Introduction<br > The first time I saw Germany was in 1935， when [ went there at the<br > end of my junior year in college to do research for the senior thesis that I<br > was expected to submit in the spring of the following year. The subject<br > that I had chosen for this piece of work was "The Rise and Fall of the<br > Weimar Republic，" for that ill-fated experiment in democracy had<br > ended in failure two years earlier， and it was， in my view， high time that<br > someone wrote the definitive account of its collapse. There was no doubt<br > in my mind that a few months in Germany would enable me to uncover<br > all the materials necessary to supply this felt want.<br > My naive expectations were in fact to be disappointed， for， although<br > the essay was completed and accepted， my examiners showed no indi-<br > cation of believing that it was the last word on the subject. On the other<br > hand， my time in Germany had brought its own rewards. It had given<br >me an opportunity to see a good part of Germany and Austria--Munich<br >most of all， where I attended courses in the university， the western lands<br >from Cologne to Freiburg in Breisgau， Vienna， still in a state of shock<br >after the February fighting and the abortive Nazi Putsch of the pre-<br >vious year， Nuremberg and the walled towns of Mittelfranken， and the<br >cities of Saxony and Prussia. I had seen Albrecht Dilrer s "Four Apos-<br >tles" in Munich s Old Pinakothek， become an admirer of the work of<br >Cranach the Elder after a day in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Ber-<br >lin， and wondered at the treasures of the Green Vault in Dresden. I had<br >heard my first Marriage of Figaro in that same city， the whole of The<br >Ring of the Nibelungen， with Frida Leider and Wilhelm Rode， in Mu-<br >nich， and The Magic Flute and Der Freiseht~tz in the Staatsoper on<br >Unter den Linden in Berlin. I had， despite my plodding German， puz-<br >zled out the plot of GOtz von Berlichingen and Heinrich yon Kleist s The<br >Broken Jug， had been caught up in the rapt silence of the crowded<br >Fountain Courtyard in the Munich Residenz as Elly Ney played Schu-<br >bert， and， in Salzburg， had been overwhelmed by Max Reinhardt s pro-<br >duction of Faust." Part One.<br > These masterpieces of high German culture made a deep and lasting<br >impression on me， but no more so than the many examples that I<br >encountered of abuse of culture and， indeed， of inhumanity and barbar-<br >ram. Munich， where I spent most of the early summer， was a beautiful<br >