Alfred Nawraths Reflexion über den Nationalsozialismus

Das Zitat „Peace on earth for all mankind of good will“ ist der Titel einer fünf Schreibmaschinenseiten umfassenden Schrift des Bremer Forschungsreisenden Alfred Nawrath, der bis 1933 Lehrer am Alten Gymnasium war. Unter der Signatur StAB 16,1/2-6/53-2/31 findet sich im Staatsarchiv Bremen eine Kopie auf Mikrofiche, die aus den Beständen des Office of Military Government for Germany (U.S.), kurz OMGUS, stammt. Datiert auf den 3. Mai 1947, hat Nawrath diese Schrift, wohl gemeinsam mit ebenfalls unter der Signatur erhaltenen Briefen, die seine politische Haltung und seine guten Kontakte zu Vertretern des Empire belegen sollen, der britischen Militärregierung in den ersten Tagen nach dem Ende der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft in Bremen übergeben. Ein aus Versehen zweimal getippter Satz auf Seite drei lässt die Vermutung zu, dass Nawrath einen bestehenden Entwurf abgeschrieben hat, dennoch finden sich zahlreiche Korrekturen in dem Text.

Nawraths Schrift wirkt im Aufbau teilweise ungeordnet. Zentral ist sein Bemühen, sich den angedachten Leser:innen als idealer Kandidat für eine Verwendung in der bremischen Politik unter britischer Führung vorzustellen. Dazu verurteilt er ausführlich und im Detail die nationalsozialistische Herrschaft, insbesondere mit Blick auf den Holocaust und den Umgang mit Zwangsarbeiter:innen sowie die Bildungspolitik unter Hitler, und äußerst sich gleichzeitig schmeichelhaft und unkritisch über die die britische Politik, insbesondere auch die ihm gut bekannte Kolonialpolitik im damaligen Britisch-Indien.

Ins Auge fällt der Titel der Schrift, bei dem es sich um eine Übertragung der Bibelstelle Lukas 2,14 vom Deutschen ins Englische handelt. Die von ihm verwendeten Quelle, wohl eine ältere, katholische Übersetzung, die in Gänze „[Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und] Frieden auf Erden bei den Menschen guten Willens“ lautet, unterscheidet sich von der Lutherübersetzung, was vor allem auf hermeneutischen Schwierigkeiten im Umgang mit Genitiven beruht. Die moderne Lutherübersetzung lautet „[Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und] Friede auf Erden bei den Menschen seines Wohlgefallens“. Dabei bezieht sich „Wohlgefallen“ bzw. „good will“ nicht, wie „guten Willens“ im Zitat Nawraths, auf die Menschen, sondern Gott, womit sich aus dem Vers, anders als von Nawrath beabsichtigt, keine allgemeine Friedensbotschaft ableiten lässt.1

Historische hand- und maschinenschriftliche Korrekturen von Rechtschreib- und Tippfehlern, wohl von Nawraths eigener Hand, wurden ohne weitere Kennzeichnung übernommen. Wo es die Lesbarkeit erforderte, wurde die bereits vorhandene Interpunktion angepasst. Offensichtliche Falschschreibungen wurden korrigiert und durch Fußnoten markiert. Die Groß- und Kleinschreibung wurde durchweg übernommen. Unterstreichungen im Original sind auch im Text unterstrichen. Einige Begriffe, die im modernen Englisch keine Verwendung finden, werden erläutert, ebenso Erwähnungen von Personen und Ereignissen, deren Kenntnis nicht vorausgesetzt werden kann.

„Peace on earth for all mankind of good will.“

This message of the Holy Scripture might suitably be put as headline to Proclamation No 1 of General Eisenhower who has been sent to us as liberator from Prussian-German militarism and also from the brown plague which oraginated in the atmosphere of a Munich2 beer cellar. I fully coincide with the fundamental thoughts of this proclamation and my views have been stated already many years ago to the British Viceconsul Bullock, to the secretaries of the Bremen French Consulate, to an English lady of my acquaintance as well as to the Dutch Consul and his wife, a lady born in Belgium.

This proclamation being the direction for my future official duties I have to refer to it in detail.

„We come as a victorious army.“

This statement is important in order to prevent books to appear that will make believe people the Germans had not been defeated at all such as were written after the first world3 war.

„We do not come as oppressors“

No Anglo-Saxon will expect us to look at everything now through British or American spectacles or that we should give up our own high standard of spiritual culture. The deceased President of the U.S.A. acknowledged openly and gratefully only a few months before his death in a speech on the wirless – a speech tat has of course been withheld from the German public by our Nazi government – how much America owed to spiritual German as well as to those Germans who have become good and law-abiding citizens of the U.S.A.

The Allied Military Government will be compelled to take drastic measures in Germany. Already at school the young German has to be convinced that these measures are not based on low instincts of revenge and cruelty on the part of our so-called enemies but represent only as just punishment for our misdeeds by compensating justice. To these misdeeds we must own up frankly even with a bleeding heart.

All thoughts and aims of the average German are directed towards war according to his education and hereditary disposition named „Ehre“ (honour) in the Nazi Jargon. So it was in Imperial Germany, in pseudo-republican Germany and exaggerated up to madness under the tyranny of Adolf Hitler. After the „Führer“ had been shipwrecked with his economic ideas and ruined the German currency there not other way out of the mire but to go to war. A pretext was easily found. I do not approve of everything Poland did since 1919 but being born in East Prussia I am also fully aware of the illtreatment and exceptional laws under which the Poles had already to suffer during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Poland was looted literally and after that the leech with the swastica went further greedily. Denmark, and Holland, countries who thanks to their peaceful policy had acquired luck and well being were to follow. The brutal fleecing of these two countries as well as of Norway, Belgium, France, the Ukraine4 and ever our so-called Allies Italy, Hungary, Romania only enabled us to carry on the war so long.

These pilferings were apart from the massacre of the Jews decidedly the most odious chapter of the war and perhaps of German history. Literally everything was carried away, from 4 axled tram cars from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Norwegain lady’s furcoats or Parisian silk stockings. At a time when the Greek population fell down in the streets famished a good many of our soldiers sent home olive oil by the canister.

With pity i have to state that also the most valuable item:

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has been taken away vis[?]5 human working power. One has to go back to the times of the old Babylonian and Assyrian kings to trace similar cruelty. My pen refuses to write about the beastly ocurrences in the concentration camps depicted to me by a good friend of mine a cotton merchant out of own expierence or the merciless prosecution of the Jews which in their systematic proceedigs have not even had an equal in any middle age pogrom. Three Jewish families of my acquaintances are under the victims.

How Jewish Hungarian girls many of them of tender age had to do hard work with their heads shaved and were inhumanly treated by their brutish tormentors who often wore the uniform of the German police sometimes with kicks into the abdomen I have stated myself with horror. (Place and time have been noted down.) Ukrainian6 female workers who had been forcibly been deported from their homes and had to work hard for a pittance and very scanty food were also handed over to private contractors to clear away debris, for which these contractors had to pay a lot of money whereas the poor workers had to advantage whatever. This reminds of the sombre time of slavery whose abolition is the immortal merit of President Abr. Lincoln.

„All German courts and educational instituations are suspended.“

A few weeks ago I met a Bremen judge who was at the head of a German „Sondergericht.“ (Special court of justice.) Pointing to the devastation around and speaking also of the desctruction in East Germany I remarked: „All this we oew to Hitler and his cruelties against the Jews.“ His answer was the customery one taught at the training courses: „The Jews are the only culprits and if we treat them harshly it is quite a different matter.“ This means different justice owned up to by a Bremen judge. We used to be on friendly terms but I could not look upon him as a friend any longer and left him with burning shame.

When still in office I once criticized severely the violation of the Belgian neutrality through Germany in 1914 and expressed the apprehension that in the next war for which Germany was preparing feverishly Holland might be the victim. At once a so called teacher of history came forward with the explanation that Holland belonged by rights to Germany and had to be annexed as quickly as possible. This ominous view was snared by an otherwise respected Berlin publisher of art who would have liked very much to have taken part in the publication of my great work „Antique Rome“ but whom I excluded on account of his ill founded views about Holland.

By reference to the political and cultural own standard of the Dutch in whose country I had recently travelled for several weeks was in both cases put aside smilingly and disdainfully. It is the fixed idea of teachers and pupile under Nazi regime that the Ukraine7 belonged by rights to Germany. When I remarked that under such conditions we could not very well mantain that we had been attacked by the Russians i got either no answer or the threatening enquiry: Are you a communist? In that way all people were marked who like the undersigned had tried to form an objective opinion by long informatory travels in Sowjet Russia.

The colonial question is also a problem difficult to discuss with our stirred up Nazi youth even if you tell them that formerly you could get all kinds of goods from English or other colonies just the same as from our own. With our racial intolerance we could not expect to be entrusted with a colonial mandate. Already twelve years ago the Basler „Nationalzeitun“ has explained this standpoint in convincing trains of thought.

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After the first world war8 England abolished at once compulsary army service. England neglected even the reorganisation of her Navy in an incomprehensible way because she reckoned with a lasting peace. Again and again I pointed in my school teaching to the love of peace in Great Britain but without success. An American statesman once said the German people were not open to reason, the only language they understood was that of brute force and the best form of education were bombs.

Many of the soldiers who had to fight against the U.S.A. owe their lives to the Christian humanity of the American Quakers who fed our school children after 1918 when there was still dire need of food. There would have been many connecting links to form he education of our youth in accordance with the Weimar constitution. However all well meant endeavours to chance the system of education in a way leading to a reconciliation of all nations remained on paper and were futile. Perhaps it was a deplorable omission9 on the part of the Allies to have left out the question of education in the peace treaty being the most important item in the life of all nations.

The large German industrial works which only made Nazism possible by placing their enormous capitals at its disposal and by its authoritative influence on journalism – direct and indirect – soon managed to lead also education into the direction of war. War means large profita to these warlords on Ruhr and Rhine.

I know the system of education of many countries by experience but I do not know of any country which handed over a sharp dagger to urchins with the engraved insription: „Blood and honour“ which means in plain language: „Blood and war.“ These daggers were only taken away from these ragamuffins when the first shell fell on our city spreading death and destruction. The spiritual standard of our youth influenced by the bad example given by the leading men in Berlin can only been called a catastrophy. It will be quite incomprehensible to any foreign observer that children denounced their own parents and brought then into concentration camps. That it was always a chief object of the Nazi education to estrange children from their parents home to get hold of them completely and form body and soul according to Nazi system.

Fate or rather compensating justice has caused that for once war-loving Germany has to experience all horrors of a war on its own territory. From Kindergarten to universities all schools are only one heap of debris the same as our much admired German towns with their grand cathedrals and city halls. It is if no use to begin with repairs.10 There is only one way to start afresh even with childrens toys. Everything must be cleared of poison, the pictures in the class rooms, the school libraries a.s.o. No book about eternal peace is to be found in any teachers library although we and with us the whole world oews it to one of the greatest thinkers „Immanuel Kant“ who lived in Königsberg which town could praise itself to have been once the city of „Die reine Vernunft.“ – The German youth wants to be inspired the same as the British, American or French. That is only their rights, only by inspiration greats deeds are created. However we have had in Germany a large number of illustrious men who have worked for peace and whose works and actions are well able to inspire our youth.

The German youth has been handed over to militarism. I mention only the notorious „Wehrertüchtigungslager“, a word not to be translated but which means that in these camps the youngsters were

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trained to raise in them all war instincts to the utmost. Incessantly the pupils were fed with lectures of „Ritterkreuzträger“ who gave them an entirely distorted picture of the military and political situation. It may be left undecided whether out if want of own jugdment or out of want of good will. When the Anglo Saxons were already in the nearest vicinity of Bremen and any adict could see that any further defence of the open city of Bremen would be utter madness General Becker held a speech over the wireless the spiritual standard of which was truly alarming. He was of the same type of which the Jewish editor of the „Berliner Tageblatt“ once said: „These men know as much of the world as is reflected on the polished buttons of their uniforms.“

If I had the decision leading posts would only be given to men who had been in foreign countries in peace time and had gained wide experience. Our great poet who had a world wide horizon says: „Im engen Kreis verengert sich der Sinn“ (Thoughts get narrow in a narrow circle.)

In British India with its 300 millions of inhabitants the whole administration lies in the hands of only a few responsible well paid men of the I.C.S.11 and the results are excellent. I know this from experience. Germany suffers undoubtedly from hypertrophy of her civil service. In the imperial era all petty officers after serving their term had to be provided for. Nazidom created quite a lot of new positions in order to give leading men of the Partei a fat living. Quoting education once more the office for „Leibeserziehung“ was quite unnecessary being only a pacemaker for militarism. The Germans have often called themselves „havenots“. But the very same havenots have erected most luxuious buildings such as I have never noticed in the rich U.S.A. That industrious minister Speer planned in the way of magnificent buildings for the Capital of the Reich and which have partly been already executed or begun for instance a Congress hall of dimensions many times larger than the Reichtstag Palace is almost pathologic and not far from Neronic12 delirious phantasies.

I consider it a matter of course that Germany will be made responsible especially by Russia for the devastations of which our army reports boasted ever so often. Therefore Germany must understand that after this second war it will be a very poor country. Only the most necessary buildings can be reconstructed for want of money, material and trained workmen. The same applies to our educational system. Through avoiding unnecessary reports and similar writings of which the Germans are very fond, offices like „Senator für das Bildungswesen“, „Landesschulrat“, „Leiter des Vortragswesens“ (which also has to bea cleared of poison) could very well be unite in the person of one man willing to work properly. Others must be omitted when the question of training a new class of teachers in a new spirit has to be solved. Teaching of foreign languages should be placed into the hands of English, American or French instructors especially in Bremen, which carries the key of the world in its escutcheon13 and is a visiting-card for Germany.

Until new schoolbooks are available only a small number of teachers who are reliable and of good will can be left in office. They will have no end[?]14 to do with examine[?]15 and securing everything good and sound in existence. You can only rebuild on a sound fundament. Special attention will have to be paid to the education of our female youth and also to strict supervision of female teachers.

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I might assert that the spirit in female institutes of education was sometimes more fanatic then in male ones. Recently some slight signs of a reaction have been perceivable especially in Bremen where many people know foreign countries, appreciate them and have every wish for an honest cooperation.

Thoughts expressed in a book „Volk ohne Raum“ which appeared in numerous editions had a desastrous effect on the population. Marriage loans given to young people often under age and with no sound foundation for married life are as much to condemn as a system of taxation which takes the responsibility away from them by granting them large facilitations and puts the burden on other shoulders. What Nazi government did with regard to a regulation of a surplus of population and the afore mentioned taxation stands quite in contrast to the possibilities of feeding everybody and must by needs bring the Reich into conflict with its surrounding neighbours. These contemplation remind us of a Greek statesman and philosopher who founded about 2500 years ago a Greek city on Sicily and led it at first to a high spiritual and economic standard.

This is my political creed. My collaboration with the Military government will always be honest and without restrictions. By this I hope to be of some service to my unhappy fatherland and apart from that to humanity in general.

The American captain Ashkanase16 remarked once strikingly: „There are now only good Germans!“ I am also convinced that just the most tearing wolves to about in sheep skins to disguise their real intentions. Consequently our eyes must be sharp and our precaution great. I am17 fully prepared that in my reformatory work I shall meet with a lot of secret resistance and also with a lot of bad will. But even though my task may be difficult I shall put my shoulder firmly to the wheel. With 54 I have arrived at that favourable age when a man has gained sufficient experience of life and yet commands over the necessary energy for a great work of reorganisation.

The Allies will have to pay great attention to the cinema, to the writing of new books, to newspapers and broadcasting. Being the author of numerous books I am fully acquainted with German and Austrian publishers and know who are serious and dependable and I also know those who are turncoats and only looking after their own interest. I am also at home in the world of newspapers and periodicals not only through my own collaboration for a long period but also through my brother-in-law who was „Reichspressechef“ under the chancellorship of Dr. Brüning.18 I have also a good insight in the world of the wireless having spoken to my compatriots repeatedly over many stations. There is nothing at present with a more lasting effect on the masses of people then the cinema. The German cinema with its present program is in the first place responsible for the misleading and stupefying of the population. The film production has to be turned over a new leaf altogether. Being a Fellow of the „Royal Photographic Society“ of Great Britain I could do also some good in this department and I beg the High Commissioner of the Allies to remember me as soon as a Central Department for the German cinema will be taken in hand. After my explanations here above I need not mention that I am at the disposal of the Allies for essays in newspapers and lectures over the wireless.

Bremen, May 3rd 1945.19

E. A. Nawrath.20

Dr. Alfred Nawrath, F.R.P.S.

226, Hamburger Str., Bremen.21

Das Grab von Alfred Nawrath

Alfred Nawrath, bis zur Entlassung durch die Nationalsozialisten 1933 Lehrer am Alten Gymnasium in Bremen, machte seit den frühen 1920er Jahren, insbesondere aber nach Verlust seiner Anstellung, als Forschungsreisender und Fotograf auf sich aufmerksam. Er starb 1970 auf dem Weg nach Marokko, wo er für ein weiteres seiner bis dahin bereits zahlreich erschienen Bücher recherchieren wollte, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.1 Bestattet wurde er auf dem Cemeterio del Puerto de la Luz.

Cemeterio del Puerto de la Luz,  Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2020, von JS, CC BY 4.0.
Cemeterio del Puerto de la Luz,  Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2020, von JS, CC BY 4.0.

Nawraths Grabstelle wurde 1983 auf Veranlassung seines früheren Schülers Karl Carstens unbefristet erworben und mit einer gravierten Marmorplatte geschmückt.2 Die Kosten von rund 1.000 DM trug der damals amtierende Bundespräsident persönlich.3 Die widersprüchliche Bewertung Nawraths durch seine Zeitgenossen spiegelt sich auch in Carstens’ Erinnerung wider:

„Er hat mir und meinen Klassenkameraden als Lehrer viel bedeutet, obwohl er ein schwieriger, eigenwilliger und auch sehr strenger Lehrer war; dennoch hat er uns zu kritischem Denken erzogen, wofür ich ihm bis heute dankbar bin. […] Ich bin sicher, daß die meisten seiner früheren Schüler es begrüßen werden, wenn seine Grabstelle gesichert wird.“4