HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Citizen of the World
many was printed in the New York Times on July
23, 1944. With keen insight into coming events, he
warned that the greatest danger to the victorious
powers would come after the collapse of their
mighty foe. He prophesied that the defeated Germans
would change with disarming ease from a
genuine admiration of brutality to an equally genuine
admiration of the simple virtues of family life.
German generals and industrialists would harp on
the Communist danger in the post-War years in
the hope that they might be chosen as instmments
of the United Nations in order to keep this danger
from spreading westward. He foretold that the ordinary
British or American soldier in the Armies
of Occupation would be filled with sympathy for
the ordinary bewildered and hungry German civilian
and would want to see the rapid restoration
of order and stability. British and American politicians
and businessmen would clamor for the rebuilding
of German industry in the interest of a
more efficient world economy and for the return
of German mihtary power as a bulwark against the
Eastern menace. Bartlett advocated for those fateful
post-War years frequent re-reading of Heine's
words of wisdom: "Heine, one realizes, was a good
prophet as well as the most charming of all Ger-
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