What has just been said is not merely a wishful-thinking dream. There are many factors which will make for the success of a beginning in local self-government which have not been wholly eradicated by even ten years of Nazi rule.
These factors are the Protestant and Catholic Church organizations, the traditions of trade-unionism among the older members of the working classes, a considerable part of the formerly efficient and honest civil servants, and the remnants of more than a century of excellent city government and municipal administration.
From the Bottom Up
When, after a year or two, democracy has got started on a local basis, regional democratic governments could be built upon it, either might be hoped that some kind of following the lines of the 35 electoral districts of the Weimer Republic (which Hitler adopted as his Gau districts), or following the lines of 17 "Lands" of the Weimar Republic or the 25 States of the Bismarekian era.
Eventually, upon these regional governments, after people had gained experience in practical democracy in the local and regional areas with the assistance of the democratic occupying authorities, it central government could be set up, probably federal in character, but with large powers in the hands of the central government as in the case of the Weimar Republic.
Such a German government would then be ready to be a worthy member for full participation on equal and dignified terms in that "Council of Europe" which Mr. Winston Churchill seemed to discern as he "peered through the mists of the future": on the evening of Sunday March 21, 1943.
THE AUTHOR,
Sidney B. Fay, professor of History, was born in Washington, D. C. and attended school there. He obtained his A.B. here with the Class of '96 and completed his education in Paris, Berlin, and at Columbia University. He has taught history, besides here, at Dartmouth, Smith, Amherst, and Columbia.
A student of European history and an authority on Germany and its people, Fay was called upon to prepare memoranda for Colonale House, Wilson's closest friend and adviser. These were to be used in the Versailles peace conference; he ruefully admits today that his suggestions were not carried out.
Many magazine articles and books on historical and political subjects have been published by Fay. His best-known book is "Origins of the World War" in which he destroys the dogma of German war guilt which was so popular after the armistice.
Fay's insight into the problems of Germany after the war has been gained through his many visits to that country. Both immediately after the last war and in more recent years he has spent much time there studying the conditions of reconstruction and later of Hitler's rise to power.