“At the time of my matriculation at Berlin political issues were in an uproar. One professor after another was attacking the Republic for its blunders. To many of them it appeared that our present leaders had misapprehended almost totally the vital potentialities of democratic government; they made direct demands upon the government for action. It required courage for the professors… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“All political discussion is forbidden,” he snapped. “What price our free citizenship now?” said one of the boys to me as the group broke up. Our lively discussions had been the basis of our whole university life. Now a strange paralysis lay upon the great halls, and the aggressive thinking that had characterized our days had no more voice. This… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“I found myself rapidly revising my earlier political impressions. I saw that Germany was not a democracy in anything more than name,… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share Image
“One of them, the wide clear current of Christianity, has provided the smooth underlying stream of history for nineteen hundred years, and nations and dynasties, battles and armadas have been only surface excitations upon it. Most of us have supposed, have even taken for granted, that we should sail on it forever without check, so that when the black countercurrent… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“At the time of my matriculation at Berlin political issues were in an uproar. One professor after another was attacking the Republic for its blunders. To many of them it appeared that our present leaders had misapprehended almost totally the vital potentialities of democratic government; they made direct demands upon the government for action. It required courage for the professors… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“But also it is not only expedient, there is something more, a feeling that we of Germany have found our destiny and that the… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share Image
“I will tell you what I believe,” he said with simplicity. “I am an artist, and I believe that art is something that comes alive in the eyes that look and in the hearts that feel of people everywhere. It is like religion, my friend. It is not killed by being shut up or put away. The ones who think… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“There must have been a number of ballots marked ‘no,’” he said. “But if there were, they were simply discarded. Only the ‘yes’ ballots… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share Image
“Then one day the entire student body was summoned to a meeting, where we were to be addressed by Bernhard Rust, the grade-school teacher who had been named Minister of Culture and Education for Prussia. We were not invited, as had always been the custom; we were commanded to appear. I had a lecture at the same hour which I… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“All right, Father. Those are their aims, of course. But can’t you see that the Nazis are not promoting them in any such rational way? They talk about their new form of government as divinely appointed, as if it had come into existence as an act of God. They aren’t pushing the political program of a party. Their acts are… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“The strange thing about Karl Hoffmann’s story is that it is a story of the defeat of the tremendous Nazi force, inside of Germany. There is a citadel in the very heart of their power that they have not breached; there are men living in Germany who have defeated them. The men who trust to the forces of physical power… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“stood one day by the river on a dock where the ships came in, and all at once I found myself thinking, “If I can see a tree and cannot understand at all how it grows or why, how much less can I hope to understand the Cause of that tree? If I cannot understand why my mind gathers impressions… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“Alas, Max, this will pain you, I know, but you must realize the truth. There are movements far bigger than the men who make them up. As for me, I am a part of the movement. Heinrich is an officer in the boys’ corps, which is headed by Baron Von Freische, whose rank is now shedding a luster upon our… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
“This was in the year 1937. There was no escaping the fast-moving trend of events. There was not even an opportunity to protest against… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share Image
“There was a fetid atmosphere throughout the cities of Germany during the postwar years that laid its breath on all of the generation who grew up under the Republic. It was as if the stresses of recurrent catastrophe, the defeat, the shame of the peace, the inflation, the grinding poverty had crushed the steadfast and simple qualities of the people,… — Kathrine Kressmann Taylor Copy Share
