Germany: a Self-Portrait: A Collection of German Writings from 1914 to 1943

he was re-arrested and held in Castres prison. He remained there until the Vichy government delivered him to the German Gestapo in late 1942. He is believed to have been shot.

by RUDOLF LEONHARD, translated by James Cleugh

CARLSHAFEN is a small town in the west of Germany, set in averagely decent surroundings, with an averagely decent climate and an averagely decent population. It nestles in a wide, delicately traced curve of the River Weser. Some low, tree-clad hills rise from the plain on the further bank of the stream, which is here rather sluggish. The town is thus silhouetted against a solid background of green. It is really a very pretty little place. It is not one of those towns which have gradually grown up. It was completed at one stroke--at the end of the eighteenth century--and has ever since remained in its original state.

Great aims were in the air at the time the town was built. For the ideas which were to lead to the convulsions of the French Revolution had spread far and wide. Consequently, little Carlshafen was planned on a much more generous scale than its economic possibilities warranted. The intention was to found a great tobacco industry. The buildings composing the two squares that encircle the port have the form of great warehouses. But trade fell on evil days. Now the warehouses stand empty and the port is merely a dead stretch of somewhat muddy water. Carlshafen, with its insignificant trade, has sunk, almost, to the status of a rural borough.

There have been certain rural developments along the banks of the Weser or about the outskirts of the town, but none of any importance. There is, for instance, on the other side of the river, actually on the hillside, a fine big hotel, the Swan, for tourists. Its damp underground cellars probably enjoy particularly favorable ventilation. At any rate the tourists find at the hotel, in addition to particularly good meals particularly well served, a variety of particularly cool, particularly finely matured Rhine wines. This is all very well for the tourists. But for the heroes of this story the

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