Land der Dichter und Denker

Germany likes to refer to itself as the land of poets and thinkers, artists and musicians.  This is the image they like to show, as evidenced by the statue of Goethe and Schiller in front of the National Theater in Weimar.  It is the center of many poets and philosophers, but note that is the "high culture," and one they can rightfully be proud of.  Remember the line in Sophie's Choice (not a direct quote) about the growing Nazi threat: Although they are troublesome, I wouldn't worry too much, this is the country that gave us Beethoven and Bach!  Schiller looks forward and upward--such an idealist.  Goethe firmly moves forward with his laurel wreath.

But Germany also had and has a lower culture, not only socio-economically lower, but baser, and as some will say if they have had enough to drink to lower inhibitions, of lower intelligence (a not-so-new, but common excuse for Nazism:  they were the stupid ones).  It is the lower culture that H. appealed to for the most part.  Why think independently when the government can give you the answers.  New truths were created based on fear and stereotypes using repetition in speeches and newspapers, then laws and regulations.  And we all know that there is nothing worse than an emotionally worked up crowd of people, stupid or not.  Before you get upset about my generationalities and over-simplification (or even with the modern-day parallels), recall Marge Schott's infamous statement:  He wasn't so bad in the beginning.  The hyperinflation, high unemployment, extremely high war reparations and accompanying humiliation on the world stage, as well as a republic set up to fail, and the nasty man's plans to build roads, public works projects, did appear good at first.  The problem was that not all Nazis were stupid, and they had a plan.

I do not want to rehash WWII, but would prefer to see the lingering effects.  Will (re)education lift the soul from its baser tendencies, or is it a never-ending process, one that must be ongoing to hold off repetition of the past?  Have the east Germans been taught so well (by the Russians, for 40 years) that they simply must follow procedures, work with a group, constantly analyze what they are doing and how they are doing it so that they do not fall prey to their inner souls?  Nearly every Ossi can recite the catechismic statements about the problems with fascism, how they have overcome their past, and how they maintain a vigilant watch for any signs of emerging fascism. Are they "barbarians" as the Greeks called them,  the strange "germanen" the Roman author Tacitus described, or is it time for me to go "west," where re-education was more successful to my American mind, or south (Switzerland, Austria) to unaffected peoples, who have ALWAYS distanced themselves from their northern neighbors?