German discipline

A juxtaposition of influences

The relationship with nature

In Western Europe, nature is more like a garden while the great plains of the North and East are arid and wild. The Germans sought to discipline them with the rigor of Prussian dirigisme and remained close to the elementary forces of nature which exert a strong influence on their minds; wild nature combines well with German romanticism, as evidenced by the painting and music of the early 19th century.

The Romans

West and south Germany were marked by Roman influence*, unlike East Germany.

The Germans

They have the characteristics of the Nordics found in Scandinavia and the Anglo-Saxon parts of England and the United States: seriousness and a desire to dominate. The feeling of equality, so natural to the French, is foreign to the Germanic mind. The historical role of Germanism was to establish the Western order.

The Alpins

Sometimes described as Celts, they populate Bavaria, are related to the Austrians and the Swiss, and nonetheless feel Germanic pride.

The Slavs

They invaded East Germany between 400 and 700 AD. It was only in the Middle Ages that the reconquest of these non-German countries took place by the Germans. “One has the impression that this eastern Germany is a Germanic superstructure covering a Slavic swamp on stilts.” Russians and Germans do not like each other and yet there is a form of complicity between them.

Luther

Luther's pessimistic outlook strongly influenced Germany. For Luther, injustice and evil reign on earth where there is no other law than force. The saints know the mystical independence of the spirit, but on earth the Prince must maintain order. The Christian, an independent spiritual individuality, is therefore only a humble and passive subject in the City. The object of politics is the life of the community, introducing morality into it is nonsense, force is the decisive factor. The German accepts the fact without protest. His submission is reminiscent of that of the Orientals, it is his form of “Nitchevo”. From then on, the humanitarian idealism of law or peace appears to him only as hypocrisy or naivety.

The result of these various influences results in a German, neither completely Western nor completely Nordic, who has kinship ties with Russia. He knows how to behave with the Easterners of Europe or the Westerners of Asia. “Latin contact, combined with Germanic seriousness, produced an extraordinary capacity for analysis; the Prussian element acted as a wonderful organizing factor; the Slavic element gave a mystique, but also an absence of restraint. »

The transcendent state

“It is not a community like in Anglo-Saxon democracies, but a distinct framework, functioning thanks to experts who are respected for their competence. »

The concept of an individual citizen, having rights and carrying within himself the essence of sovereignty does not exist in Germany. What is democratic is expressed more in the group with a more developed sense of collective freedom than in France.

Whether as an isolated individual or as a citizen, the German has only a reduced existence. It is quite different if he integrates into a group. “In the association, the Frenchman always has the feeling that he brings more than he receives.” The German “is aware of receiving more from the group than it gives. He therefore accepts the conditions with eagerness, with gratitude; the discipline essential to joint action does not appear to him as a hindrance, but as an obvious necessity which he even admits with a sort of relief. »

The German character

Depth of inner life

The German has a deep inner life that he finds difficult to express. “Their poetry, untranslatable otherwise, is splendid, in direct contact with being itself.” This life of the soul, which is also expressed in music and song, does not manifest itself at first glance, which can give the impression that the German desires nothing, that he remains virtual, open to all the possibilities, available, malleable.

Strength of will

If the German doesn't know what he wants, he wants it as long as someone wants it for him. Once triggered, such will knows no limits, because it is served by the most effective method.

Discipline

Devoted to his goal, the German has the qualities of a good student; he likes a job well done and does things thoroughly. Diligent, “he is the perfect avant-garde man, ready to integrate all upheavals into a framework of discipline”.

Conscientiousness, seriousness, diligence at work, willpower characterize the half-individual, half-gregarious German who does not show passion but whose outburst can become passionate. He can then use the method in the service of a passion. Outwardly it is order, efficiency, achievement, but inwardly it is swamp and chaos.

And Germany today?

“The German people have accumulated an enormous mass of information, observations, classifications; he produced music, poetry, philosophy; he was the true precursor of industrial rationalization.

We find in today's Germany many of the cultural characteristics described in The Soul of Peoples, German discipline, method, will, expertise, etc. We have seen the Germans accept many sacrifices to unify and straighten out their country but it is more difficult to perceive the other side, the indetermination. Finally, we hope that the author is wrong when he writes “the catastrophe reappears periodically”. Indeed we can assume that the last two world wars have profoundly changed this people in some of their cultural fundamentals.