Guest of the Third Reich: Mare nostrum: Villa am Meere

Before I go any farther, I should probably note that back when the book was written German was teached for children at schools from the age of 9 (this was replaced by English in the seventies). Mr. Paavolainen doesn't therefore deem it necessary to translate everything into Finnish. I don't speak German - at all - and my Swedish could be much better, so if the reader of this blog understands what some of the non-translated words mean, please don't hesitate to write.

Review.
Foreword.
Mare Nostrum 1: New Horisons.

Dichterhaus was founded by Nordische Gesellschaft but taken over by Reichsschrifttumskammer, Reich's Chamber of Literature in 1935. This brought changes to the modus operandi; while it used to be just a summer camp to bring writers together from different parts of the world, it now has "official programs" led by "determined staff". While there is no outright propaganda, the German writers are card-carrying members of national socialists.

Of the other people living in Dichterhaus, Sweden's representative Sven Stolpe was known to have a brilliant mind and "radical swings". He had studied in Germany, married a German as well as speaking the language fluently. Trough the newspaper Young Sweden he was one of the most important opinion-leaders of his generation. Paavolainen himself was quite stricken by the author: Stolpe was the kind of man who only exists in fiction; world-traveller, modernist and liberal, honest to the causes he championed and a great sportsman even as one of his lungs was non-functional after medical operation. Of all the writers in the house, he was the only one who openly criticized the Third Reich.
From the text you get the impression that the German government hoped to convert Stolpe to the cause. After all, his background and ties made him a terrific candidate. Alas,

When reaching the Third Reich, Stolpe had a surprise to us: he had come directly from England, where he had gotten an oxfordian awakening. "It is the greatest moment of my life", he repeatedly says.

He didn't stay long. He soon after departed to show his oxford-book to an old friend in Norway, and while travelling there his lung started acting up again and he could not return.

The Norwegian in the house was Doctor Eyvind Mehle, who had gotten his degree in Germany.

He was both the most popular person in Dichterhaus and its enfant terrible. Nobody could believe that this man [...] was the oldest person in the house - 41 years. Mehle was as black fascist as they came and one of Norway's Nasjonalsamling's leading personalities. He was [...] a newspapersman, who had visited both Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, interviewed them all and forged strong ties to all European fascist-organisations. Wonderful and funny man who could not be taken seriously - for example when he lists who are going to be shot after the Norwegian fascists grab the power!

Paavolainen's room mate was Erik Bertelsen:

Bertelsen is so nice and good-hearted and un-revolutionary, that one has to wonder how one such as him can earn his living writing in our days.. he is not shocked by Nazism nor by Bolshevism. [...] He is only interested in his books [...] about old Danish memories.

About his fellow Finn, Göran Stenius.. the translation is hard and relies much on knowing the popular culture of the 30s (I don't). Apparently he had some interest toward Fascism, but because of language-movement (Stenius' native language was Swedish) was sidetracked and belonged to some fringe-group.

Stenius came to Germany well-versed in national socialism. Rising his hand up in greeting comes easily to him. Because of this I'm greatly interested to see how his moods swing.

But after everything is said and done, Paavolainen believes that he is level-headed, as is Mehle, and does not go all metaphysical and romantic as the Germans do.

Of the Germans..

My greatest interest was naturally toward the three national socialist authors - and how different they were!
[...] Rupert Rupp from Saars was only 28 years old. [...] Saars' suffering and humiliation during the French occupation were the main focus of Rupp's poetry. [...] Rupp has taken part in the fighting even as a youth in the ranks of Schlageter. This is why he has naïvely and with all his heart embraced the Nazi-ideology as only soldier-youth born in the south can. [...] No great originality could be found in Rupp's poems. The poems tended to become mystical [...], but the deeply felt pain and aching were very common to the young generation to whom Nazism meant salvation and the spring of new strength and innovation.

Another German, Friz Helke;

At the age of 30 Helke had gained his station by fighting. [...]During inflation he had worked as a businessman, started then studying at night [...] and at at the same time took part in political fights as a leader of youth-chapter in Stahlheim. [...]He quit [...] when he noticed that freemasonry had taken root in the chapter and joined national socialists in 1929 taking to Hitler all the 25 children in his care. Today Helke has a very influential position in the Hitler-Jugend [...] headquarters; he is the auditor for literature suitable for Hitler-Jugend(!), Referent im Kulturamt der Reichsjugendführung and his rank in Hitler-Jugend is Bannführer im Stabe! [...] According to Sven Stolpe his purpose is to "show millions of young Germans primitive pictures of national and military heroes and systemically force the youths to think that heroism is only possible in the military".
[...]Helke has written surprisingly many books for children during the past few years. [...] They only have one aim: to rise national socialists.

The third German, Ottfield von Finckenstein

I think it as a great personal victory that I was able to secure the friendship of this extraordinary man. [...]Sensitive, well-raised, good and wise man, who emits a strangely calming presence to all those near him. [...] Finckenstein is a marvellous example of what happens when old aristocrat has the ability to worship life and the straight-lined, non-compromising thinking of national socialistic ideology. [...] Stolpe's oxfordianism looks cold and calculating compared to Finckenstein's [...] radiating joy of life.
[...] When talking about Hitler, he has no reservations. "One must learn to believe, that even on our days can such genius be born." With Germans - even with Fincenstein - it is impossible to discuss... one just has to listen and wonder.

Paavolainen remarks how closed the German culture was. The national socialism was only interested in building its own view of the world, disregarding everything that happened abroad. He remarks that Doctor Domes didn't even know the name of Lawrence (of whose books at least two were banned in Germany). This made the German books so dry; Finckenstein was the only one who wrote lively books - and he had spent much time abroad.

Guest of the Third Reich: Mare nostrum: New horisons

Review.
Foreword.

This chapter is a short introduction on the writer and how he came to be at Travelmünden at the 14th day of August. The German-Scandinavian Dichterhaus, writerhouse had been opened late that year, and thus Finland's Writer-Alliance [?] had had troubles to find someone to go; the vacations were already over. Because of troubles, the writer arrived day late and missed the Olympics at Berlin.

I'm tired. I sit on my luggage on a dark and empty terrace. Silent longing everywhere. Again I ponder the question that has been troubling me the whole sea voyage, on railway thru Denmark, on train ferry over windy sea between Gjedser and Warnemünden: why this trip? What do you think you'll find?

The writer hopes to find something new. Too many years he has been trying to write about his trip to London four year previous, to write down the many projects that had haunted him for years. But he had never succeeded. The Finnish political landscape was in heavy movement; the failed coup d'etat of the fascists in 1932 had depressed him and he no longer felt like writing.

And still I knew that in the world something was happening, something that people back home understood completely wrong. We saw the world like thru an old window; greenish, blurry and distorted. Revolutions right and revolutions left.. but back home everybody was shouting: old, tried traditions are the way to go! The most descriptive thing: the clergy changed from defenders to attackers! Confusion over terms. Ignorance, pathetic good-will, [...?], doing small movements in the middle of steely, determined, bi-polarizing world...

In the end the writer is let in to the house. Everybody else is in Berlin, watching the Olympics. The next day he met them; the director (Doctor Fred Domes) and hostess (Madam Lisa Hayn) of Dichterhaus, two German writers (Rubert Rupp and Count Ottfried von Finckenstein), a Norwegian (Doctor Eyvind Mehle), a Swede (Doctor Sven Stolpe) and another Finn (Master Göran Stenius). Each of them was important to the writer, opening to him new horizons.

The weeks at Dicherhaus gave the writer new strength. Again he felt like he knew where he was, and how to to hold the pen.

Guest of the Third Reich, foreword

After doing the review here, the fancy to write about the book itself came over me. I'll go one chapter at a time, doing a short summary/shortened translation as I find interesting. You may try to affect my work by cheering on or shouting critique.
Anyway, it seems to me that no one has done similar thing in the Internet previously, neither in Finnish nor English, so I have the honour of being the first. University students will be reading these texts for the Easy Street for years to come!

LEGEND. As usual, the text in italics is from the book. If not otherwise marked, it is direct translation.
[...] means that I have cut something I deem unnecessary off.
Text inside [bracelets] means that I have summarized longer text into the hard core.
[?] means that I am somewhat unsure of the translation, as the writer refers to words or cultural things that have in the passing 70 years gone out of use. I'm not so dedicated to this project to start hunting for meaning of names of old popular culture etc, even if I do try to translate the words to the proper English equivalents.

THE FOREWORD OF THE FIRST EDITION
To all the readers of my book and criticizers I would like to quote André Gide's words: don't try to understand me too fast.

I know fully well how daring it is to write a book of this sort. I know I'm poking a beehive of conflicting opinions. In Finland they have only discussed national socialism in newspapers and magazines. At one side it has been admired without being understood what it's actually about. On the other it has been beaten as far as the journalists sticks carry. At third it has been tried to be silenced to death.

[The book is not an extensive nor even narrow view into national socialism. The writer has tried to avoid using sources. Nearly all quotes the writer has seen himself or heard on the street. Everything in the book is based on the writer's opinions and are therefore subjective.]

I have tried to collect a picture what is the national socialistic Welterlebniss, world view. Therefore I think my book is foremost an extensive raport, and that's why the subtitle of the book is "rhapsody"[?].

[Many will wonder why this book has been written. I can only answer that I have always been solely interested by present, and national socialism is just that. ]

I would not wonder if the people on political right would take the book as a commercial for anti-Christian values and the people on left as Nazi propaganda. In a way both would be right. [Both would also be wrong. [?]] I just want to prove that it would be as grave mistake to take the Third Reich as a caretaker of the values of forefathers as it would be to call it cradle of new barbarism.
[The book is one-sided, as I was a guest and saw only what they let me to see.] I will not judge concentration camps nor the persecution of Jews as neither were shown to me. But I can say that the German culture is not dead even if Lion Feuchtwanger has been exiled.
To keep it short; you should not throw the baby with the bathwater, even if the water is dirty and possibly even bloody.

[Also I had been writing another book for the previous seven years, before the trip.] Because of this I have dedicated much space for the new vital [?] and simplified human type, anti-Christianity and the changes in gender-moral. [These three will be the guiding stars of my new book, and to research them the guesting at the Third Reich gave me valuable material.]

The book concentrates on the Nürnberg rally of 1936. I suppose that the one thing people will be most divided over will be if it was necessary to describe the event in such detail. Personally I feel it to be paramount. I often became desperate when reading Finnish papers in Germany. I often thought that people in Finland didn't realize what was happening in the world presently. We are closing fast on time that might very well be the most important event in European history. It would be deadly mistake to solve problems by playing them down [?]. We have to dare to think apocalyptically.
Currently Germany is guiding the destiny of Europe. Literally; Germany is the heart of Europe. It is completely irrelevant if these beats that shake the continent are because of new vitality or -as many claim- the effects of camphor injection. The important part is; the heart of Europe is beating strongly. Horribly strongly.

Tuusula, Onnela, 19.11.1936.

Guest of the Third Reich, translation of an original review

In the blog Town of Ponte Corvo the writer asked me to write a summary of the book Guest of the Third Reich, written by Olavi Paavolainen in the mid-30s. I have not read the book, so the task would be impossible to do. However, I can translate an article on the subject, which hopefully does the same thing.

This was written for Helsingin Sanomat back when the book was originally published in 1936, by Lauri Viljanen. The newspaper has the review online. I shortened some parts where he starts talking too closely about Paavolainen's masterful use of words (he actually sometimes disregarded content in favour of style at parts) and on one occasion actually stops the review in middle to mention he has visited the place himself. Anyway, onwards;

OLAVI PAAVOLAINEN: GUEST OF THE THIRD REICH

”The distancing of youngsters, even children, from their parents and transforming them into crowds as well as the poor, even disrespectful status of women by Scandinavian standards are phenomenons to which the author's modern training in psychological observation fixates in warning.” - Lauri Viljanen, Helsingin Sanomat 13.12.1936

Olavi Paavolainen, that restless "seeker of the modern world" has just visited in the bygone Fall "the Third Reich". According the official language he was even "guest of the leader"on several occasions, for example during the Nürnberg Rally. [...] As earlier, he remarks on bowing to "the times and lives" and his travels on the soils of the "Third Reich" has strengthened his conviction that Today's Germany is part of the living present of Europe. As we know his prejudice-free, shyless [...] way of writing, we may be sure that "Guest of the Third Reich" is a book whose writer has something special to say.

[The trip starts from the] "German-Scandinavian writer-home" [...] in Travemünden. [...] In the first part of the book Paavolainen presents lively portraits [...] of this scening surrounding. [...] The name of this part's - named Mare nostrum, "our sea" - weightiest chapter is, however, the one that handles so-called "northern idea" in modern Germany's world-view. I think that Paavolainen has written in very trustworthy and critically apt way this "intentional myth" which has gotten its most famous airing in Alfred Rosenberg's world-view book. [...]

More passionate [...] changes the writer's wording in the strange part "Human god". I dare say that the glimpses into the soul of Hitler's realm are revelatory in a way. The description of the Nürnberg Rally wakes in a cool Scandinavian mind the image of ecstatic ritual, and Paavolainen will not hesitate saying; "national socialism is the first religion given birth by Europe". The new lifefeeling's self-confident, decidedly unchristian tendency did not go unsaid in the previous part's chapter "In Bachen Marienkirche" [...]. To this connects heavily the chapter "Blue temple", a portrait of the religious psyche of political leaders - a shocking painting of new Babylon in the middle of old civilized world.

The writing of Paavolainen is curiously so rich in this part that the reviewer has no chance of deep margin thoughts in this part. But I have become confident that he is closer to truth than our cool thought processes might initially lead us to believe. We shall wager that Hitler's best weapon against the dull grey of Weimar Republic was the mystically grand presentation which so touches the German heart.

On his best Paavolainen is in the last part, "Toward Germanic Sparta", where he analyses the new human type being born in Hitler's Germany. Paavolainen has a sharp, seeing eye towards everyday facts of life, which seems insignificant but end up being important. He emphasises the part that the young generation has had in the founding of "the Third Reich", [mentioning] youths who are very self-assured about the condition of their bodies. One of the few words of admiration without restriction he gives are for so-called "work-service", which has brought together social classes and has even made work into some sort of ceremony. The distancing of youngsters, even children, from their parents and transforming them into crowds as well as the poor, even disrespectful status of women by Scandinavian standards are phenomenons to which the author's modern training in psychological observation fixates in warning.

I will not hesitate to say that "Guest of the Third Reich" is a rather monumental accomplishment from the author [...]. I suppose Hitler's Germany opens to us as an actual physical place, which causes uneasiness and curiosity, only after reading this travelling report.