Arts and Culture Editor Christian O’Brien comments on an Old Johnian’s hiking trip undertaken in Germany during the late 1930s, as found in the archives of St. John’s College held within the Palace Green Library.
Trawling through the archives of St John’s College, I found a curious snippet of history from the 1937 edition of ‘The Old Johnian‘, being the John’s alumnus magazine from the 1920s and ’30s. Written by a one R.B. Rankin, an account of a student’s vacation-period holiday caught my eye; whilst somewhat unassuming from a first glance, upon a more thorough examination only then does the piece’s curiosity reveal itself. That being it is an Englishman’s account of backpacking through Nazi Germany – only a year or so before the fascist state was to invade Czechoslovakia and kickstart its relentless rampage throughout most of Europe.
Hindsight, of course, is a powerful thing, and it would be unfair to assume the student would have suspected that the sudden shift in geopolitics was to come. Despite this, allusions to the Nazis and the almost mystified “Führer” are made in between the descriptions of quaint townscapes and forests. In the first hint to the German Reich’s acrid policies whilst on a train to the city of Koblenz, Rankin notes:
“A young man, two elderly and two young ladies shared our compartment. The young German was a soldier, doing his compulsory service, and he and his two lady friends professed to be unable to understand why we English folk did not like soldiering. “Englander not like to be a soldier? German must!” When “German not like die Juden” left us mystified, one young lady, describing a large arc with her finger from brow to lip, left us in no doubt as to its meaning. Again they could not understand how English people could tolerate Jews. It was a very pleasant journey, and when we left them at Koblenz, we left as we showered “Danke schön” and “Auf-wiedersehen” upon them that we were already becoming quite fluent! It was a little embarrassing when the fair fraulien pressed a couple of bars of chocolate upon one of our number!”
Interestingly, the so terrible militarist and anti-Semitic overtones of Rankin’s train journey are contrasted by a description of the picturesque nature of the Rhine Valley whilst traversing the river on a steam-boat:
“The Rhine Gorge in particular is a lovely sight. The broad river flowing swiftly passes between the hills which for the most part are cultivated and terraced for vines. Only where the hills are too rocky and precipitous are they left uncultivated. Many old castles and towers, strongholds of bygone days, built either on the tops of the hills or into their sides, add variety and picturesqueness to the scene. On either bank, close to the water’s edge, road and rail follow the river the whole way, and there are numerous villages and small towns, some of them looking very beautiful indeed from the steamer.”
Towards the end of his trip, Rankin also notes the practically incredible number of Hitler Youth within Germany, a familiar topic to any of us who have studied the Third Reich in any great detail. He writes:
“There seems to be no doubt that as far as the youth of the country is concerned, the Führer has them solidly behind him; but various remarks dropped by older people suggested that it is otherwise in their case. Camping and games which form such a large part of the activities of Youth organisations, such as the Scouts in this country, seem to have little or no part in the programme of the Hitler Youth, but there can be no doubt of their physical fitness.”
Again, this clear notion of Nazism is contrasted by another remark made by Rankin, who notes that in the university city of Heidelberg, he could not make for certain whether the streets where “over-run with Americans or not”. To me, this is very striking as my retrospective outlook on Nazi Germany was that the entire nation was isolationist to the extreme, and xenophobic to practically any foreigner except one who was fascist, and yet this anecdote of swathes of American tourists wandering the streets of a German city in 1937 says otherwise.
Overall, the travel account is a highly interesting read, and a full write-up of the account will be posted on the John’s Chronicle page. The ending is also a poignant one, with Rankin noting that his treatment of the “greatest courtesy and consideration” from the Germans ironically makes him “look forward to a return visit.” Indeed, in the modern day, what countries could there possibly be that could turn so hostile to us in a matter of years?
Thanks to the Palace Green Library Team for allowing us access to selections from the St. John’s College archival material. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
John's Chronicle 
Fascinating insight into this period.
LikeLike