Rites of Spring: Berlin -

Rites of Spring: Berlin - the Importance of the Changing Seasons

Modris Eksteins goes beyond the surface concepts of World War II, exploring, in the "act 2" Berlin. It is the detailed recitation of the movements, sounds, and mood of the city as it experiences the prelude to war. It was not just in Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, but felt too in London and Paris; the people stirred in a way that reflected their restlessness, their anxiety, and their need to exert control, or at least take part in, what was happening around them politically. Ekstiens says:

"The days of summer were long and full of sunshine; the nights were mild and moonlit. That it was a beautiful and unforgettable season is part of the lore of that summer of 1914, part of its poignancy and mystique. Yet it is not to evoke suns and spas, sailing and regattas and somnolent afternoons -- important as such imagery is for our poetical sense of that summer before the storm . . . It is very simply because the fine days and nights of that July and August encouraged Europeans to venture out of their homes and to display their emotions and their prejudices in public, in the streets and squares of their cities and towns. The massive exhibitions of public sentiment played a crucial role in determining the fate of Europe that summer (56)."

Eksteins is saying that people did, as people often do during good summer months, respond to the nature around them. Instead of being inspired to paint summer landscapes, they transferred their mood to the landscapes across Europe that summer. Their moods were tense, anxious, and one of creating changes. Later, when Eksteins remarks that the previous summer had not been so agreeable in the weather as was this summer of 1914, that it had been cool and wet, almost a prolonged melting of winter, then it causes the reader to wonder if the two winters back to back without the reprieve of a summer between had not driven Europeans mad. Now, in the summer of 1914, they were unable to bask in the warmth of the light which they had been deprived of the previous summer, and the only way they could function was to actually push their governments to confrontation.

The people respond to the world around them with anger, becoming involved in the politics with "soap box oratory (56)." The masses had thoughts, ideas, and opinions, and the weather conditions of the summer in Berlin afforded them the opportunity to go beyond their living rooms, their families, or the local pubs, and to take to the greater public their sentiments -- especially their hate-filled sentiments. Such was the mood of the people in Germany that Kaiser Wilhelm was advised to stay away from Berlin, and, even though he was offended by the suggestion to do so, he remained abroad for his own safety.

The public "stormed" newspaper delivery vans for the latest editions of news which might carry the Serbian's response to the Austria's ultimatum (56). From the descriptions of the people, the juxtaposition of the anger brimming to violence, against the landscape of an otherwise beautiful summer, creates a surreal image in the mind of the reader. How could they have been unaffected by the summer around them? This is the question that comes to mind reading Eksteins' description of the events. The masses had clearly passed some point of no return, and they wanted to be led to war.

Eksteins describes the "mass of humanity" as the crowds, informed of the news of Serbia's not unexpected rejection of Austria's ultimatum; then move through the streets of Berlin to the official state offices and to the Austrian embassy, singing marching songs, reassuring the government that war is the response the people of Germany want to pursue. They longed to have their passions stirred not by the songs of birds, flapping sails in the summer wind, but by artillery, gunfire, and the need to satisfy their lust to kill.