Hitler's Table Talk

ROMANTICISM AND SPACE 707
I will condone anything which does not lead to artistic depravity.
The admiration for what we sometimes call chocolatebox
beauty is not of itself vicious ; it gives evidence, at least, of
artistic feeling, which may well become later the basis for real
taste. Permanent injury is done only by real depravity in art. "
It is perfectly true that we are a people of romantics, quite
different from the Americans, for example, who see nothing beyond
their sky-scrapers. Our romanticism has its origins in the
intense appreciation of nature that is inherent in us Germans.
Properly to appreciate such artists as Weber, Ludwig Richter and
the other romanticists, one must know Franconian mountains,
for that is the background which gives birth to romanticism in
both music and painting; and, of course, the stories and legends
of our folk-lore also make a potent contribution.
The only romance which stirs the heart of the North American
is that of the Redskin; but it is curious to note that the writer
who has produced the most .vivid Redskin romances is a German.
One thing the Americans have, and which we lack, is the
sense of the vast open spaces. Hence the particular characteristics
of our own form of nostalgia. There comes a time when
this desire for expansion can no longer be contained and must
burst into action. It is an irrefutable fact that the Dutch, for
example, who occupied the most densely populated portions of
the German lands, were driven, centuries ago, by this irresistible
desire for expansion to seek ever wider conquest abroad.
What, I wonder, would happen to us, if we had not at least
the illusion of vast spaces at our disposal? For me, one of the
charms of the Spessart is that one can drive there for hours on
end, and never meet a soul. Our autobahnen give me the same
feeling; even in the more thickly populated areas they reproduce
the atmosphere of the open spaces.
321 17th June 1943, evening
The great cataclysms of nature—The Fear of the Unknown.
I cannot believe that the various ages in the history of the
globe lasted as long as the experts would have us believe. In
any case, they have no proofs to offer of the correctness of their
hypotheses. I have the feeling that in their estimates the fear of