1936 On the Continent

especially here in the sea-girt British Isles, a country which is bordered on the north by the cold waters of the North Sea, is neighbour to Scandinavia through Denmark, is bounded in the east by Poland and Lithuania (at one time by Russia) marches with France, Belgium and Luxembourg on the west (so that it is only a few hours distant from England), whilst in the south the furthest outlying parts are only separated from Italy by the comparatively narrow territories of Austria and Switzerland.
Germany—Unity and Diversity
    The peculiar diversity of Germany is emphasised by the variety of its climates, its geographical situation, its natural divisions, and also its historical development. It is too easily forgotten that the united German state is only sixty-five years old and that the union, then politically completed, did not in any way bring about homogeneity. Accordingly in 1919, after the revolution, a new effort was made to bring into being a single uniform State from the yet loose structure formed by the innumerable large and small states. This project was defeated more or less by thepolitical, religious and temperamental differences amongst the people, so that only in the last few years, after the seizure of power by the National Socialists, has the union of Germany been definitely attained. Obviously it can only be considered a political union because, in spite of the fact that all speak the same language (though with a large number of dialects), the diversity in their modes of living, thought, and, in fact, the fundamental differences, inwardly and outwardly, amongst the people remain undiminished. Thank God, however, we have nothing to do with politics. Out task is but to trace the pleasant and interesting effects of these strongly varied characteristics. The strong individualities of the many countries which are merged in the German State result in Germany’s possessing probably more varied economic, cultural and artistic centres than any other country in the world.
Some interesting towns
    With all due respect to Manchester, Birmingham or Liverpool, and to Marseilles, Lyons or Bordeaux; in France as in England the capitals alone are the true centres of all cultural and social life. In Germany this is by no means so. Towns such as Hamburg in the north, Frankfort in the west, Dresden and Leipzig in the heart of Germany, Munich and Stuttgart in the south and Breslau more or less in the east, are in almost every respect on an equality with Berlin; and to these must be added the numerous smaller towns, especially the capital towns of the one-time principalities, or the independent town-states, like Bremen and Lübeck, which in many ways rival the great metropolis in historical interest, architecture and civic form. We have only to think of Weimar which, for many decades, especially in the lifetime of Goethe and Schiller, was the centre of German cultural life, or of the little much-sung student town of Heidelberg, or of Nuremberg, where the noblest works of art of the German townsmen were created. We could fill pages with similar instances, but the whole of this introduction is but an apology.…
    Before I started seriously on this work I had perceived my inability to express the inexhaustible complexity of Germany in a single article. I felt stifled by the knowledgegained during fifteen years of travelling about the country. I did not want to forget anything or to leave out anything, and ever I saw before me like a threatening spectre the thick books that were the logical result.
The Author is Perplexed—Enter Mr. Marland
    In my perplexity, not knowing how to begin or end, I came upon help from an unexpected quarter.
    I met Mr. “John Marland.” You may not know him. He comes from Surrey, is fifty-five years old and was, up to a short time ago, Branch Manager of a big Insurance Company in the City. Mr. Marland worked industriously and intelligently in his profession for nearly forty years of his life, is a member of a good but not too expensive club, has a wife and grown-up children and a notable collection of golf clubs which he takes walking every Saturday without exerting himself too strenuously. Six months ago he retired from business; his departure was accomplished in a worthy and dignified manner. Up to this memorable date Mr. Marland had perceived the mania for travel shown by some of his restless contemporaries, and had, on the whole, avoided it. Not that he was altogether untravelled. He merely