GERMANY: A God . . . When on Earth

With 82 honorable years upon his head, Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorf und von Hindenburg received last week, on the fifth anniversary of his election as President, the homage of the whole German press and nation—excepting only the Communists and Kaiserphiles, the “lunatic fringes.”

Probably 95% of the Fatherland’s ballot casters would vote for HINDENBURG today, yet five years ago he was chosen by but 14,600,000 ballots, while his Centre Party rival, Dr. Wilhelm Marx, received 13,700,000.

The whole Left and Centre voted against the Feldmarschall because they feared he would use the power of the Presidency to restore Wilhelm II. The whole Right voted for Hindenburg in hopes that he would do what the Left feared—but today substantially all Germans are glad that “Old Paul” has played the rôle of President in straight, constitutional fashion, with no asides.

Said Berlin’s authoritative, independent Vossische Zeitung last week: “He who was elected by part of the people is today the chosen of the whole nation. . . . This dispassionate man, by the glamour of his historic name,* by the dignity he has brought to his great office, has achieved a romantic nimbus.”

Nimbus: “A luminous vapor, cloud or atmosphere about a god or goddess when on earth.”— Webster.

Today the watchword of “Old Paul”—repeated in nearly all his public addresses amid tremendous applause—is this noble and useful platitude: “Ordnung muss sein!” (“There must be order!”).

* His great-grandfather’s name was von Beneckendorf, but this ancestor’s eccentric great-uncle von Hindenburg left him some money on condition that he add “und von Hindenburg” to his “von Beneckendorf.” Never before, perhaps, did a “freak will” succeed so well.