Identifier: romanticgermany00scha (find matches)
Title: Romantic Germany
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Schauffler, Robert Haven, 1879-1964
Subjects: Cities and towns -- Germany Germany -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : The Century Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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gentlewoman are fairly constant types the world over, and, in judging the average quality of the people of any metropolis, one finds the cul-tured classes forming such a slight proportion of the whole as to be almost negligible. There are, of course, many citizens of Berlin who are represented in no detail of the following picture. It is a composite portrait of that well-known per-sonage whom the young clerk, fresh from the prov-inces, sets about imitating; the person whose originis recognized the moment he enters any European cafe; the person with whom the stranger in Berlin has almost exclusive dealings. The studies for this portrait were gathered not alone from personal observation during repeateds tays in Berlin, but also from a consensus of the opinions of many Berliners and other Germans and foreigners, and from the voluminous literature of the subject. The Berliner inclines to imperial standards in appearance and character, very much as his city does. A smooth, determined chin, a daunting 80
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BERLIN glance, a right noble pose, a rapid stride, are all the mode. An upturned mustache has recently been de rigueur, and one notices with a smile that even the bronze mermen on the Heydt Bridge possess the imperial string-beard. One of the Berliners most trying characteristics is his superiority. He has known the latest joke at least ten years. Do not try to tell him anythingor to strike from him the least spark of enthusiasm; for news is no news to him: he was born blasé. His eleventh commandment is, "Let not thyself be bluffed"; his life motto, Nil admirari. In con-versation he instinctively interrupts each fresh sub-ject to deliver the last word upon it, and to argue with him is to insult him. Here it is easy to trace the didactic influence of the ruler who devotes much of his spare time to the instruction of genius. There is something cutting in the Berliners speech. Perhaps Voltaires influence on the great Frederick, the critic-king, started this dreadful habit, which seems to grow with indulg

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