then went on to star in the television crime and detective drama, "The Streets of San Francisco," during much of the 1970s.  

WORD HISTORY:
General-This word, used as both an adjective and as a noun, goes back to the Indo European root "gen," which meant "produce, offspring." This gave its Latin "offspring" (I couldn't help that) "genus," with the meaning "type, kind, stock, race," a word still used in scientific/botanical lingo. This then gave Latin "generalis," with the meaning "from the overall genus, from the whole." This gave Old French, a heavily Latin-based language, "general," with the same meaning. The word seems to have been borrowed into English in the late 1100s or early 1200s in its adjectival form and still with the meaning "from the overall body or class of something;" that is, "not specific," and we still use that meaning today, as in, for instance, "general store;" that is, "a store that sells a little of everything, not a specialty store." During the 1500s, French used the term "capitaine general" for a military rank for "a captain in charge of a large body of troops," and "general" was still an adjective in this form. French, English and other languages dropped the "capitaine" part, leaving "general," a noun form, for a superior commander. German, too, borrowed the word in the same form, "General," but the pronunciation uses a hard "g."

The Allies & Berlin, 1945

This is in answer to a very good question posed by a regular reader in one of the comments.
His question: "Why didn't the Americans and Brits take Berlin?"

General Dwight Eisenhower, the overall commander of the Allied forces, made the determination NOT to take Berlin. His decision came in February 1945, not long after the Allies had not only defeated the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, but had pushed the Germans back toward the Rhine River in western Germany. His decision was based upon the following:

-Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin had already agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones. Berlin, which would lie within the Soviet zone, was also to be divided into occupation zones. This meant that Allied forces, more likely American forces, would have to go through what was to become the Soviet zone to even get to Berlin.

-When Eisenhower made his decision, the Soviets had penetrated deeply into eastern Germany, and, at their closest point, were only about 40 miles from Berlin. On the other hand, the western Allies were perhaps 300-400 miles from Berlin.

-Eisenhower's staff told him it would cost at least 100,000 casualties for the Allies to take Berlin.

When put together, Eisenhower saw: heavy casualties to take a city hundreds of miles away, when the Soviets were already at Berlin's doorstep. Fighting through and taking casualties in territory that would then have to be given over to the Soviets anyway. It should be noted, Churchill wanted Eisenhower to go for Berlin, but the general chose not to do so.

For the Allies to take Berlin "could" have also brought about the "split" between the Allies and the Soviets so dreamed of by Hitler and the other Nazi leaders. The Soviets and Stalin were far more filled with revenge against Hitler and Germans than the Allies,* and they really wanted to take Berlin, regardless of casualties. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think Eisenhower made the right call, given the situation at that time. I know, many argued "later" that Berlin became the center of the "Cold War," but in February/March 1945, the Cold War was in the future.

* The Soviet Union suffered many millions of casualties, including millions of civilians, at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis.

WORD HISTORY:
Prosit/Prost-These words, "prost" is derived from "prosit," are drinking toasts, and were borrowed from German, apparently in the mid 1800s, and are equivalent to English "Cheers!" or "To your health." German borrowed "Prosit" from Latin "prodesse," which meant "be useful, be beneficial," and it is the third person singular present subjunctive of the verb. Subjunctive, also called "subjunctive mood," is used to help express a wish; thus, "may it benefit you." Of course, a few too many "Prosits" will not be beneficial to you...hicc! "Scuse me!" The "pros" part is related to English "for," and the "it" part is related to English "is."

Thank You!

I want to thank everyone who checked out any or all of the "German Question" articles. As I noted before, I really intended to do, like maybe, a series of six articles about the subject, but once I got going, there was no stopping me, and, like other peoples, the Germans are the sum of their collective history, so I did a basic overview of that history. The series drew thousands of visits to this site from around the world, and I hope some people took away a little knowledge, not only about German history, but about how their own culture and history relates to some of the events in German history. I really enjoyed doing this series.

WORD HISTORY:
Warp-This verb traces back to Indo European "wer," which had the notion of "bend, twist." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "werpanan," which meant "to throw or hurl," apparently because we "bend and twist" our arm when throwing. This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "weorpan," with the same basic meaning of "throw, fling, hurl." Now comes a problem. By the 1300s, the meaning "distort, twist out of shape," began to take over. The question is, why? What I mean is, how did English speakers in the 1300s know the word's meaning derived from "twist, bend, turn," if they used it to mean "throw?" So presumably the word must have also retained the "twist, bend" meaning as a secondary meaning all along, with "throw" being the primary meaning up until then. The word then became "werpen," before acquiring the modern spelling. There is also a nautical meaning of "towing a ship with a line;" the notion being of the rope being "thrown" from one point to another. There is an archaic noun form "warp," with the meaning "threads arranged lengthwise in woven fabric." This seems to come from the idea of "throwing the threads" in a particular pattern. It comes from Old Germanic "warp," and was "wearp" in Old English. English "warp" has relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "werfen," which means "to throw, to launch" also used in modern times for a rocket launcher (noun), "Werfer;" Dutch has "werpen"=to throw; Swedish has värpa, with the meaning, "to lay eggs," and the notion of "discharging" is still present. "Apparently" forms of the word have died out in the other Germanic languages, but if anyone knows otherwise, I hope you will post a comment with your knowledge.

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Nine

"Final Thoughts & Bibliography"

NOTES: 1) In the previous article, I did not mention Albert Einstein, who was a very prominent German-Jewish scientist and thinker. Einstein was out of the country when Hitler took power at the end of January 1933, and he never returned. He came to the United States and became an American citizen.

2) No one really knows for sure when Hitler believed the war to be lost, and there have been several "theories" offered up by historians, but certainly the duel defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad made many Germans, including military personnel, begin to think the war could not be won, and I tend to think the same of Hitler. In his speech to the Reichstag on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, Hitler made it clear that if the war was lost, he would still never surrender, and that he would not survive the war's end. So even when he felt the war was lost, the war went on, with the sacrifice of millions of lives. His whole aim seemed to simply be, rather than victory, to keep the war going in order to postpone his inevitable death. Even in the final days in Berlin, as children helped in the street by street fight against Soviet troops, the point was still to keep the war going to save his worthless ass. Absolute insanity ("Wahnsinn").

3) Back in the 1990s, columnist George Will wrote about the possibility of "Anschluss;" that is, unification of Austria with Germany. That certainly does not seem possible at this point in time, and as time has passed, Austrians have distanced themselves (not without reason) from a child of Austria...Hitler.

Why German history? We can learn from history, even from the history of other peoples and we should never be afraid to learn something from someone else. Learning from others doesn't make you weak, it makes you stronger. Certainly one of the things we should see in German history is, you can't have a true country with so many elements pulling in different directions. The Old German Empire is a case in point, with individual states having so much power, they eventually became like separate countries, albeit under the "vague" umbrella of the German Empire, which really had no central government. In fact, as I've shown in these articles, several regions indeed became truly separate countries outside of Germany:  Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. In America in the last few years, we've heard comments from certain state leaders about seceding from the Union, something many Americans probably thought was settled by our Civil War of about 150 years ago. While the debate over how much power the national government should have versus the individual state governments is a valid one, the "hate the government movement" and the appeal to personal gain over what's in the best interest of the nation and its citizens is deeply disturbing. Of course, when disaster strikes, the same preachers of "hate the government" want help from "Uncle Sam." If all of this gets carried further, will we need to ask "the American question;" that is, "who is an American?"

As to "who is a German," the question seems to be answered for now, and perhaps forever. There are a couple of answers. There are "national Germans;" that is, Germans who are citizens of Germany. There are also  "Germans" who are German in culture/custom and language, but who are not "national Germans," and who do not want to be "national Germans." During the Nazi era, Hitler stirred emotions among many German communities throughout Europe, indeed, throughout the world, and many wanted to become "national Germans," or "Reichsdeutsche," as the term was back then. By the end of the war, many of these Germans, especially in eastern Europe, got their wish, but the hard way; they had to flee for their very lives from the other countries where they had been living. When all was said and done, Germans were much more "united" within the then borders of Germany, more so "West Germany," than "East Germany," and Germans remaining in eastern European countries are today far less in numbers and percentage of the population of their respective countries than before World War Two.

Many Germans realize the tremendous flaws of their past and laws have been in place banning the display of Nazi paraphernalia, and there have been restrictions on the use of German military units outside of Germany. Some may say this limits democracy, and I suppose it does, but democracy can't be pure either, and these restrictions didn't end German democracy, I would say they strengthened it. Do you allow "total" freedom to go to a point that it destroys a nation or the world? We are still in the midst of a deregulation and greed driven recession (when this article was first written). Did we learn any lessons?

Much of the information in these articles has been very basic, and I did it from memory, but I did need a chronology as well as some checking on certain facts and figures, especially dates.

Bukey, Evan Burr, "Hitler's Austria," University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 2000

Domarus, Max, "Hitler-Reden und Proklamationen" (Three volumes: 1932-1934; 1935-1938; 1939-1945), Süddeutscher Verlag, München, 1965

Gurney, Gene, "Kingdoms of Europe," Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, 1982

Herz, John H., "The Government of Germany," Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. New York, 1967 Edition

Lumans, Valdis O., "Himmler's Auxiliaries," University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1993

Mosley, Leonard, "On Borrowed Time," Random House, New York, 1969

A.J.P. Taylor, "The Origins of the Second World War," Atheneum, New York, 1985 (Second Printing), copyright 1961

Wikipedia-This is a great source for quick basic info checks online.

I'll end this series with the words to a German folksong, "Die Gedanken Sind Frei" ("Thoughts Are Free"), written back in the early 1800s, but by whom, no one seems to know. The Germans have not really been free until relatively recently, but even back then, they thought about freedom. There are various versions, but this is what I know, so here it is:

Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten? Sie fliegen vorbei, wie nächtliche Schatten. Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschiessen, mit Pulver und Blei; die Gedanken sind frei. (Thoughts are free, who can guess them? They fly by as night-like shadows. No person can know them, no hunter can shoot them, with powder and lead; thoughts are free.)

Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglückt, doch alles in der Still', und wie es sich schicket. Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand verwehren, es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! (I think what I want and what makes me happy, certainly in the stillness and as it suits me. My wish and desire can be denied by no one, it therefore remains: thoughts are free.)

Und sperrt man mich ein, im finsteren Kerker, das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke. Denn meine Gedanken zerreissen die Schranken und Mauern entzwei, die Gedanken sind frei! (And if they lock me away in the dark prison, that is all work done purely in vain. Because my thoughts tear away the barriers and walls, thoughts are free.)

WORD HISTORY:
Free-This common word traces back to Indo European "pri," which meant "to love," and the derived "prijos," which meant "beloved, dear." The assumption is, a part of our ancient ancestors used the term for family members who were not slaves or servants; thus they were "free" people, and that is how the term shifted in meaning. By the time of its Old Germanic offspring, "frijaz," it meant "not beholden to, not in bondage to" (the "p" became "f" in Old Germanic). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "freo," with similar meaning. Gradually the meaning expanded to "under no obligation," to "under no obligation to pay for, unrestrained." The spelling became "fre," before the modern version. The verb form, as in "to free someone, to set free," developed in Old English as "freon," then became "freen," before the modern form. "Free" is very common in the other Germanic languages: German has "frei" (initially in Old High German "fri"), Low German Saxon has "free," Dutch has "vrij," West Frisian has "frij," Norwegian, Swedish & Danish have "fri," and Icelandic has "frjáls." There are also verb forms, like German "befreien," meaning "to set free."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Eight

"German Contributions to the World" ("German" in the broad sense, not all were from Germany, but some were born in Austria-Hungary or Switzerland.)

Everyone should already know about German contributions to music, especially "classical music," so I'll just mention some names to refresh memories:* Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy), Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Johann Strauss, Franz Schubert, (Franz) Joseph Haydn. Further, Wilhelm Furtwängler was a composer, but he was better known as a long time symphony conductor, and I'm sure you can still buy music conducted by him (he died in the 1950s).** Likewise for Otto Klemperer, another renowned conductor.*** Besides classical music, people like Marlene Dietrich, a singer and actress, and 1980s pop music star "Nena" ("99 Balloons") are well known. For "rock" fans, "The Scorpions" are from Germany.

In art, Paul Klee and Albrecht Dürer come to mind, and Klee was born in the German part of Switzerland. In Philosophy Immanuel Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche are all well known. Writers Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Günter Grass, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm ("The Brothers Grimm"),**** Heinrich Heine, Erich Maria Remarque (best known for "All Quiet On The Western Front"), Friedrich Schiller.

In film (and television), both acting or directing, I already mentioned Marlene Dietrich, and there was Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Klemperer & (Johann) "John" Banner (both of "Hogan's Heroes"), Romy Schneider, Billy Wilder, Maximilian Schell, Bertholt Brecht (playwright). Leni Riefenstahl is recognized as a ground-breaking filmmaker, but she is controversial, due to her close association with Hitler.

In science, Wernher von Braun, who came to America after World War Two, is noted for rocket development.***** German engineering produced the great "Panther" tank, which actually took some design features from the Soviet T-34 tank. And most of you have undoubtedly heard of the famous "Tiger" tank. Its reputation was so "ferocious," it had an impact on the battlefield even when it was not present, as Allied soldiers tended to call any German tank a "Tiger."

* Remember, Austria was THE leading German state for centuries, so just as the now two separate countries share a common history until more recent times, some composers can also been seen as "shared," or "German" sense. Further, this list of names is not meant to name EVERY German composer or musician, artist, philosopher, etc, by any stretch of the imagination.

** Furtwängler is controversial, however, not for his music or conducting, but rather for his association with the Nazis, although he successfully later fled to Switzerland during the war.

*** He is the father of actor Werner Klemperer, mentioned above, who was famous as television's "Colonel Klink" in the comedy "Hogan's Heroes." Conductor Otto Klemperer was Jewish, who converted to Catholicism and returned to Judaism late in his life. He was married to a singer who was Lutheran; thus, their son Werner was part Jewish. The family left Germany not long after Hitler came to power and they soon came to the United States. John (real name, "Johann") Banner, who played "Sergeant Schultz" in the same comedy series, was born in Vienna. Banner, who was Jewish, fled to the United States when Hitler annexed Austria.

**** The Grimms also did much work in linguistics and etymology ("history of words," hmm).

***** The Germans developed a number of things for war, unfortunately often for the Nazis, but like it or not, war is a part of mankind, and weapons are therefore important. They developed the "Buzz Bombs," so called in England because of the buzzing sound their engine made, which were propelled aircraft with bombs in a warhead. Also known as the "V-1" rocket (V=Vergeltungswaffe; that is, "retaliation weapon"), it was followed by the far more elaborate missile the V-2, the actual forerunner to today's spacecraft and yes, today's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Both the Western Allies and the Soviets wanted to get their hands on the German scientists who helped develop these weapons, and fortunately, many were captured by the West. These Germans were so noted, in the TV sitcom "Get Smart," of the 1960s, in one episode at a rocket launch, all of the instructions are announced in both English and German, prompting someone to ask "Why in German too?" The answer comes back something to the effect that many "American" scientists understand German better than English.

WORD HISTORY:
Wax-This is the noun,^ meaning "material used for candles and substance made by bees." There is uncertainty about the ancient origins of this word, and I'm not really sold on any particular theory. It "could" be a Germanic invention, based upon the old verb form which meant "grow," with the idea of "the substance that 'grows' the honeycomb." Some non-Germanic eastern European languages have obvious forms of this word, but they are likely borrowings from Germanic (Lithuanian has "vaškas" and Polish has "wosk," for example). Anyway, Old Germanic had "wahksan," and this then gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "weax," which then became "wax." Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "Wachs," Low German Saxon has "Wass," Dutch has "was," West Frisian has "waaks," Norwegian and Danish have "voks," Swedish has "vax," and Icelandic has "vaks."

^ See Part 156 of this series for the old verb form "wax."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Seven

"Hitler & The German Question" Part Three

In the Eupen-Malmedy region, which had been annexed to Belgium from Germany after World War One, and then annexed back to Germany during World War Two, the area was returned to Belgium after Hitler's defeat, but over time, the German population was given equal political rights, including for the maintenance of their language.

The South Tirol (or Tyrol) was a hot button issue for decades. This region of the Alps was heavily German,* but with an Italian minority, which actually had majority status in certain southern areas of the region. It was given to Italy after World War One as sort of a payoff for Italy's having chosen the Allied side. It had been a part of the Austrian part of "Austria-Hungary," and the rest of Tirol, including famous Innsbruck, remained part of Austria after World War One. The Italians tried to "Italianize" the Germans in the South Tirol, and this brought about extreme dissatisfaction among the German population. Hitler and Mussolini came to an agreement about the time of Germany's invasion of Poland to let Germans of the South Tirol choose to remain in the region, but to become "Italians," with all of the resultant restrictions on German language and German culture that carried with it, or to emigrate to Germany (which then included Austria). More than 150,000 chose to "resettle" outside of Italy, but the war interfered with much of this resettlement, and only about half that number actually left Italy. The South Tirol remained a part of Italy after World War Two ended,** but with much German unrest, including serious incidents (people killed), for several decades. Finally the Italian government agreed to grant a degree of "autonomy" to the German region, and several years later another more expanded agreement gave even greater autonomy to the German population. The Germans of the South Tirol have maintained their German language (German is now recognized by the Italian government as an "official" language in the region) and German culture, but they have remained a part of Italy as an "autonomous region," and some of the Italian majority areas were detached from this political entity to avoid further conflict.

After the war, Luxembourg went back to being Luxembourg, a separate country. In Alsace-Lorraine,*** Hitler never formally announced the annexation of the regions to Germany after defeating France in 1940, but the areas were just taken over again, and standard German was reintroduced as the language taught in schools there. The regions reverted to France at the end of the war, and French was again made the official language, and standard German and the German dialects of these two regions have been in serious decline ever since.

As to Germany herself, Austria became independent, although it was divided into occupation zones, with the country gaining full independence in the mid 1950s. Germany was divided into four occupation zones, with the Soviet zone in eastern Germany eventually becoming a communist state, commonly known as "East Germany," but officially the "German Democratic Republic." The western zones were occupied by the British, Americans, and French, and became commonly known as "West Germany," but officially as the "Federal Republic of Germany." Germany became the center of possible major Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and its satellite nations in eastern Europe on one side and western Europe and the United States on the other. As communism lost its grip over eastern Europe in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Germany was reunited as a single nation, and the occupation officially ended. Whether occupation forces would have remained in Germany for such a long time if there hadn't been a "Cold War" is difficult to say, but I doubt it, as the costs would have probably been too great for the occupying nations, although I think it benefited the stability of the western areas, as unlike after World War One, when the Weimar Republic floundered around trying to establish democracy, the presence of foreign powers for so long after World War Two helped democracy take firm root during that time, and presently, Germany is a model democracy, as is Austria.

Germans born after the war are not responsible for what their parents or grandparents did during the Nazi regime, and increasingly, the more recent generations have little concept of those times, as the Nazi-era generation is fading from the scene. Quite a few of the Nazi-era Germans I've known over the years are quite ashamed of those times, but then again, I've known a few who were unrepentant. For a few decades after the war ended, there was a fear by many non-Germans that if Germany did reunite, Germans would seek to regain territories lost to other nations after World War Two, especially some areas lost to Poland, which had in fact been a sore spot for many Germans since the end of the war. Presently that has not happened, nor does it appear likely to happen any time soon, if ever. Germans have struggled to deal with their history during Hitler's rule, especially the murderous nature of his regime and the complicity of so many, but time is doing much to change attitudes. People like Sophie Scholl and Claus von Stauffenberg**** have become martyrs and heroes to younger generations of Germans for their willingness to oppose Hitler, and this seems to say, "the nightmare is over."

* Of course, it all depends upon where you draw the boundaries.

** While Mussolini was put back into power by the Germans in northern Italy, that government was obviously never recognized by the Allies; thus, Italy's switch to the Allied side in September 1943 helped Italy keep the South Tirol.

*** As noted in previous articles in this series, the struggle over these regions has gone on for centuries, but technically, this struggle has not been over both provinces in their entirety, but rather most of Alsace and about a quarter to a third of Lorraine, the Germans conceding the other areas as being French.

**** See Part 151 about the German Resistance.

WORD HISTORY:
Will-The noun form, meaning "determination (as in 'will power'), intended purpose or desire," goes back to Indo European "wel," with the meaning "wish, desire." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wiljon," with the same basic meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "willa," with the meaning "self will or determination, desire." This then later became "wille" before the modern spelling. In the 1300s, the idea of "wish, determination" began to be applied to "a legal document expressing a deceased person's 'desires' for the division of his/her belongings," a meaning that also continues today. German has "Wille," Low German Saxon has "Will," Dutch has "wil," West Frisian "wolle," Swedish has "vilja," Norwegian and Danish have "vilje," all with the meaning of "desire, intention, will power," but not the legalistic "will," which seems to be confined to English.

The verb "will" seems to have been derived from the noun form of Old Germanic as "wiljan(an)," with the same basic meaning "desire, wish, intention to do." This gave Old English "willan" (also apparently "wyllan" in some dialects), with the same basic meaning. The "intention to do" meaning came to be used in future usage; thus, "I will go to the store." Later the word was spelled "willen" and "wollen," before the modern spelling. Extensively used in the other Germanic languages: German has "wollen" (just to show the similarity to English, conjugated as ich will=I will; du willst=you will; er,sie,es will=he, she, it will), Low German and Dutch have "willen," West Frisian "wolle," Danish and some Norwegian have "ville," Icelandic, some Norwegian and Swedish have "vilja."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Six

"Hitler & The German Question" Part Two

Hitler's increasingly violent racism certainly excluded German Jews as being "Germans," first with legal measures and later by mass murder.

As in Poland, Germans were forcibly expelled from Czechoslovakia immediately after the end of the war, and those expulsions continued for more than a year, but some Germans remained, in some cases being "retained;" that is, not permitted to leave by the Czech government, because of special work skills. The numbers were relatively small compared to the prewar German population. There were deaths among the German population during the expulsions, and the number of casualties is very much in dispute, but 15,000 to 20,000 is a likely minimum.

The Soviet military began arresting Germans in Hungary, even before the war was over. Thousands were sent to the Soviet Union, never to return. After the war, the communist government of Hungary expelled tens of thousands of Germans to occupied Germany and Austria, but even then some Germans remained as part of the national Hungarian population. In the case of Rumania too, thousands of Germans had fled the advancing Red Army, but at least a quarter of a million Germans remained, although as communism "waned" (there's that word, see previous "Word History") in the late 1980s, many left for Germany. Similar happened in the Soviet Union, although untold thousands of ethnic Germans died in Soviet prisons or labor camps, or when they were forcibly moved from their home areas to Siberia or to other remote regions.

As the war wound down in Yugoslavia, many Germans fled, but many were killed by communist resistance or military units, or sent to Soviet labor camps. Quite a number of the Germans from northern Yugoslavia eventually emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, with many coming to Cleveland, where their presence, more so now their descendants, is still evident.

Austria was reestablished as an independent nation, although a pro-German unification party remained on election ballots, with an ever decreasing share of the vote as the years ticked by. I must admit, I regret the separation of Austria from Germany, and I often wonder if things would have been different, if Austria had become part of Germany after World War One, as was likely before the Versailles Treaty forbade it. Would the Germans still have gone berserk under Hitler or some other right wing leader? Maybe, as let's not forget where the chief nutcase came from... Austria!

It is my "intention" to finish this series in three more articles: the next one about the western boundaries, one about the positive German contributions to the world (especially after all of this nasty period of Hitler and the Nazis), and one with a basic bibliography. I'm not guaranteeing it will be just three articles, but let's see if I can do it.

WORD HISTORY:
Wax-This is the now archaic verb, not the substance made by bees or used for candles, and it is most commonly used in modern times in the expression "wax and wane" (see previous article for "wane"), and it is related to English "eke," as in "eke out a living." It goes back to Indo European "wegs, weks," and the related Indo European "aug," which had the meaning "to increase." This gave Old Germanic "wahksijan," with the general sense of "to increase, to grow." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "weaxan," with the same "increase, grow" meaning. This later became "waxen," before the modern version. Common in the other Germanic languages: German has "wachsen," Low German Saxon and Dutch have "wassen," West Frisian has "waakse," Danish and Norwegian have "vokse," Swedish has "växa," and Icelandic has "vaxa;" all with the same general meaning of "to grow."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Fifty-Five

"Hitler & The German Question" Part One

Hitler was trying to answer the "German Question;" that is, "who is a German?" Interestingly, he "may" have answered it for all time, although not in the way he wanted it answered. Certainly part of the reason why the answer turned out differently than Hitler would have liked, was that his racist ideology went far beyond the bounds about Germans living within a unified nation. His claims for Austria, the Sudetenland, Memel and Danzig met with general acceptance by much of the world, including the European powers; however, by taking in non Germans, such as the Czechs in 1939, and by waging war in Poland and, later Soviet Russia,* with the resultant subjugation of millions of non Germans, much of the rest of the world gradually decided to resist Hitler. At first millions of Soviet subjects welcomed German troops as liberators from Stalinist oppression, but it wasn't long before many of these same people saw themselves becoming part of an enslavement and extermination policy by Hitler, who then planned to resettle Germans in their homelands. Faced with such polices, even Stalin looked good, and most chose to resist Hitler.**

So, we've come a long way in this series of articles on the Germans. We've seen how some ancient Germanic tribes began to slowly develop a common identity as "Germans," but never quite enough to bring about a truly unified nation, as politics and regional interests interfered. The old German Empire, "The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation," was usually too fragmented and loose to be considered a true national state, in spite of its name.*** Then there were the Dutch, for example, who were called by the all inclusive name "Germans" for awhile, only to establish a separate national identity. Then there were the extensive German areas of Switzerland, where to this day people identify as being part of the "German linguistic and cultural community," but don't see themselves as "national Germans." So how did Hitler help to answer the "German Question?"

While Hitler started out trying to unite many German areas in Europe under one national government, the fact is, many of these Germans ended up in far worse condition than before the war, at least in the short term. The end of the terrible Second World War saw millions of Germans living in eastern Europe fleeing the advancing Red Army as it approached their regions. Some Germans who, in recent years, had been resettled from places like Latvia, western Poland or northern Italy barely had time to get accustomed to their new homes before they had to flee for their very lives. Other Germans, whose families had lived in places like East Prussia for centuries, also migrated westwards, away from the Soviets. No one really knows for sure how many Germans were caught up in this massive movement of people in eastern Europe, but by all accounts, it was a very large number, undoubtedly exceeding 10 million, and perhaps closer to 15 million!

The long time German province of East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland, then fast becoming a communist-dominated country. There was no need for a new "Polish Corridor," as that entire area, including Danzig, and then even into (German) Pomerania, became a part of Poland. Silesia went to Poland too, as the Polish state literally moved westwards to accommodate the Soviet Union's annexation of eastern Poland. Germans who had remained behind during the war, were physically expelled from Poland in the first few years after the war ended, and they were the lucky ones, as many died in communist prisons or labor camps, adding an ironic twist to their fate.

* Remember, Germany and the Soviet Union had been allies. The Soviets invaded and occupied eastern Poland. The Soviets attacked Finland, eventually taking some territory from that little nation. The Soviets took over Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and large parts of Rumania. The British, and later the Americans, however, had no problem in siding with the Soviets against Hitler. Stalin may have been another murderous loony, but at that moment, Hitler was the greater threat. I'm not sure Hitler ever completely understood that hatred of him is what held together the almost "unnatural alliance" against him, and his talk about that alliance coming apart, while certainly based upon real disagreements and distrust among the Allied powers, never really came close to taking place; that is, until AFTER Hitler's defeat.

** One of the "what ifs" of the Second World War has been, would Hitler have defeated Stalin "if" he had used the discontented elements of the Soviet population against Stalin, instead of treating large segments of the population so ruthlessly?

*** The word "nation" does not always mean "a single, unified political state with clearly defined borders," but also the much broader "people of the same or similar ethnic, and often linguistic, background;" thus we speak in English of the "Iroquois nation," or of the "Sioux nation."

WORD HISTORY:
Wane-Like its relative "want" (see previous "Word History"), this word goes back to Indo European "wen(o)" or "weun," with the general notion of "to leave, to abandon," and by extension, "be lacking, be empty." This gave Old Germanic "wanojan(an)," also with the notion of "be lacking," but more so in the sense "to become lacking, to become smaller, to become less, to shrink." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wanian," with that same meaning. This later became "wanen," before the modern spelling. More common in modern expressions like "in the waning days of....," or "wax and wane" (for "wax," see next article). Its other close Germanic relatives have all died out; I guess you could say, "usage by these relatives 'waned' until... those forms became totally lacking." Old High German had "wanon," which meant "to grow less, decrease." "Wane" is likely related to "wan," "lacking color, pale," originally meaning "dark, gray;" that is, "without specific color." When I was a kid, it was not uncommon to hear "wan" used for the complexion of someone who was sick.