Summary: Martin van Creveld vacations in Potsdam. Amidst its natural beauty he finds something we’ve lost as we’ve built the regulatory state. Something valuable, almost beyond price.
In Praise of Potsdam
By Martin van Creveld
From his website, 20 August 2014
Posted with his generous permission
I am writing this from Potsdam, a smallish (160,000 inhabitants) German city southwest of Berlin where my wife and I go to stay for a month or so every year since 1999. Originally what brought us to Potsdam was the fact that it is home to the Bundeswehr’s historical service. They have the best military-historical library in Europe; enough said.
Potsdam, however, also has other attractions and it on them that I want to focus here. When we first visited back in 1992 it was a sad town. Many buildings were dilapidated; testifying to the fact that the very last battles of World War II took place in this area, many windows had not yet been repaired. The predominant color was grey.
It took me awhile to realize the reason for this. It was due to the fact that, in a country that had only recently emerged from communism, there were no commercial signs and no advertisements in the streets. In the entire city the only halfway decent hotel was the Merkur, located not far from the railway station which, like the rest of the town, had been heavily bombed in 1945 and never properly repaired.
The hotel itself consisted of a high-rise building not far from the city center where it formed, and still forms, a real eyesore. Originally its rooms did not have private bathrooms. By the time we stayed there they had been installed, but only at the price of making the rooms themselves rather cramped. In the entire central district of the city there was just one restaurant. Located on the central square, the Brandenburger Platz, in good East German tradition it only served a small fraction of the items theoretically on the menu.
Over the years, watching the city shed its communist dress and put on a modern, liberal and commercial one has been a feast for the eyes. Potsdam is not nearly as wealthy as some of its West German counterparts. But like all small German towns it is clean and orderly. One can cycle wherever one wants. In the suburbs, especially Rehbruecke where we stay, many houses have flourishing gardens.
The buses run, the trams arrive on time. Everything functions — to someone coming from the Middle East, that is anything but self-evident. Still I would not have written about Potsdam if, in addition to these qualities, there had not been some things which set it apart.
Culture
First, there is culture. Starting in the early 18th century and ending in 1945, Potsdam was where the kings and princes of Prussia spent their summers. Though the Hohenzollerns are gone, that accounts for the fact that there is much to see and to do — museums, palaces, shows (in German, but for us that is no problem), concerts, you name it.
Some of these attractions, notably the palace of San Souci (Worry-Free) built by Frederick the Great in the 1750s, are world famous. Others, such as the evangelical kindergarten that, during the early post-war years, served as an NKVD prison are merely interesting. Given that Potsdam used to a garrison city, many of the attractions have ties with Prussian/German military history. But by no means all: there is a Dutch quarter and there is a Russian colony and there is a Jewish cemetery. There is a mosque, built around 1840 to conceal the first steam engine in Germany.
For anybody who wants more places to visit Berlin, a global city of three and a half million people, is only half an hour away.
The beautiful, peaceful walks
Second, the walks. Potsdam and its surroundings are almost completely flat. You can spend entire days wandering in the fields and along the canals — with no danger that some redneck, gun in hand, will warn you to f-k off and shoot you if you do not do so fast enough. The horizon is far away, the land often somewhat swampy. Some of it was laid dry in the seventeenth-century by Dutch engineers. This is not a district with spectacular views; what we value is the monotony and the soothing effect. Here and there the land is punctuated by a Kneipe, certain to be clean, certain to be well-kept, where you can have a cup of coffee with cake or else a beer with a sandwich.
The wonderful lakes
Third and most important, there are the lakes. Brandenburg has more water than any other German Land. Twenty years after reunification, and following a gigantic investment, the water in question is now clean enough not only to swim in but to drink. Personally I know no finer piece of countryside than the Caputher See, a lake located near a village — Caputh — four or so miles south of Potsdam. For those who are interested, Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used have a little house there. So did Albert Einstein; there is also a small Einstein Museum that a friend of ours now runs. The only aquatic sport we practice is swimming. I know that not everybody likes swimming, but that is their problem.
Best of all, the freedom
What is it that makes swimming in Potsdam, and in former East Germany in general, so attractive? It took me a long time to figure out the answer. It is not the climate. As Napoleon is supposed to have said, Germany has 8 months of winter and 4 months of no summer. It is not the water — you can find that in many other places around the world. It’s not the views — lovely as they are, there are others that are as good.
It is, instead, the sense of freedom. The Caputher See is considerably larger than Walden Pond. Unlike the latter it is not a celebrity. The only way to reach it is by a short walk through the surrounding forest. So beautiful, so marked by chiaroscuro is the path that my then eight-year grandson dubbed it “the enchanted wood.” There is no gate and no gatekeeper to look you over and charge for entry. There are no kiosks trying to sell you this or that. Let alone the kind of blaring music you often get in open air cafes.
You can strip naked and leave your things on the little beach, if that is what you like. There are no buoys to tell you how far you can go — in some American lakes I have visited, you are only allowed to wade up to your knees. The kind of rubber boats children use apart, there are no boats to pollute the water with noise and oil. Best of all, there is no lifeguard. You are even allowed to drown if that is what you want. There is no and there is no and there is no.
The moral? We citizens of “advanced” countries have bound ourselves in endless ribbons, like those used by the police to cordon off crime scenes. On them are printed, instead of the words “keep out,” “freedom, justice, and safety.” Growing tighter by the year, the ribbons have brought us to the point where we can hardly move a limb or open our mouth.
We are surrounded by counselling, sensitivity training, surveillance cameras, mobile phones that track our movements, screening processes, background checks, personality tests, licenses, examinations, certifications, mandatory prerequisites, and mandatory insurance. Not to mention mandatory helmets and goggles and harnesses and bright orange vests with reflective tape when all we want to do is ride a bicycle to the post office. All, we are told, because we are not fit to look after ourselves. And all for our own good.
Thank goodness there are still a few places left where all these restraints can be cast off. At least for a couple of hours.
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About the Author
Martin van Creveld is Professor Emeritus of History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and one of the world’s most renowned experts on military history and strategy.
The central role of Professor van Creveld in the development of theory about modern war is difficult to exaggerate. He has provided both the broad historical context — looking both forward and back in time — much of the analytical work, and a large share of the real work in publishing both academic and general interest books. He does not use the term 4GW, preferring to speak of “non-trinitarian” warfare — but his work is foundational for 4GW just the same.
Professor van Creveld has written 20 books, about almost every significant aspect of war. He has written about the history of war, such as The Age of Airpower
Some of his books discuss the methods of war: Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton
Perhaps most important are his books examine the evolution of war, such as Nuclear Proliferation and the Future of Conflict, The Transformation of War: The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict Since Clausewitz
He’s written controversial books, such as Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945 (German soldiers were better than our!)
He’s written one of the most influential books of our generation about war, his magnum opus — the dense but mind-opening The Rise and Decline of the State
For links to his articles see The Essential 4GW reading list: Martin van Creveld.
For More Information
Please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and post your comments — because we value your participation. For more information see all posts about our amnesia about our history, and especially these…
- We have trouble coping with our present because we’ve lost our past,
- Remembering is the first step to learning. Living in the now is ignorance.
- Stark evidence from our past about our inability to learn today.
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Best of all, there is no lifeguard. You are even allowed to drown if that is what you want. There is no and there is no and there is no.”
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Regulatory state, that’s it. One must have lived long enough to realize when it was not so pervasive. There was a time when you watched out for yourself, took reasonable care while riding a cycle to not need a Helmut or you were aware of your comrades while in the surf to aid one who swimming beyond his skill needed some help getting out of the rip, you were there or they were for you.
On and on the examples, too numerous. And dare say, many do not even know nor imagine it any other way. Now we willingly self restrict, ha! Priceless? Of course but do you know what is lost if it never existed for you?
Neat Post. Bright and historically thoughtful.
Breton
And as the students at Clarkson in Potsdam NY like to blurt out when drunk:
Potsdam backward is Mad Stop! Somehow apropos.
A nice story about escaping our overly regulated enviroment.
I found it in Western Greenland and Northern Finland during solo cross country skiing tours, and during treks in Pakistan and Nepal done alone, together with local people.
Nobody telling you about rules. Just pick up your stuff, walk, and enjoy the enchanted scenery of taiga forest, the high Arctic, the Karakorams & Himalayas.
Mazzel & broge, Evert Wesker
Curious to see the modern American state. We’ve got all the rules of Communism/Socialism, but so little of the social safety net. How did we manage that?
Tice,
“We’ve got all the rules of Communism/Socialism…”
You’re kidding, right?
Do excuse me; I exaggerated. The point I had wished to make is that we’ve given up our freedom and received little in return. The American state is like the American healthcare system: extremely expensive, but comparatively ineffective. Where did we go wrong?
Tice,
Thanks for explaining! I think I understand what you’re saying. However, it does not seem accurate.
The US government is, in the words of ex comptroller general, an army with a social security system (pensions + health care). Everything else is individually small change. I don’t know how to measure the ineffectiveness of the Dept of Defense. The social welfare systems are extremely efficient by most measures — far more so than most corporations and other government agencies.
Whether we need the large DoD and social welfare system is a matter of individual choice — aka politics. There’s no objective ruler to give an answer.
I am conflicted. I share Mr. van Creveld’s view entirely but I regret it. What is less entertaining when seen from the outside than a well-off liberal yearning for a past age when he was free to do as he chose without the bonds of social regulation? As an intellectual Mr van Creveld should have asked the obvious first question, “From where do the regulations come? Why?”
Permit me, they come because there are too damned many of us and it is going to get worse. The regulations are essentially attempts to grease the friction as we rub up against each other. We share too much information in too many ways. We know it, but can’t escape it.
So we yearn to get away to a time or a place where we can escape each other to do as we did as children. But there are fewer and fewer places to which we might escape. And, access to them is more and more limited to those with money or influence or talents (all near synonyms) to reach them. Should those with the money, etc, not go to these places, but instead suffer nobly? Certainly not. But they should occasionally turn and make a grateful bow to the gods that have endowed them and those perhaps less lucky or talented who happen to live near them and who keep such places in clean operating condition.
Forgive me; it was an itch that had to be scratched.
Fred,
“The regulations are essentially attempts to grease the friction as we rub up against each other.”
That is not correct for most of the U.S., which either low population density or little population growth during the past 50 years — or both.
New York State’s population has been almost flat since 1970. Upstate New York has low population density. Ditto Ohio and Pennsylvania. Yet the growth of almost suffocating regulation during that period has been severe on these States.
Most of the Midwest is very low density and with flat or losing population.
Most of the West is almost empty. Etc.
I think we’ll have to find another excuse.
Creveld is almost always fascinating to read. Its not just what hes says, but what he doesn’t. I presume it was intended for Israel readers – the unstated irony of writing effusively of freedom from the heartland of legendary iron-clad “ordnung muss sein”.
FP,
That is an interesting perspective!
I doubt that a Turkish migrant worker would have the same experience in Potsdam as MVC. Germany has their own rednecks and racism and rules and societal norms.
In the mid 1990’s one could still freely wander all around Germany, including inner cities, late at night, hitchhike, whatever, in nigh complete safety. Not true anymore.
FP,
Can you cite some evidence? The data I see shows most kinds of crime per capita falling in German since the 1990s, and German among the safest nations in Europe — and so in the world.