VV(13): Enters Weismann

[Michel Ryckx]

Quite interesting, what jbor wrote:

> Along with the payment of huge Reparations and other conditions, the Treaty of
> Versailles (28 June 1919) dictated that Germany surrender all colonies for
> distribution under a system of mandates to the Allied Powers (annually reporting
> to the League of Nations),

It was only after Bismarck had been able to create Germany out of many little
countries that the Reich was striving for colonies, being the only industrial
power that had to buy its raw materials, and not to rob them, like the English,
the French, the Dutch and the Belgians at the time; which explains partly why
there were very good at research and development in chemistry and other sciences,
trying to develop synthetically anything other countries simply took out of their
colonies.  It also explains partly the way the Third Reich was agressively
enlarging its territory: looking for oil fields, mines, etc. Germany only had (up
till the Versailles treaty) very small (Ruanda-Urundi, if I remember well) or very
poor (Namibia) colonies.  The impact of the robbing of their colonies on the
German economy was not very substantial, compared to the other colonial powers.

> and that the German army be limited to 100,000 men with no General Staff.

But there were also a lot of small private armies in Germany at the time.  They
were populated by (former) officers, usually of ultra-nationalist conviction.
Luedendorff was one of them, helping in 1923 a young Austrian, Adolf Hitler trying
a coup in Munich.  Goering (wasn't he a former pilot?) was involved in this
process from 1919 on.  Those small armies were financed by very conservative
sections of the middle and upper class.

> Although the wisdom of requiring large amounts of money from defeated countries
> which had lost many colonial markets was criticized at the time by many
> economists, especially J.M. Keynes, in April 1921 German Reparations were fixed
> at £ 6,600,000,000 (plus interest), and the German govt paid a first instalment
> of £ 50,000,000 promptly. But with the inflation that ensued they suspended
> payments after that, which in turn led to the occupation of the Ruhr, the major
> mining and manufacturing region, in January 1923 by French and Belgian troops.

The annexation of the Ruhr in 1923 was an initiative of France; a secret treaty
between Belgium and France forced Belgium to follow French tactics.  All over
Europe this caused a huge protest of the social-democrats.  Thanks to the strikes
of the German workers, the occupation became a disaster.  The Belgian gouvernment
fell.

In 1925, the payments as stated in the Versailles treaty, were loosened by the
plan Dawes, which was also meant to stop the inflation in Germany.  The Locarno
pact (same year) was meant to stabilize the situation and to end the occupation of
the Rheinland.  For the record: the sum that had to be paid to Belgium by Germany
was not enough to cover the invoice of the US government sent to the Belgian gov.
for their help during WWI.

A fine novel, set during that horrible inflation (I read it in Dutch translation)
is 'The Black Obelisk' by the author of 'All quiet on the western Front' whose
name I cannot recall at the moment --growing old I guess (Erich Maria Remarque?)

> It seems pretty clear that Sudwest was actually being administered by the Dutch
> in 1922: cf "the grass hut of Willem van Wijk, a minor extremity of the
> Administration in Windhoek." (229.8)

Actually, more logical would be that Willem Van Wijk is South African of Dutch
descent:  'Die lood van die Goevernement sal nou op julle smelt', (which is not
Dutch but Afrikaaner language) at 232.28 and again at 233.18.  There's also talk
of 'Abraham Morris [who] crossed the Orange' (231.17), which was the 'normal'
movement of ambitious Southafrican Boers.  South Africa was heavily interested in
the Sudwest, and continued to occupy Namibia --though it was supposed to be a
protectorate under the UN-- till a few years ago.

> And, what is happening there is obviously an uprising of the indigenous
> population (it's why the European guests are under *siege* at the villa), not an
> extension of colonial genocide at all. I agree that it's pretty sick of Foppl
> and Vera to have the
> other guests reenact the circumstances and responses to the 1904 revolt, which
> were genocidal, but Weissmann isn't the instigator of that either.

You're right.  But: one could easily say it is one of those remarkable mirror
effects mr. Pynchon uses constantly: re-enacting circumstances of 1904, set during
a carnival.  There are just too many echoes of the genocide, apart from the slow
unravelling
of what really happened in 1904.

> Though there is no direct information in either _V._ or _GR_ it's entirely
> possible and logical that he is a Lieutenant of the Weimar German army at this
> time, a sort of diplomatic attaché sent to the former colony.

You may be right, you may be wrong.  Cfr. the strange habit in the US when someone
can be said to be a colonel, a lieutenant or a general, without being one
actively.  He may have had that rank, but is still adressed that way.  Also: cfr.
supra.

> But he certainly seems much more politically-aware in _V._ (of the rumblings of
> opposition to the Weimar govt within Germany, both Hitler *and* Kautsky, as well
> as of what was going on in Italy at the time) than he does in _GR_.

Most of the Germans at the time knew Kautsky, who was co-founder of the SPD, which
was one of the few social-democratic parties having real influence on German
politics, even before 1900; only a few knew Hitler, who became known during his
process in 1924, and became well-known only in 1926-1929.  I suppose the Fiume
incident was a story in the papers to a larger audience.  Weissmann is very well
aware of what is happening in ultra right wing circles: the NSDAP was very, very
marginal at the time.

By the way: Schwabing was the quarter where, in 1905, Lenin became acquainted with
Rosa Luxemburg.

> These are hardly "hair-splitting distinctions" as Doug contends: they are
> historical actualities which Pynchon is aware of and foregrounding through his
> narrative.

Some are interested in the mirrors, others in its reflections, a third one is
trying to reconstruct the original image.

> best

Kind regards,

Michel.