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1 Facts Rev. [i] (1939)

handle is hein.journals/facreiw1 and id is 1 raw text is: 3acf4JJ rFSS-U E'D BY THE GERMAN LIBRARY OF INFORMATION 17 BATTERY PLACE NEW YORK, N. Y. August 16th, 1939 Permission to reprint these articles, all or in port, may be had by communicating with the German Library of Information. Additional copies of this issue may be obtained upon request. LEBENSRAUM vs. FINANCE-DIPLOMACY Men have an instinctive fear and hostility toward things which they do not understand. To make a thing fearsome and dreaded, it is only necessary to surround it in mystery or leave it unex- plained. Thus it has been with the German word Lebens- raum. The leaders of the British Government who had an interest in giving the German word Lebensraum a sinister aspect have lifted it bodily from the German into the English without taking the pains to translate it or express it in the equivalent English tcrmz. Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, has included Lebensraum in his own gallery of misunderstood words. That Lord Halifax has used Lebensraum as a catchword is en- lightening in regard to England's attitude toward Ger- many's economic and social necessities. While Lord Halifax and some of his fellow members of Britain's Conservative party can't seem to translate Lebensraum, the task of so doing should not be in- surmountable to persons of the Viscount's intellectual standards. Lebensraum simply means living-space--or perhaps breathing space. A man occupies only a few cubic feet of space, but to live he must have around him a space from which he can draw the elements necessary to life. An individual is an organism. So is a nation. Both must have their breathing space or they suffocate. When translated or interpreted into its equivalent English terms, the German word Lebensraum loses its sinister appearance. It simply becomes a normal and fundamental national aspiration. Lebensraum or breathing space is not the product of an artificial political policy-it is the natural outcome of geographical situation and environ- ment. Britain with her insular situation was forced to go far afield in search of food supplies and raw materials. Her breathing space became the British Empire, scattered over the globe, but connected by Britain's lines of communication-the life lines of the Empire. Life line-Lebensraum. Britain would struggle as in- stinctively to maintain those life lines as a man would struggle to prevent his supply of air from being cut off. Germany, situated in Central Europe, with a huge industrial population to support, must find her breathing space in the surrounding areas from which she can draw food supplies and raw materials vital to her population and her industries. While England has the possibility of insuring her existence by economic exchange within the borders of the Empire, Germany cannot satisfy her own vital needs within the frontiers of the Reich. The lands to the southeast of Germany are of tremendous value to the Reich-they are of such extraordinary importance to the Reich because they can help make Germany's position less unfavorable by an unhindered exchange of products. If any attempt is made to block this mutual exchange of goods between countries, Germany must certainly re- gard such an act as hostile-just as England would re- gard any attempt to cut her so-called life lines to the Empire. The German concept of the word Lebensraurn does not imply territorial domination. Thus, one can speak of protecting a Lebensraum if one's breathing apace is menaced. The river Rhine and the Danube are vital parts of Germany's breathing space. The Rhinc iinds its way to the sea through Holland and the Danube empties into the Black Sea through Rumania. For instance, Germany has never raised any question about the mouth of the Danube, because no obstacles to trade and life have ever been built up against her there. The principle of one country's right to a breathing space in another country definitely does not infringe on the sovereignty of the latter country. That is one of the reasons why Poland's claims to Danzig on the mouth of the Vistula River are absolutely without foundation. Likewise, Germany has no claim on Rotterdam at the head of the Rhine, although geography text-books the world over refer to the Rhine as the German River Rhine. It goes without saying that there is always the possi- bility that obstacles in a breathing space or Lebens- raum will be created with the express purpose of strik- ing a damaging blow at the vital nerve centers of a na- tion. It follows, 4or example, that England could not permit Ireland to develop a menace to her security. Germany could not allow Bohemia to become a hotbed of foreign political intrigue plotting against the security of the Reich. On the positive side, the German concept of Lebens- raum envisions a flow of commerce and an exchange of goods and services between the various units of'the Lebensraum which enables each country to comple. ment and reinforce the economy of the others. Common breathing space can be founded only on

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