Skip to main content

Germany (Alemania)

Fishburn and Hughes: "A varying symbol in the context of different stories. The Garden of Forking Paths): the defiant and hostile attitude of the Chinese spy Yu Tsun, who acted as a German agent, appears justified in the light of events of the previous halfcentury. The German empire, established in 1870, joined the nineteenth-century scramble for China during the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5), and seized the port of Kioo-chow as a reward for supporting China. A German fleet was sent to patrol Chinese waters. In 1900 Germany joined the other European powers in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, a formidable nationalist uprising against foreign penetration led by the Dowager Empress and her Manchu advisers. Kaiser Wilhelm II exhorted the German troops embarking for the east to emulate the Huns of the fifth century in putting down the enemy. Though the German forces reached Peking after the rebellion had been defeated, the Kaiser demanded that the young Prince Chum, half-brother of the Emperor, be sent to Berlin on a penitential mission and even asked that he perform 'kow-tow' in front of him. Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden: in the context of Droctulft's story, the marshes of Germany are the sign of a country still in the stage of barbarism, contrasted with the civilisation embodied in Ravenna. In 'Deutsches Requiem' Germany is used in two sets of conflicting images. Uppermost lies the representation of the spirit of pure Germanism (Kerndeutsch) as expounded in the Third Reich ideology of the master race. Briefly, this argued that the Nordic Aryans were the bearers of the highest form of civilisation and culture and that their purity had to be preserved for the salvation of mankind. Yet this image is offset by the wider, humanistic tradition exemplified by Hegel, Brahms and Goethe and even by their appropriation of Shakespeare. See The Garden of Forking Paths; Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden; Deutsches Requiem." (77)